Guerrilla Christianity

Sermon #482

We've been looking at what it means to be the body of Christ.  We started by observing the baptism of Christ and remembering our own baptism, the start of our membership in the body.  We turned our attention to the letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, and we began by looking at the spiritual gifts we are given to edify and build up the body.  Last time we looked at Agape, the godly form of love that is impossible to attain apart from the Spirit of God living in us.  Today we return to our roots as Christians.  What is the common ground for all members of the body?  What is it that brought us to the body?  It is the proclamation of the gospel.  And in our post-modern era, we find it more and more difficult to share the good news to a world that is increasingly ambivalent toward Christianity as a religion.  But as we will see, it is our duty and imperative to preach the gospel, not just with our lives, but with our words.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Recorded at Hudson UMC on February 6, 2022

S.D.G.

February 6, 2022

Old Testament: Isaiah 6:1-13

Psalter: Psalm 138

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Gospel Lesson: Luke 5:1-11

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #152

After Jesus' first sermon in his hometown synagogue, the people were at first amazed, then irate that he would not do the miracles in Nazareth that they heard about in the surrounding country.  Jesus reminded them that God's kingdom extends beyond the borders of Israel - in fact is borderless - and that in times past non-Jews had received grace that God withheld from the Jews.  Though the context is difficult to understand today, the sentiment is the same.  We often look around and think that there are others who are far less deserving than us.  Yet God loves all of his creation and called it very good in the beginning.  Why should we feel sole ownership over the gospel?

Text: Luke 14:21-36

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 31, 2016 (Originally published February 8, 2019)

Sermon #320

Those of us in English-speaking countries throw the word "love" around a lot.  I love this movie.  I love that burger.  I love my country.  But we also allow the dilution of the word to creep into our vocabulary in the church.  Love is love.  Love trumps all.  From 1 Corinthians 13 we learn that the love we often talk about is not the love that Jesus commanded us to have for each other, or the kind of love that is held up as the greatest love.  The greatest love of all is not learning to love yourself, as Whitney Houston sang.  Rather it is to love others before myself, and to do so sacrificially, the way God modelled love on the cross of Christ.

Recorded at Hudson UMC on February 3, 2019 (Originally published February 4, 2019)

S.D.G.

Sermon #481

*Note* This sermon was recorded in the Hudson UMC Parsonage during a Facebook Live broadcast of the Ebenezer UMC Sunday service, January 30, 2022.  The Friday and Saturday before, South Jersey experienced a winter Nor'Easter and the in-person service was cancelled. Consequently the audio will sound a little off.

In the English language we have only one word for "love," though it has many different shades.  Conversely, in Koine Greek there are four words that denote different types of love - Storge, Eros, Philia, and Agape.  It is this last type that is our focus today, from the so-called Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13), where we find the most comprehensive and complete definition and description of Agape love.  Though this passage is often read at weddings, the type of love it describes is a Godly love, a transcendent love, a love that is sacrificial - in other words, the love that God showed to us in the cross of Jesus Christ.  

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

S.D.G.

January 30, 2022

Old Testament: Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalter: 71:1-6

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Gospel Lesson: Luke 4:21-30

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Considering this is the third installment of Wesley's Standard Sermons that I have posted, I decided to create a new Podcast wrapper for the Standard Sermons, and also set Saturdays as the day when I would post them.

Today's Standard Sermon is not by John Wesley, but instead by his younger brother Charles.  Charles Wesley is primarily known as a prolific hymn writer, having written over 4,000 hymns in his lifetime.  But he was also an ordained priest of the Anglican Church and a fellow of Oxford's Christ-Church, and so he was called upon to deliver the odd oratory.  Here he takes on the text from Ephesians and turns it into a clarion call for the Church.  We often forget that the Methodist movement was never intended by the Wesleys to be a new denomination, but rather a reformation, a revival within the Church of England.  And so Charles Wesley calls out those sleeping souls in the church to awaken from their spiritual slumber, and invites them into a new revitalized passion for Christ, in loving God and neighbor not as merely the form of religion only, but also the substance of the Holy Spirit living in them.  We in the church today would do well to heed this call in our own spiritual lives.

Ephesians 5:14

Recorded on January 25, 2022

Awake, Thou That Sleepest Full Sermon Text

S.D.G.

Sermon #151

When Jesus preached his first sermon in his hometoown synagogue, he providentially opened the scroll to Isaiah chapter 61 and read what was in essence his mission statement.  It is important for us to have a mission statement so that we can maintain a clear vision of what our purpose is.  If we fail to do this, we are setting ourselves up to fail, because we can easily get distracted and pulled away from our true purpose with other things.  So what can Jesus' mission statement tell us about what the church's mission is today?

Text: Luke 4:14-21

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 31, 2016 (Originally published February 6, 2019)

S.D.G.

Sermon #319

When we are baptized, it is not a private affair.  Instead, it is a public declaration of the grace we recive from God through Jesus Christ.  And when we are baptized, we are not baptized to be in isolation.  Rather, we are baptized into the body of Christ, which is a universal organism, ordained by God for one purpose, with each of its individual parts made for its own purpose.  And when one of those parts fails to perform, the entire body suffers.  Today we challenge ourselves to live up to the life that God has called us to in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 27, 2019 (Originally published January 28, 2019)

S.D.G.

Sermon #480

There are many who look at the disparity of theology in the church as evidence that God is a fabrication.  Why would so many different denominations be necessary?  Why can't followers of God agree on who God is and how to worship him?  But rather than demonstrate inconsistency in God's character, it only serves to show that those of us who believe in God and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord can still be united in God's Spirit despite differences of what John Wesley called "opinions."  It is God's singular and concise Spirit that draws all of us together into the one body of Christ, and as members of the one body we each have a role to play in the building of God's kingdom on earth.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 23, 2022

S.D.G.