Mt. Lebanon and Cannon UMCs
September 25, 2011

Matthew 21:23-32 (NRSV)
21:23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

21:24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

21:25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

21:26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.”

21:27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

21:28 “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’

21:29 He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went.

21:30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go.

21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

We’re headed into another presidential campaign season, and that means we’ll see and hear debates for the next year or so. Of course, it’s a common occurrence for a candidate, of any party or persuasion, to get a question he or she doesn’t like from a debate moderator or from an interviewer.
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Ransom UMC
July 24, 2011

Romans 8:26-39 (NRSV)
8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

8:27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.

8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

8:32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

8:34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

At the age of 8, Bethany Hamilton entered her first surfing competition, in her home state of Hawaii, and won two different divisions.
Five years later, at age 13, Bethany was still a serious surfer. But then, on Halloween morning, 2003, she was attacked by a 14-foot-long tiger shark and ended up losing 60 percent of her blood.
Bethany Hamilton was lucky to be alive.
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First UMC Shelbyville
July 10, 2011

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 (NRSV)
13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.

13:2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.

13:3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.

13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.

13:5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.

13:6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.

13:7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

13:8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

13:9 Let anyone with ears listen!”

13:18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.

13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.

13:20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;

13:21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.

13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.

13:23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

As the great commentator William Barclay points out, this is a parable with two applications – the crowds listening to Jesus might have taken one thing from it, while Jesus’ disciples, to whom he explains the parable later, see it from a different angle.
Jesus begins by saying “Listen! A sower went out to sow.” Barclay claims that this is a mistranslation. He says the original Greek should have been translated into English as “THE sower went out to sow.” And if this is the right translation, Barclay thinks that Jesus, in contrast to some of his other parables, might have been gesturing towards an actual human being – someone spreading seed in a field nearby.
In that day and time, there were two ways of spreading seed. You could scatter it by hand, or you could put a bag of seed on a donkey’s back, poke a hole in the bag, and lead the donkey through the field. Neither way was completely foolproof; either way, the wind or the donkey’s movement might cause some of the seed to go where you didn’t want it to.
The parable itself is quite familiar, something we’ve all heard for years. Jesus talks about the seed landing in four locations.
Some of the seed falls on hard ground, the path running alongside the field. In those days, fields were long and narrow, and there were paths running between them and alongside them, and anyone traveling from one place to another was free to use those paths. The foot traffic on the paths packed that soil down hard. Any seed falling on the path had no chance to sink in or take root. It would lay there on top of the ground until the birds came and took it.
That hard path, as Jesus explains, represents those who reject the Gospel out of hand. They don’t understand. Perhaps they don’t allow themselves to understand God’s word, and their stubbornness and resentment won’t let the seed take hold.

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Genesis 1:1-2:4a (NRSV)
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

1:3 And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

1:4 And God saw that the light was good;

1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

1:6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

1:7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.

1:8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

1:9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

1:10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

1:11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.

1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.

1:13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

1:15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

1:16 God made the two great lights–the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night–and the stars.

1:17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,

1:18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

1:19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

1:20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”

1:21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

1:24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so.

1:25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

1:26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

1:29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.

1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.

2:2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.

2:3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

2:4a These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

When I first went to look up today’s lectionary passages, and saw that the creation story was one of them, my first instinct was to run as far as I could in some other direction. It seems like there are a lot of minefields into which a layperson can step with a story like this.
Many of you probably know that there are actually two different creation stories in the book of Genesis. What we read this morning was the first of the two stories; it’s followed immediately by a second story, which many people read as being somewhat contradictory, about God forming man from the dust of the earth and then forming woman from one of man’s ribs. Bible scholars can tell the two stories apart because they use different writing styles and even different names for God. The first story uses the name Elohim, translated simply as “God” in most of our Bibles, while the second story uses the name Yahweh, or “the Lord God.”

Apparently, both stories were passed down in the oral tradition, and someone at some point, when they started writing down these accounts, took both of them and just included them one after the other, the same way we have four different accounts of the life of Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament.
Of course, the question for us for the past century and a half, as we’ve learned more about the world, has been whether this account is intended to be read as a detailed, scientific description of something, or whether it’s poetic imagery in search of a larger truth. Our scientific knowledge has questioned whether the world was created in six days, and even if you don’t take the word “day” as a literal 24-hour period, the scientists would put some of the elements of creation in a different order than the writer of this passage puts them.
The well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, who recently pooh-poohed the idea of heaven, wrote in his best-known book, “A Brief History of Time,” about new understandings of the nature of time, and concluded that, using an advanced mathematic interpretation he called “imaginary time,” there was not necessarily a beginning or an ending for the universe, and therefore need for the universe to have been created.
There have been some terrific articles and editorials on the Christianity Today web site this month about the creation story, and about a fresh controversy related to it.
The director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, is both a scientist and a Christian – but he’s written books which refer to studies of human DNA saying that there’s no way humanity could have descended from as few as two people. In fact, Collins reported that the smallest initial population that could lead to today’s genetic diversity is something like 10,000 people. So Collins refers to the story of Adam and Eve as “a poetic and powerful allegory.” In other words, he says we shouldn’t take it literally.

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Mt. Lebanon UMC
May 22, 2011

1 Peter 2:2-10 (NRSV)

2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-

2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

2:4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and

2:5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

2:6 For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

2:7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,”

2:8 and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Let me ask you something. What did Jesus do for a living before he began his recorded ministry? And what did his father do for a living?

You’re probably thinking of one word: “carpenter.” We’ve all grown up thinking of Joseph the carpenter, and thinking of Jesus as working in his father’s shop, ultimately taking over for his father, up until age 30, when he began his ministry as recorded in the Gospels. But some Bible scholars now say we’ve been misreading that all these years. The Greek word translated as “carpenter” in English versions of the Gospels actually had a much broader meaning – much more like “tradesman” or “craftsman.”
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Ray’s Chapel UMC
May 8, 2011

Luke 24:13-35 (NRSV)
24:13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

24:14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

24:15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

24:16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

24:17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

24:18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”

24:19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

24:20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.

24:21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.

24:22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,

24:23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

24:24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”

24:25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!

24:26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”

24:27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

24:28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.

24:29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.

24:30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

24:31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.

24:32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

24:33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

24:34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”

24:35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Here it is, two weeks after Easter, and we’re still talking about the Resurrection. Well, I make no apologizes; I’m just following the Lectionary. Actually, if you follow the liturgical calendar, Easter isn’t just a day, it’s a season, and it’s still going on. But the good news of Jesus’ resurrection is appropriate 52 Sundays out of the year.
This week, the story of Jesus’ resurrection starts to filter out beyond just the 11 surviving apostles. Our story today is about two men. One of them is named Cleopas; we don’t know the other’s name. Cleopas must have had a better publicist. The men are headed home to Emmaus, west of Jerusalem, when they come upon a stranger. Now, we know who this stranger is, but for some reason Cleopas and his friend don’t recognize him.

The mysterious stranger asks what they’d been talkng about, and they start talking to him about current events.
People like to talk about what’s in the news. That can mean talking in person, of course, but these days it also means talking in a lot of other different ways.
Last Sunday night, when it was announced that President Obama was scheduling an address to the nation on short notice, I happened to hear about it on Twitter. For the next two or three hours, I was following the story, not just by watching it on television, but by reading what my friends were saying about it on Facebook and Twitter. In some cases, I heard about things on Twitter before I saw them on the particular channel I was watching.
By the middle of Monday morning, I’d heard an awful lot about the death of Osama bin Laden. And the editor of the newspaper said he wanted us to get some man-on-the-street comments about the story. I happened to catch someone up front, placing some sort of order with our classified ad folks or our subscription folks, and asked him for his reaction to the big news.
“What news is that?” he asked. He hadn’t heard a word of it. And this was a businessman, or maybe a retired businessman, someone who I’d have figured would at least watch the local news every night. I was shocked.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus probably had that same kind of reaction when their mysterious companion asked them what they were talking about. Now, he didn’t actually say he didn’t know what the story was – he just asked them them what it was, which led them to assume he didn’t know. I imagine he wanted to hear what they had to say about it.

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Cannon UMC

May 1, 2011

John 20:19-31 (NRSV)

20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 20:25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Many of you have seen the popular and long-running Discovery Channel TV series “Mythbusters.” If you’re one of the few who hasn’t seen it, it stars two men named Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage who worked for years creating special effects for movies. They take various myths, sayings, urban legends, movie scenes and old-wives tales and then test them to see if they are true, or if they’re even possible.

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First UMC Shelbyville

March 27, 2011

THEME OF THE DAY:

Are you familiar with dihydrogen monoxide? It’s widely used as an industrial solvent, in a number of different industries. In its liquid and solid forms, it’s powerful enough to damage asphalt, concrete or even stone. It can corrode metal. In its gaseous form, it’s been known to cause severe burns. Autopsies and biopsies have revealed that people suffering from cancer and other serious illnesses have dihydrogen monoxide in their systems. And yet, dihydrogen monoxide is used in the production of nearly every processed food. It’s even found in baby formula.

If you want to learn more about dihydrogen monoxide, there’s certainly plenty of information out there. For example, the chemical formula for dihydrogen monoxide, as its name implies, is two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom – H₂O. In other words, the chemical that can damage asphalt, corrode metal and cause severe burns is … water. You can find it in the bodies of sick people because you can find it in the body of every person.

But we will hear in the sermon today that dihydrogen monoxide may not be the only kind of water.

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