The birth of Jesus transformed how time is reckoned. It didn’t happen immediately, though. Slowly, over a period of a few centuries, as Christianity spread, eventually it was decided in the Western World that year-numbering would be determined by the year in which Jesus was born. There was a problem there, however. No one can be absolutely certain about the date and year in which Jesus was born.
Prophecies Made; Prophecies Fulfilled? 2.The City of David
Of the two Gospels which describe the birth of Jesus, Luke’s account is the better known. For some reason its depictions of the shepherds in the fields and the angels and Mary and Joseph and the animals in the stable is far more deeply etched into our consciousness than Matthew’s account of the wise men from the east. Some nativity scenes on church lawns don’t even include the Magi, but there are always animals in every crèche depiction, even though neither Luke nor Matthew say anything about cattle lowing or sheep baaing. Nobody can even be sure what “lowing” means, but apparently Martin Luther knew, for it was he who wrote the text to Away in a manger.
Prophecies Spoken; Prophecies Fulfilled? 1. A VIRGIN Birth?
There are only two narratives about the birth of Jesus: one in Matthew, and one in Luke. Both writers stated that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but Matthew did so by quoting Isaiah 7:14, and Luke merely wrote that Mary was a virgin when the angel Gabriel appeared before her and announced that she would give birth to a child who “will be called holy, the Son of God” (1:35). Neither Mark nor John said anything at all about Jesus’ birth.
Will We Ever Cross the Finish Line?
Does any of us know for certain, now, that we have fought the good fight? Might we have fought it better --- if “fought” is the proper word to use? Does everyone end life on a high note, supposing that absolutely they have done the best they could? For myself, I can’t imagine ever coming to that point in life. I will always have regrets about this, or that, or the other thing. They may not be enormous regrets, but at a minimum they are mini-regrets, melancholy wishes that I might have done more, or done things differently, or said what I should have said but didn’t or done what I should have done but didn’t.
The Parables in Luke: The Two Lost Brothers (The Prodigal Son)
here are two sons in this story, not just one, so I prefer to call it the Parable of the Two Lost Sons. Remember, all three parables in Luke 15 were told by Jesus in response to the two verses at the beginning of the chapter, where it says that the scribes and Pharisees “murmured” about Jesus allowing tax collectors and sinners into his presence. They were convinced that adversely affected Jesus’ reputation, and that he should have avoided such lost souls. But Jesus wanted them to understand that he actually welcomed these folks, because they were lost, and they needed to be found. That was why he told these particular three parables.
The Parables in Luke: The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin
There are three parables in the 15th chapter of Luke. The reason Jesus told these remarkable stories is explained in the first two verses of that chapter. You just heard those two verses. They tell us that “tax collectors and sinners” were crowding around Jesus to hear what he had to say. By this time in Jesus’ public ministry, which was probably no more than two or three months away from his crucifixion, those whom Luke identifies as “the scribes and Pharisees” had become his theological adversaries.
The Parables in Luke – The Great Banquet
This is one of a series of sermons based on parables that are found in the Gospel of Luke. The parable of the sower and the seeds, the first in the series, is also found in the other two Synoptic Gospels, Mark and Matthew. All the other six parables can be found only in the Third Gospel, the Gospel of Luke. No one knows why, but thank God for Luke that they’re there. Luke was the master conveyor of the parables of Jesus.
The Parables in Luke: The Rich Fool (The Rich Man and His Barns)
Too many people, especially males of our species, spend too much of their time with their friends Dow, Jones, and Nasdaq, but now primarily with their smartphones. Hourly they check to see how their investments are doing. Many of those people greatly increase their assets by daily watching what happens to their stocks and bonds and other types of investments. That is all well and good, it really is, depending on what they DO with what they acquire. How do they perceive what they have amassed? What is its purpose? The farmer in the parable didn’t do anything with his wealth. He just continued to grow it --- in his case literally. More crops, more money, more barns - - - but for what? For too many investors, investing becomes the sole meaning of their existence. To them it is their occupation, their profession, their vocation.
The Parables in Luke – The Good Samaritan
The parable of the Good Samaritan is found only in Luke. It is one of the best-loved of all the parables of Jesus, and probably the most widely known. There are millions of people who are not Christians who do not know the details of this story and yet somehow know that the term “Good Samaritan” refers to people who help people in need at considerable risk to themselves. For everyone who didn’t live in first-century Judea, however, we could not be expected to understand the risk the Samaritan took in giving so much assistance to the robbery victim in the parable. Therefore we shall first explore the context of this brilliant fictional story.
Is There No Other Prophet?
The vocation of prophets is to proclaim what they believe God wants done at any given period of time and in any situation of any people or nations. Spiritually, religiously, politically, militarily, sociologically, and ethically, what does God want us to do? Often what prophets say is not popular, but they feel compelled to say it anyway.
Whatever Happened to the Jubilee?
In scores of passages in the Hebrew Bible, reference is made to God’s special concern for people who are poor and destitute, especially poor Israelites, but also those who are referred to as “strangers and sojourners in your midst.” That phrase means foreign workers, or, in 21st century American terms, immigrants or “green-card people.” The might be people like – to pick an example out of the air – Cubans, Vietnamese, or Afghans In every economic system in every nation throughout human history, inevitably there have been many poor people and a few rich people, and then everyone else in between. Regardless of how or why anybody gets to be poor, the Bible insists that God always displays a special regard for those people.
Sunday Service - September 19, 2021
The Brilliant Defendant and the Bewildered Judge
In these four sermons on Paul, I have been trying to convince you, if you need convincing, that without Paul, there would be no Christianity. Whatever we may think of his ideas and his theology, he was nothing if not a persistent preacher for Jesus Christ. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, and by the end of the first century Christianity was completely a Gentile movement. Nevertheless, Paul never gave up trying to convert anyone within sound of his voice, and his voice sounded loudly and frequently wherever he was.
The Apostle Paul and Jesus
I have been doing some speculating about the man who, next to Jesus himself, was the second-most important individual in the foundation of Christianity and the New Testament Church. To be precise, there are far more words written by Paul in his thirteen letters than words which were written in the four Gospels that Jesus was reported to have said. But Paul was nearly completely silent about what Jesus said or did until he was crucified and then God raised him from the dead. What explains that silence?
The Apostle Paul and Sex
Today I want to address some of Paul’s views on human sexuality. There have been many treatises written about Paul’s views about sex, and probably a few short books have been written about it, but I suspect that not many sermons have been preached about it. I am doing this because I am convinced that indirectly Paul has had a major negative effect on how millions of Christians down through the centuries have chosen to live their lives on the basis of what the Number One New Testament Apostle had to say about sex.
Law and Grace, Jews and Christians
Should all Christians, Jews and Gentiles alike, be required to follow the laws of the Torah? Apparently Peter tended to think so, but Paul vehemently denied that. Because most future Christians were Gentiles, no doubt that rescued Christianity from becoming a failure before it had even had a viable beginning. Those who were not raised with the Torah would never accept all its dictates as adults.
The Origin of Original Sin
Even people who know almost nothing about the Bible know the story of Adam and Eve and Eden. If you ask people in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan or in the slums of Kolkata or in Teheran, Iran what was the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate, they will tell you: apples. The forbidden fruit was an apple. What variety of apple apparently no one ever thought about. Of course there was no forbidden fruit, because there was no Adam and Eve. But that’s why myths are so powerful: we know the content of the stories, and in our minds we convert the stories into actual history, which the mythmakers never intended to happen.
Job: What Happens When Things Happen?
Job is a classic literary illustration of Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. Job was a very wealthy man, but in a matter of days he lost everything --- every vestige of his extraordinary wealth was stolen, all his servants were massacred by enemy tribesmen, and finally all of his ten adult children were killed when the building collapsed in which they were staying during a terrible windstorm, and finally Job himself was afflicted by painful sores, presumably carbuncle boils. But through it all Job was still able to declare, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job: Things Happen
How are we supposed to act when terrible things happen? When suffering descends upon us, what are we supposed to do? Is it not natural to ask God why all this has befallen us? Who can be so praiseworthy as to take calamity in stride, as though it is nothing? Nothing? Nothing! When sorrow engulfs us, it is everything, and who but God can obliterate it? But will He? Will He?