A Lenten Series of Teaching Sermons: 3) Jesus the Troublemaker

The Gospel of Mark is what might be called “the lean” Gospel. That is, of all four Gospels, it usually supplies the least amount of background information about the life of Jesus. For example, when it tells how Jesus called a tax collector named Levi (better known to us as Matthew) to become one of his disciples, it just says he did it. Specifically, Marks says that Jesus “saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him” (2:14.) Period; end of story. No explanation of why Jesus called Matthew, or why Matthew (Levi) agreed to become a disciple; he just got up from his tax office, walked out the door, and presumably never went back again. There had to be much more to that story than Mark wrote, but he didn’t bother to fill in any of the blank spaces.

A Lenten Series of Teaching Sermons: 2) A New Teaching

According to the Gospel of Mark, after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he was tempted for forty days in the wilderness by the devil. And after that Jesus returned to the region of the Galilee, where he had grown up in Nazareth. Mark tells us that he began preaching “the gospel of God.” Note: Mark does not say, “the gospel of Jesus Christ”; he says, “the gospel of God.” Immediately after that Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). In Mark, as in the other two Synoptic Gospels, “the kingdom of God” is the primary thrust of Jesus’ preaching. Please keep that always in the forefront of your mind.

The Whole Armor of God

For the past five weeks I feel as though I have been contending in a hellish situation against 21st century technology. I found out that the telephone company with whom I had my email account is going out of the email business. Therefore I need to establish a new email address with a new phone company. However, to connect with them both Lois and I had to buy new cell phones, she because she has an old flip-phone, and I because I have the oldest Iphone ever invented. Furthermore, before I can hook up with the new company and have a new email address, I must wait until March 8 to get the two technological devices necessary to go online. I might note I was never thrilled to be online in the first place, although I realize its many advantages. Still, it seemed to me, and it still seems to me, that my world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Is Old Age Affordable?

On the front of today’s bulletin there are some statistics from The Economist, arguably the most comprehensive news magazine ever published. They estimate that by 2050 one in 6 people in the world will be over 65 years old. In 2019, they say, one out of every 11 people was older than 65. Can a time come when there are too many old people for the world economy to sustain them? Can society afford to keep the elderly living indefinitely?

Is It Time for Another Flood and Ark?

The story of Noah and the ark is a myth. A myth is a story that is told in earthly, human terms to explain something in divine terms that God did upon the earth. The point of the story is not what the story says, but what it means. Myths were not meant to be taken literally. But listen to this: apparently there was a great flood, even if there wasn’t a Noah or an ark. According to a group of experts in geological history, there actually was a great flood that occurred about 6600 BCE or so.

BC/AD; BCE/CE

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.