Blog: May 2018

Ever since the Royal Wedding last week, I’ve been mulling over that exuberant sermon from Rev. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church.  It’s been the talk of town—along with Meghan’s dress, celebrity sightings, and all those hats.  Curry jolted the formal pomp-and-ceremony atmosphere.  He said: There’s power in love.  God is love.  Love is the way.  Love will change the world. That’s about it.  Now there’s some truth in those words, of course.  So what’s not to like about two billion viewers hearing a church ...

Paul had written a letter (1 Corinthians) addressing several sins that were being tolerated in the church at Corinth. The letter had been a risk. The Corinthians may have rejected Paul, but they did not. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to celebrate what God had done in the church and to call on them for help. The church in Jerusalem was in desperate need of help, so Paul was collecting money from the other churches on their behalf. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to be generous. He told them about the churches in Macedonia. Macedonia was an area ...

Belonging to Jesus means living in two worlds.  On the one hand, we settle into 21st century North America.  We work and go to school and do business in our local communities, rubbing shoulders with people of various backgrounds and beliefs.  What’s more, we obey the law of the land, pay our taxes, and strive to make a positive con­tribution for “the greater good” of humanity here and now. On the other hand, all who follow Christ make their true home in another world—under the eternal reign of God today and in the new heavens and new earth ...

Paul knew that following Jesus is difficult. After Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, his life was turned upside down and he was never the same. Paul spent the rest of his life struggling and suffering to advance the very gospel that he had denied and fought against before his conversion. Paul was in prison when he wrote his letter to the believers at the church in Ephesus. Paul knew firsthand that the life of a believer is a battle—an ongoing fight. But Paul didn’t see life as a fight against the Romans, those who had thrown him in ...

Long before the iPhone and “push notifications” and pathological multitasking and the addictive flitting of our eyes from one screen to another, back in the day when you went to the local library to learn a thing or two about Ebola or cholesterol or eschatology, all the way back in 1967 Charles Hummel wrote a booklet called Tyranny of the Urgent. It was timely then.  And it’s really timely now. Frenzied busyness results not from having too much to do, but from confusing the urgent with the important.  When we fail to set and keep ...

When you hear the word “gospel,” do you think of the good news of Jesus that people who don’t know God can be saved?  If so, that’s great, it’s true—and yet, the gospel still applies after conversion. Much harm has come upon the church through the careless assump­tion that the gospel is only relevant to the non-believer:  Once you get saved, the gospel is behind you; now it’s time to get on with growing and serving and working for God—except, of course, as you look to share the gospel invitation with others who are lost. But, in fact, ...

All of the letters Paul wrote follow the same basic outline. The first part of each letter focuses on important doctrines: the gospel. The second part of each letter then explains how those doctrines can and should shape how we live every day: gospel transformation. When it comes to Romans, the first eleven chapters are Paul’s explanation of the gospel, while the final five chapters center on how that gospel changes us. Romans 12:1-2 is the hinge linking these two sections together. Paul urges believers to keep in mind the mercies of God....