Readings for Sunday, September 28th

I'm sorry I meant to post this earlier in the week and thought I had.

Call to Repentance
Revelation 3:19 (page 1917)

Call to Worship
Psalm 8 (page 848)

OT Reading
Isaiah 57:13-21 (page 1151)

NT Reading
Matthew 17:14-23 (page 1525)

Message
Mustard, Mulberries, and Leprosy
Luke 17:5-19 (page 1627)

Readings for Sunday, September 21

Jesus would never get his own show on daytime television. Can you imagine?
We are conditioned to think about matters of interpersonal dynamics and forgiveness from a therapeutic viewpoint. So a question about how often we should extend forgiveness to someone is really a question about what is best for me. The unvoiced question lurking underneath the posed question is "I know it's spiritually good for me to forgive, but constantly forgiving makes me more vulnerable to harm, and so how do I find that balance?"
But that's not the question that Jesus answers because he is not considering the matter from a therapeutic but ethical point of view. And so he gives an absolute and unqualified instruction: "In response to sin, rebuke; in response to repentance, forgive."
The reason the apostles ask for more faith is because it takes faith to follow that teaching, faith that what it costs us here will be compensated to us in the life to come. The cautious, shrewd, calculating life that the daytime television sages preach is a life for those who feel they have to make the most of this one. The life that Jesus preaches, with its enormous riskiness, is a life for those who dare it against the hope of a life beyond.

Call to Repentance
Joel 2:12-13 (page 1415)

Call to Worship
Psalm 111 (page 952)

OT Reading
Selection from Proverbs

NT Reading
Romans 12:9-21 (page 1764)

Message
Not the Stuff of Dr. Phil
Luke 17:3b-5 (page 1627)

Readings for Sunday, September 14th

It seems I've always been familiar with this passage but I don't remember ever having given it serious attention. And in meditating on it this week I've had a hard time figuring out where to go with it in my preaching. I'm struck by Jesus' passionate feelings and rhetoric. I'm struck by the way that he abruptly applies the teaching to all of his listeners. I'm struck by his resignation regarding causes of sin.
But I think that what strikes me the most is the implication that there is no such thing as personal, private holiness, anymore than there can be personal and private sin. Wesley famously argued that there is no holiness but social holiness and I think that this is one of those passages that support the claim.
If we refrain, as a church, from being the cause of sin for people, that's good. We're not earning millstones for our necks. But if that's as far as it goes it's not good enough. Maintaining personal virtue in comfortable isolation, we will never earn the crowns we look forward to throwing at Jesus' feet. We earn those crowns by snatching sinners from the fire and by making straight the path.
But mostly we dither about in that unhelpful territory between crowns on the head and millstones about the neck.
We were saved for more than this.

Call to Repentance
Galatians 5:24-25 (page 1816)

Call to Worship
Psalm 116 (page 955)

OT Reading
Jeremiah 32:30-41 (page 1230)

NT Reading
Romans 14:5-13 (page 1765)

Message
Stumbling Blocks and Millstones
Luke 17:1-3a (page 1626)

Readings for Sunday the 7th

I'm sorry it's taken me all week to post this, but I have had a really hard time figuring out how to preach this passage. I feel God's finally given me some direction and I'm excited about it. I'm looking forward to preaching the passage, worshipping my God with my church family, and filling everyone in on the new D.S.


Call to Repentance
Luke 21:34 (page 1636)

Call to Worship
Psalm 87 (page 925)

OT Reading
Exodus 14:10-18 (page 108)

NT Reading
1 Peter 1:22-2:3 (page 1887)

Message
Tell Them To Move On.
Titus 3:3-7 (page 1859)