My Trip to Atlanta

This is the first time that I am posting my blog outside of my preaching and technology class.
  Recently I took a trip to Atlanta. It was part of my multicultural class. Even though it was an elective, it was an awesome, powerful, and emotional trip. We drove through the horrible ice to get there and it was worth it!
  We went to the Martin Luther King Jr. center. As I walked through the museum, I heard words that made me take a look at myself. They were words that I may have heard growing up. They were words that I have heard others say and I wanted to CRY! These were not words of love but words that helped expose bigotry and hatred toward someone different from me and others.
   I saw the infamous "bull" connor in Birmingham using the "N" word. I watched and heard his strategies for not letting "those people" win. " We are not going to let that happen here," he said. Others were burning crosses. Listening to a parent screaming at an African-American child! It was so hard to hear. Many things were revealed to me.
  Then we went to Birmingham. The 16th Street Baptist Church was an incredible visit. 4 little girls in the girls bathroom; all I can picture is their innocent faces gone because of a racist who placed a bomb under a stair well: SHOCKING! DISGUSTING! This coward did this dispicable thing. He didn't have enough guts to admit it. He hid! Then we saw the film and the park where dogs and firehoses are turned on children protesters. The local government did this! The bomber was brought to justice almost 40 years later, that right 40 years! I could only ask: "how do you do this? How do you live with the injustice for 40 years?" The response was that we lived with it for over 100 so what is another 40. Reality set in.
  Then I started hearing words of hope. Dr. Kings speeches were words of comfort that things will change. He saw their struggle as "when you have done it to the least of these, you did this to me (Gospel of Matthew)." That was powerful. The I also heard the words of Dr. Warnock at Ebenezer Baptist Church. His words were powerful. Dreams are important and hang on to them. "Sometimes you feel so low, you don't want to get up. You may have had a bad week last week but you're alive today! So stand up!" There were more words that got to me and he (along with Dr. King) helped me to understand that I NEED TO STAND UP!
 If you wish to comment, by all means. This site is ramblings and all are invited to respectful conversation.
Peace.

Sermon for January 23rd 2011

Matthew 4:12-23

            Quite a few years ago, I was in the Navy at Great Lakes Training Center outside of Chicago. Every Friday and Saturday, I started wondering what I was going to do for the weekend. There were stories going around the base that this group was coming on base and taking people to play flag football. My friends would tell me that they heard that it was a rouse. If you agreed to go with them this mysterious bus would pick you up and take you to this place. My friends equated it to being brainwashed about church. Early on a Saturday morning I was approached by a man who asked if I wanted to go play flag football. I listened and then he said after the game they have a worship service and that was all there was to it. This man was asking me to follow and come with him.

            Today’s Gospel reading is about following. Jesus goes to Capernaum. It is a small village on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. If you have not lived in a port town or fishing town, it is an interesting experience. The smell of dead fish fills the air. There are carcasses that are stinking up the place. The smell of fish permeates everything that is in the town. Then there is that indescribable but memorable smell that I can only call LOW TIDE. It is not the most pleasant of places to be; yet these people are working hard. They are constantly repairing their nets so they can go out and get more fish. Fishing is their main income and how they sustain themselves.

            Capernaum is a place that is on the outer fringes. It is just beyond the regions of the Jewish community. The elites of the time would not want to spend any great amount of time in the village; maybe because of the smell or maybe because of the labor. They would rather spend time in places that meet their standards.

            Jesus comes to town. He has withdrawn from where he was baptized and he has spent the forty days in the wilderness. Jesus is among those people on the fringes. He is in the land that is not necessarily important to the Romans or to the Jews. He goes to a place that holds no prominence or strategic value. It is a place that is considered to be in darkness. Scripture even writes that he begins to tell the people to REPENT! Jesus begins his ministry at this place that reeks.

            Jesus begins to reveal who he is to the people in this smelly, insignificant town. Jesus Begins to reveal himself to the people. He goes down to the boats and comes across Peter & Andrew, James & John. He tells them “Come! Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” Jesus goes to the people that hold some of the dirtiest jobs and says follow me; He does not look for the elites in the town. Jesus does not seek out the wisest, most nicely dressed, professional looking people. He picks the people with blood on their hands from cleaning fish, cuts on their hands from mending nets and whose every pore may smell like dead fish. Jesus, the son of God, seeks them out and says “follow me.”

            And what do they do? They put everything down and follow Jesus. They don’t even ask questions! In fact, scripture writes, “immediately, they put their nets down- two left their father at the boat- and they followed. That is an incredible story of calling and faith. These men who needed these jobs as fishermen to make a living walked away from their only source of income to follow Jesus. Jesus called them and they answered. Why would they do such a thing? Why would they leave all that they had, everything that got them to where they were!

            I would suggest to you that they answered because they had an idea of who Jesus was. Jesus was identifying them as important people. Jesus knew that these four men were not defined solely by their occupation but defined as children of God. Jesus made no distinctions of social, political, or economic status because what was most important to Jesus is that the son of God was calling them to follow. They followed and amazing things happened on this journey. They witnessed the love of God and Jesus taught them how to live out being God’s children in this world.

            Just as Jesus called them to follow, Jesus calls us to follow also. We have our own concept of Capernaum. Society tries to impress upon us the need to have the latest things that make our lives easier. We hear all over the media how to think, what to think, and to look out for ourselves (ya know #1). We are told to let the other person fail as long as we get what we want. It is the stink and stench that pulls us away from God and each other. It is the stink and stench of brokenness and sin.

            And yet God calls us. Jesus Christ calls us to follow him. God tells us that despite all that stink and stench we are loved. We are loved by a God who gave us the gift of Jesus Christ. It is the gift of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ. We celebrated Jesus baptism a couple of weeks ago and now the Holy Spirit is among us and walking with us and through his baptism and ours, we walk together in the glory of God. Jesus calls us to continually follow wherever he goes, we are called to follow.

            I am reminded of a song written by John Denver and it is called "Follow ME." It provides a perspective on Jesus calling us to follow him. It is about us willing to leave those things that the world uses to define us behind and following Jesus.

            As wonderful as it may sound, it is also difficult. Following Jesus means that we are also called to follow him all the way to the cross. Just as we witness his life and teachings, we are also called to witness his crucifixion; and we are called to witness his glorious resurrection on that beloved Easter morning.

            Following Jesus is an incredible experience that is full of joyous moments as well as struggle. As a person who lived on the sea, I continually found myself in the stench of the broken, worldly things trying to find my own way and although I said no many years ago, I said yes as I continually heard God’s call to follow and it has been an incredible journey. Friends in Christ, we are called to follow Jesus Christ. We are called to be a witness to the Glory God and witness all that Jesus Christ is in our lives and the world.

            My prayer for us all is that we keep Peter & Andrew, James & John as our role model to immediately answer Jesus’ call in our lives and follow him: AMEN!

Sermon Outline

Sermon Outline Matthew 4:12-23:

I.             Introduction: Story to begin the setting.

II.            Gospel reading:

A.    Capernaum is on the outer margins of the worldly kingdom.

B.    It is a place removed from being under the direct rule.

C.    People have are essentially living in the darkness.

III.           How can we relate?

A.    World of Advertisements.

B.    People tell us what to think and do…

C.    Groups tell us what to think…

D.    We live in the darkness.

IV.          Jesus Christ brings light to their darkness.

        A.    Jesus Christ, God is in the world and comes to those in Capernaum.

B.    Jesus brings the love of God to most unlikely.

C.    It is the light of God’s love.  

V.            Just as we are in the darkness, Jesus brings the light to us also.

        A.    We live in the light of Christ.

        B.     Jesus Christ calls us to live in the light.

        C.    Living in the light of being who we are…

Which online resources help me the most

I am finding that the most helpful are Stoffregen in that his writings help me look at the technical aspects of the scripture (http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt4x12.htm). He helps me to look at some key words and uses some very good phrases. Another good thing is that he has several ideas packed into the particular text. The down side is that he sometimes repeats his statements by saying "refer to last weeks post." That can get a little discouraging.
  Another site that I find helpful is workingpreacher.org (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=1/27/2008&tab=4). Audrey West is helpful in her look at this scripture in saying that Jesus calls us to be who we are. Jesus does not ask those to follow who have the right look, lifestyle, or money. West is more "down to earth in her take on the scripture." that helps me get another idea as to what or how to preach the text.
  I have found another site (http://gotell.org/pages/stories/Matthew/Mt04_12-23.html). This site is an audio telling of the commentary. I am finding this style of commentary okay. To Boomershine is the speaker and he illustrates several themes within the text. He uses the two call stories to relate it to Elijah and Elisha. He is relating the sign of the kingdom being near is the sign of Jesus healing and curing. He then plays preaching and teaching as the last two that show the Kingdom of Heaven is near. I found myself still wondering what to preach about after listening to this. The audio was not helpful and the written commentary is not thorough at all.
  Another site that I found not to be too helpful was John Wesley's notes on the bible (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes.i.ii.vi.html). This was difficult to read without becoming a member because there are too many cross references to other books of the bible. It confused me.

The use of Powerpoint in proclamation

I found the two powerpoint arguments (powerpoint yes and no) to be a little bland. The writer against powerpoint uses the extreme worst case scenarios. The "anti-powerpoint" argument poses the worst case presenter. A presenter who stands in front of the screen with his back to the congregation is obviously not going to get the message across. Especially with their back turned away from the congregation. If Mr. Quanbeck (Powerpoint No) really believes that is the norm, then he is showing his age. However, he does make a good point that some people will do that if they don't have experience doing this.
  Andrew Root (Powerpoint Yes) makes the other extreme argument. He agrees that that the message should be the focus. He also understands that a bad message is amplified in its quality by the use of media. He (Root) believes that the focus should be on writing a good sermon and then think about media that would support it. this is well and good, but the bottom line comes down to space and modernity. Is the worship space conducive to introducing media and is the congregation open to seeing a new form of proclamation? Some congregations are requesting pastors to preach outside the pulpit but the concept has been around for quite some time. So, how long will it take for congregations to initiate this form of proclamation?
 Both articles spend too much time writing about powerpoint as an operating system and a brand name. That particular issue is moot. They do acknowledge the use of powerpoint can easily draw attention away from the message.
   Tim Stafford's article Face-to-Face Gospel and the Death of Distance in Christianity today brings very interesting thought to the conversation of proclamation. He raises the issue through an interview of how sermons can still reach other people. I found insightful in that this form of sermon does serve a very good purpose. There are many people out there who cannot get to a church. I had a relative who was not mobile yet she was able to watch sermons on television and view a worship service and that was her church. This use of media does create distance but for those who already feel separated, it may bring them closer to God emotionally and spiritually when they cannot be physically present in a brick and mortar church.

Preaching January 23rd

I am contemplating using the song by Jackson Browne titled "The Rebel Jesus". The song covers mostly the story of the poor and how we give mostly at Christmas time. The challenge is that the song indicates when asking why there are poor, we may end up like the "rebel" Jesus. The text talks about Jesus retreat. The irony is that the retreat is not to a safe place but "withdrawing into a dangerous place which is the beginning of his public ministry.

My Preaching text

My text for preaching will be the text from January 23, 2011. The Gospel of Matthew 4:12-23.