Posts from July 2020
SWEET SORROW
Shakespeare’s Juliet says to Romeo: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” English teachers might call that an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. But life is full of seeming contradictions which are not so contradictory. We talk about “bitter sweet moments,” or a “deafening silence,” or “an open secret,” or a “tragic comedy.” There is a sweet sorrow laced in the lines of today’s epistle lesson from 2 Corinthians. Paul says: “Godly sorrow produces repentance, which leads to salvation, leaving no…
“PREACH THE GOSPEL!”
Over the chancel of our seminary chapel the words were inscribed in the Greek language of the New Testament – “Preach The Gospel” (κηρύξατε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον). These words from the 16th chapter of St. Mark were a reminder in every daily chapel service of what we were training to do. It is all too easy for those called to the work of preaching and teaching God’s Word to take an airborne flight into the everlasting “busyness” of “running” the church…
“THIEVES AND ROBBERS”
On November 18th, 1978, in the jungle commune of Jonestown, Guyana, South America, more than 900 people drank cyanide-laced purple Flavoraid served up from a common pot. More than 270 were children. The babies were given the poison with little syringes. Folks who resisted or tried to run were gunned down. Their cult leader, Jim Jones, finally dispatched himself with a bullet to the head. In March of 1997, Marshall Applewhite played out a similar scene in Rancho…
KINGDOM COMFORT
The bumper sticker said: “No matter who the president is, Jesus is King.” Amid polarized opinions, that’s a comforting reminder in any generation. Jesus once said to a Roman governor: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Maybe it’s a challenge for us Americans to identify with Jesus as our King. After all, we don’t have kings. None of us have ever lived under a king. Each July 4th we celebrate and give thanks that we live in a…