Faith, Grace, and Hope

Jeremiah 28:5-9; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42 Lately, with so many changes in my life, I’ve had this Robert Frost poem in my mind: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. This poem isn’t my way of telling you that I am going down a road and will not see you again- not at all. I believe it’s the resu...

One of the things that seems hardest to accept about our faith is that we can do nothing to earn it or achieve it on our own. In a world that focuses on success and accomplishment, it seems difficult to understand that one of our greatest attributes, faith, is purely a gift and we can't do anything about it. In relationship to this theological idea, I've been considering the images of the vine and the branches (John 15:5) and the potter and the clay (Isaiah 64:8). Branches do not grow on their own; they are fed from the main vine and they grow reaching out to other branches and into the larger world. We understand God to be the giver of all gifts- feeding us from the Word and at the table (the Lord's Supper). The Spirit intercedes in our prayers and is our advocate in all places. God, our Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer is the vine that gives us life and sends us spiraling out beyond our roots to new places where we can flourish. No more can we do this on our own, wit...

I've recently begun to make more of an effort to get into shape. This has meant going to the gym every day. I have to make myself go every day so that it will become a habit for me. When I don't go to the gym, it's not really that I don't want to work out because it's uncomfortable or I don't like exercise. It's really because I get bored and get distracted. I have an extremely long attention span, but staying on the treadmill for 30 minutes requires concentration on something in which I'm not that interested. As I walking and running today, I was thinking about prayer and how many people talk about their difficulty in praying consistently. I think prayer is an exercise. It's an exercise of our spiritual muscle, our faith muscles. If you haven't been doing it for a while, it's hard. Yet we all (well, most of us) want to be like those prayer warriors we know- the spiritual equivalent of marathon runners. The thing is, you have to s...

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28; Romans 1:16-17, 3:22b-28; Matthew 7:21-29 My life flows on in endless song; above earth’s lamentation, I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation No storm can shake my in-most calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? This song has been endlessly flowing through my head this week and I’ve had a somewhat difficult time figuring out why. It’s my “stress” hymn: the song I sing when I feel under a great deal of pressure. I sang it every day when my husband was in Iraq. I sang it when the septic tank overflowed and I was mopping the floor. And I guess I am little stressed now about leaving you and wondering what comes after my time at Gloria Dei. But what could be stressful about the Bible passages we heard today? Our texts seem to be focused on teaching your children about faith, understanding the meaning of the gospel and realizing there are distractions and detra...

Recently, I've been around a lot of grieving people. Last week, I was in North Carolina to be with my family after an uncle committed suicide. I have another friend whose best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident last weekend. Then there is the couple I know who are separating after several years together. In each of these situations, I've listened to or sat with those who were grieving. In some cases, we sit and talk about mundane things. At some points, we talk about the sadness of the situation. And, for some time, there is just nothing to say- so we sit in silence. I've had many people tell me that they don't know what to say to someone who is grieving, angry or distraught. Often they would like to show that they care or demonstrate some support, but they remain distant or silent for fear of making a mistake. The thing is, most people just want someone to be there for them. They aren't going to ask hard questions, they won't expect you to h...

How many of you have seen an infomercial before? You know, one of those long commercials on television selling something like a rotisserie oven, a set of knives, a 14-piece vacation-wear set or a juicer that does everything but change your bed sheets. In an infomercial, there is always the studio audience as well. They applaud at the miracle of a moist roast or the Ronco worm trimmer that makes a sound like a real worm. The audience also always knows the punchlines for the presenter, the best of which is “But wait… there’s more.” That line is what I kept thinking about this week while trying to write a sermon about the Trinity. In trying to describe how our one God is three separate and significant persons and yet one holy unity, I kept writing and thinking, “But wait… there’s more!” In the first reading today, that lengthy section of Genesis, we get a glimpse of the creative power of the Trinity. As some of you have heard me explain before, the Hebrew word for that void, the b...

There are two lessons about healing in the gospel story today. The obvious one is the actual healing of the paralytic man. This part of the story shows that all things are possible with God. The second aspect of the story, the more important part, reveals more about the regular work of God through Jesus, then and now. After the man’s friends lower him to the floor, Jesus looks at him and says, “Your sins are forgiven.” Many people in the room were shocked and offended at this statement, but Jesus points out that it is much, much easier for him or for anyone to acknowledge the forgiveness of sins than to heal a paralyzed person. So that they might believe in God’s power in Jesus, he heals the man of his physical infirmity and then people were amazed. Even before Thomas, people needed to see and believe. And we’re a lot like that today. It’s easier to believe when we hear miracle stories, when we see our friends healed, when children are born with no problems, when someone wa...