Sermons Podcast

This week I have the privilege of preaching on 1 Corinthians 13, the great “Love Chapter” in the Bible. These words are probably the best know series of verses in the Bible outside of Psalm 23. They are often read at weddings even though they have nothing to do with romantic love. The Apostle Paul’s hauntingly beautiful words about love, Christian love, are written within the context of his discussion in 1 Corinthians 12-14 about spiritual gifts. Paul considered Christian love the greatest of all God’s gifts to us. In my sermon this week, I will take you through what these words are truly about and how they highlighted God’s call to us to dare to love as Jesus loved. -- Pastor Paul

The texts this week come from Nehemiah 8 and Luke 4. In both, the scriptures are read aloud to the people. In Nehemiah, the people have just come back from exile and are living as recipients of God's promises. In Luke, Jesus has been baptized and tempted, and then he stands up in his own temple to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, good news to the poor, sight to the blind and release to the captives. God has so many good words for us, and Jesus is the ultimate good word of God. In him the goodness of God comes to us and to all who are poor, blind and imprisoned.

“I have called you by name, you are mine.” These are the words of God in the book of Isaiah. This Sunday we also celebrate the baptism of Jesus. It’s a good time to look back to our own baptisms, where God calls us by name and where we also receive a new name- child of God. What does it mean that the creator of the whole world knows us by name? How do our lives change as a result?

“I have called you by name, you are mine.” These are the words of God in the book of Isaiah. This Sunday we also celebrate the baptism of Jesus. It’s a good time to look back to our own baptisms, where God calls us by name and where we also receive a new name- child of God. What does it mean that the creator of the whole world knows us by name? How do our lives change as a result?

There is a line in John 1:14 where it says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us”. The English “lived among us” is the translation of the Greek which literally means, “tented among us”. The image here is of Jesus, God’s eternal Word, coming to humanity and pitching his tent with us. Jesus took the time to be with us, to live with us, the share life with us, not in some mansion, but in the close up and personal existence of sharing a tent with us. If you’ve ever gone camping for an extended period of time you know what this is like! While we are so familiar with the notion that Jesus was a human, we don’t always take the time to consider what that actually meant. God’s Son became a human. God’s Son cared about us enough to live with humanity in the messiness that is life. This week’s sermon will explore what this idea means when we take the time to seriously consider it.