Using other preachers sermons

My first preaching professor told us that there are no original sermons. Someone somewhere has already preached what you are about to preach. Every idea represented in the scripture has been covered for two thousand years. Today preachers build sermons on the ideas of our predecessors.  

A young preacher serving his first congregation began his first two week vacation. His first stop was his parent’s home for the week-end. He proudly attended his home church with his parents. They had a new preacher who was full of surprises. As he began the sermon he said, “I have a difficult confession to make. I spent many years in the loving arms of another man’s wife.” Shock and gasp could be heard around the room. He continued on about how much he enjoyed being snuggled to her breast and hearing her say how much she loved him. He went on and on about their loving relationship.

At the moment when everyone was about to lynch him he said, “And that woman is my mother.” The women of the congregation could be heard to say. “Oh how sweet.” They young preacher later was talking to the pastor and said, “That was great can I use that story?”  For the rest of his vacation he thought about that wonderful attention getter and looked forward to using it.

Finally back home he began his sermon with that same story. His congregation also went into shock and he could hear angry cries for the congregation. He got a little rattled and suddenly stopped talking. A blank stare came across his face and he said, “For the life of me I can’t remember who she is.”

Church Member and/or Christian?

“Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.” 
― G.K. Chesterton

My pastor this morning used this Chesterton quote during his sermon this morning. I admit to using it a few times my self. It is a good reminder that being a “Christian” is much more than joining a congregation. To be truly a Christian is to be completely committed to the way of Jesus, word and deed.

The teachings of Jesus call for a radical life style of love, forgiveness,  peace and service.  Many are they who want to adopt the name but not the life.

Sunday only Christians who worship for what entertainment they can get out of it and then go home and serve evil the rest of the week fool themselves into judgment.

Christian Marriage/Wedding

My last post was about changing wedding laws around the world. This is a follow up about the religious ceremony and specifically the Christian Wedding. There are many religions in America and they each have their own traditions concerning the wedding ceremony.

In the civil service a couple needs a license and an authorized person to sign the document. The authorized person only has to verify that the two people before them are the ones on the license and ask them if they want to be married. When they answer in the affirmative the license is signed and they are married. All cut and dry and legal.

A Christian Wedding is quite different and in the United States it involves aspects of the civil wedding but also much more. In my state and church a man and a woman come to make vows to each other and God. They come seeking a blessing on their marriage and home. It is the making of vows that makes all the difference.

When a marriage vow is made the man and woman actually make two vows at once. They make vows of commitment and fidelity to one another and they make those same vows to God! It is this act that makes the wedding ceremony sacred. The vows are binding until death do us part. Jesus made only one excuse for divorce and that was adultery.

When a person breaks the marriage vow a double sin is committed. The first sin is against the spouse and the second is against God. I count it a very serious event to make a vow to God. Breaking a vow to God is not something one does lightly and I always stress that to couples about to get married in the church. There is an eternal aspect to a vow made to God and it stays with you that long.

Marriage Laws Changing

????

There have been many articles in the news about “Marriage Laws” and how they need to be changed. I have served as a pastor all over the country and I know how much they vary from state to state. They also vary a lot from country to country.

An NPR story today was about Mexico City trying to write a law to allow couples to have a termination date on the wedding license. The Bishop is apposed for some reason. I have worked in a country that allows a man to have up to four wives at a time. Some countries allow same sex marriages and so do some states.

The Christian Bible states that a Bishop must have only one wife but leaves an option for a man to have more than one wife if he is not a bishop. The bible tells us of many men both in the old and new testaments that had more than one wife. King Solomon had hundreds of them.    

Culture changes over time and our laws lag behind but they also change. There was a time when adultery was the only reason the law allowed for divorce. There was a time when only the husband could sue for divorce.

In Deuteronomy 22, if a bride was found not to be a virgin on her wedding night the law called for her to be stoned to death in front of her fathers house. A lot of women today are glad we don’t do that any more.

Weddings can be both legal contract and religious ceremonies. Some countries require that the couple go to a civil service office and register their marriage and then if they wish to do so they may have a religious ceremony afterwards.

How will our marriage laws change over the next hundred years?

New Phone Scam

It was an odd sort of phone call that I received this afternoon. I recognized that it was a new scam quickly. The male voice with a thick accent told me that I had been awarded a government grant of seven thousand dollars.

Interesting! I had not applied for a government grant. As a mayor I know all the rules and red tape for getting government a grant. I began to ask questions about what was the grant for and what department it was from and what program. No answers. Then he want to know my name, social security number and bank routing number for sending the grant money to my account.

I said, “What you don’t know my name?”

He hung up.

Available

Though out the bible we see that men and women who had an awareness of the presence of God. They listened and made themselves available to be used by God for a mission.

Abraham listened to the voice of God and moved to a new land. Moses liste4ned to the voice of God and returned to Egypt to lead the Hebrews back to that same land. Deborah listened to the voice of God and led the Hebrews to victory and a return to faith.

It matters not what our talents might be. What really matters is our availability. All of the spiritual gifts and natural abilities are  they are wasted unless we make them available to God. Long ago I resolved be available to God and be content with what ever God called me to do. 

Still working it out

In Philippians 2:12 Paul tells us to “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

This verse has often puzzled me since he also says that salvation if a free gift God though grace.  What does it mean for me to work out  my own salvation?

Here is the rub, I carry around within me a lot of baggage that hinders my acceptance of this free gift of grace. Things like anger, fear, selfishness, and hatred of those different than me. So working though my salvation means letting  go of my anger toward someone and forgiving them even if they do not ask for it. It means letting go of those things that I covet.  It means relinquishing control of situations that make me anxious.

God invites me to work out my salvation by letting go of things I want to control and allowing God to do some cleaning in this earthly tent that I call my life.