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As I have played around with Community Server, I have found that the content of Sermonater heretofore isn't really blog-type material, especially when held up against a more robust collaborative tool like Forums. So, from this point onward, I'll be posting my sermon schedule in the Forums area. You are still encouraged to post comments on the schedule as before. However, in the interest of sparking my own thinking around my weekly sermon writing, I'll be posting blog entries here in the sermonater blog that are more narrative and reflective in nature. Future sermon schedule items can be found at this link (or by clicking "Forums" above): http://www.harris-online.net/cserve/forums/31/ShowForum.aspx
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Title: "Hope: The Doorway to Change"
Scripture: Is 43:18-19; Rev 21:5
Key Verse: "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Is 43:18-19).
Theme: Change really takes place. That's the message of the Scriptures. New beginnings are possible. They're possible with God's involvement. But, the whole point of Jesus' call to discipleship is to get us involved in what God is already doing. "Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" God asks? God wants us to get involved. But, to do that we have to have hope that what we are doing with God will make any difference at all, that it's even worth it. What God is asking of us disciples is that before his future ever becomes undeniable reality to everyone, that we believe his future wholeheartedly. This involves, among other things, making political decisions and acting in such ways that anticipate the breaking-forth reality of a kingdom of justice, love, mercy, peace, and life.
The Big Question: How can we bring about the change we desire?
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Title: "Sex and The Family"
Scripture: Col 3:1-17
Key Verse: "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (v. 1).
Theme: The Republicans are pro-family and the Democrats are anti-family! This is the popular view. But, how foolish to think that either political party has a monopoly on morality! Morality cannot be gauged by a political platform, but must be gauged by Christ! "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is," says Paul. Shouldn't this command affect our political lives beyond the narrow definitions of morality promoted by the religious Right?
The Big Question: What is morality and how do I get some?
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Title: "True Security"
Scripture: Micah 4:1-5
Key Verse: "They shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid" (v. 5).
Theme: When we hear what the prophet Micah says will bring security to Jerusalem we may be surprised. We may feel jaded, lied to by decades of political and military leaders, Republicans and Democrats, who promise security and safety. Security doesn't come from warplanes, guns, walls, or armies; it comes from the obliteration of these things. True security comes from systemic changes to the ways we live. It takes beating our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning-hooks. It takes a focus on the poor. It takes a concern for the oppressed. It means establishing justice throughout our lives. True security involves dealing with the causes of insecurity and not the symptoms. It's no easy task. Dealing with the causes of insecurity means addressing things as disparate as economics, education, justice, love, mercy, and forgiveness. But, the prophet promises that our work will be well worth it!
The Big Question: What constitutes true security and safety and how do we obtain it?
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Title: "The Politics of Race"
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
Key Verse: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself" (v. 27).
Theme: In one of the most familiar stories of the Bible, a righteous man's life is saved by the most unlikely helper: a Samaritan. The moral that we learned in kindergarten is as applicable and accurate today as it was then: everyone is our neighbor. But, as adults, we need it spelled out a little more clearly than kindergartners do. Our neighbor is especially those who are not like us, those who are in need, those who are hurting, those who we despise. Fill in the blank there to find out who is your neighbor, and then, in Jesus words, go and love that person.
The Big Question: What did Jesus think about borders, race, and equality?
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Title: "The Economics of the Kingdom of God"
Scripture: Luke 1:46-55
Key Verse: "He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." (vv. 52-53).
Theme: The young peasant girl who would give birth to the Messiah saw something about the coming kingdom of God that most of us just don't see: God's preferential option for the poor. That's right: God prefers the poor. We see it all over the Scriptures: God prefers the poor. That may be of some encouragement in the current financial condition of our country! But, what does it do for our politics, that is, how does that inform our relationships to one another, and, more to the point the poor?
The Big Question: Does economics matter to God?
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Title: "The War of the Lamb"
Scripture: Matthew 26:47-56
Key Verse: "Then Jesus said to [Peter], ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword'" (v. 52).
Theme: In Revelation 5, we find a peculiar image: a slaughtered lamb surrounded by God's angels and all the people on the earth, who are all exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!" (v. 12). Then, all the creatures of earth and heaven bow down and worship the slaughtered lamb. This is no mighty military victor, no Napoleon, no Eisenhower, no Patton; this is a slaughtered lamb, one who refused to pick up the sword, one who refused to counter violence against him with more violence. The Scriptures suggest that nonviolence is the way of triumph over the forces of evil. Jesus says as much when he warns, "Those who pick up the sword will perish by the sword" (v. 52).
The Big Question: What does God think of war?
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Title: "The Politics of Jesus"
Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20
Key Verse: "In him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him" (v. 16).
Theme: The polis in Greek is the city; politics, therefore, has to with life in a city. Politics is literally the way we engage one another in a society. When we read the gospels, we see that Jesus was a political being, speaking quite pointedly about issues of his day (e.g., Luke 4:16-30). Jesus' political engagement can (must?) be normative for Christians because, as Paul says, "all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together" (vv. 16b-17). It really comes down to our ultimate authority. Is it the Republican platform? The Democratic platform? A political candidate? Or, in the Spirit of Colossians is it the one who is "before all things"? Anyone following Christ does so in the real world, not in a vacuum. This means that how Jesus lived and what Jesus cared about should inform how we live and what we care about.
The Big Question: Is the question of Jesus' politics appropriate, and, if so, how should it affect our politics?
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