Happy New Year! Now, some of you may be thinking, wait a minute, we just celebrated Thanksgiving. We’ve got a whole month till the new year. Well, yes and no. According to the Gregorian calendar, with the 12 months ending on December 31st, we’ve got a month to go. But today is the beginning of the season of Advent and, according to the church calendar, Advent is the beginning of the new church year. Read the full text. 

This is the last Sunday in our sermon series “Do Unto Others.” In this series, we’ve been talking about kindness. We’ve been talking about the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Love others the same as you would hope they love you. Bottom line, see and treat people the way God sees them: as God’s beloved children, just the same as you. Read the full text. 

Over the Summer I read a couple of books about the civil war: The Demon of Unrest— about the beginning of the war at Ft. Sumter—by Erik Larsen, and I re-read Team of Rivals—a biography of Abraham Lincoln and the members of his cabinet—by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I’m not entirely sure why I did it, other than my subconscious was probably registering some similarities between then and now. Read the full text. 

So, we’ve got an election coming up on Tuesday. You might have heard something about that. And as I think about the election, I wonder how, if at all, should our Christian faith guide us as we consider how we should vote? I mean, I’ve heard some Republicans say that if you vote Democrat, that means you aren’t a Christian. Of course, I’ve heard some Democrats say the same thing about voting Republican. Both groups are absolutely sincere when they say it, but they can’t both be right, can they? Read the full text. 

This scripture describes an interaction between the apostle Paul and a group of philosophers in the Greek city of Athens. Now, if you’re at all familiar with the apostle Paul, you know he was a Jew’s Jew. He had been raised in the orthodox Jewish faith. He studied under Gamaliel, one of the most famous and well-respected Rabbis of his time. He was zealous for God. Read the full text. 

Today we’re starting a new sermon series about kindness, called Do Unto Others. And it isn’t an accident we’re talking about kindness right now. I don’t think I have to tell you that we’re living in a world that’s a little short on kindness. We’re living in a world where the saying, “Nice guys finish last” is more and more accepted as gospel truth. And with the election just a few weeks away, all the fear and rage and division and incivility—all of the UN-kindness—is reaching a peak. Read the full text here. 

This is the last Sunday in our Becoming sermon series. And in this series, we’ve been talking about the process of being transformed more and more into the image of Christ through cooperation with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And, in today’s story, we see where it all started. Now, I know. We’re supposed to save the Pentecost story for Pentecost Sunday. But that’s a whole 9 months away, and it’s SUCH a good story, and it’s so foundational to our faith, we can’t just leave it there. Read the full text. 

In our last sermon series, we talked about the how, what, and why of believing in Jesus. And in talking about the why a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the story of Nicodemus; how Jesus told him that to receive abundant and eternal life, he would have to be born again; he would need to receive God’s Spirit. Read the full text. 

You may not realize that we have passed a new milestone in humanity's quest for creating artificial intelligence. A chatbot has passed the Turing test for the first time this year. The Turing test is a test that measures the ability of artificial intelligence to pass as a human being. To pass the test, the chatbot had to be mistaken for a human by a human user more than 50% of the time, and for the first time, a chatbot passed the test, being mistaken for a human 54% of the time. Read the full text. 

This is the last week in our series on believing. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how we believe: our belief is more caught than taught. We experience the love of Jesus in a community of faith like this one, and as a result we learn to love Jesus and accept his love for ourselves. And then last week, we talked about what belief is: Jesus is the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, entered into time and space so that through his life, death, and resurrection, all those who love him enough to entrust themselves to him will be saved. Read the full text. 

Last week we began our “Believing” sermon series talking about how we come to believe in Jesus. I suggested that our faith is more caught than taught. We come to know Jesus by experiencing him; experiencing his love in the context of a community of faith like this one. At which point, God sends the gift of His Spirit to complete that faith. But this begs the question: what exactly is belief? Which isn’t as easy a question as you might think. I mean, there are a lot of things that might qualify as belief in Jesus. He was a human being. He was Jewish. He lived about 2,000 years ago. No serious person would take issue with any of this. Read the full text. 

This is the first Sunday in our new sermon series, “Believing.” Remember, we’re in the middle of three three-week series’ that are all closely related to one another: belonging, believing, and becoming. In the last series on belonging, we talked about how we all belong in God’s love and how the primary purpose of the church is to be the embodiment of that belonging, so we and everyone else can learn about the love of Jesus by living in that love. For the next three weeks, we’re going to be talking about the how, what, and why of believing in Jesus: how we come to believe, what belief is, and why it’s so vitally important. And then after that, we’ll be talking about “becoming”: how the whole point of the belonging and believing is for us to become progressively more like Jesus. Read the full text.

What are you looking for? I love that question that Jesus asks. What are you looking for? And we all know the answer, because we’re looking for the same thing. Andrew and that other disciple (probably John) were looking for meaning and fulfillment. They were looking for a place where they belonged. In fact, the real question here isn’t what those disciples were looking for. The real question is why on earth Jesus didn’t just ditch them. Why on earth he allowed them to follow him. And the fact is, he didn’t just tolerate their tagging along. As we see in today’s scripture, he actually sought them out. He gathered them around him; all those mismatched fishermen, zealots, and tax collectors. Read the full text. 

This is the second week in our “Belonging” sermon series. Last week we talked about where we all belong, which is in God’s love. So, today we’re going to talk about how that plays out in our lives. And it starts with the question the lawyer asked Jesus. Here’s the background: According to Luke, Jesus has “set his face to Jerusalem.” In other words, his earthly ministry is pretty much up. He’s on his way to Jerusalem for his crucifixion. And somewhere along the way, an expert in the law—let’s just call him a lawyer—asks him what he needs to do to get eternal life. Now, there are all kinds of questions we can ask at this point, like “why is the legal expert asking Jesus?” Is it a trick. Is he serious? Read the full text.

This morning we’re starting a new sermon series. Actually, we’re starting a series of new sermon series’. For the next 9 weeks, we’re going to explore three 3-week series’ which cover the basics of how I think faith really works: belonging, believing, and becoming, in that order. You’ll notice I stressed, “in that order.” And that’s because I think the order is important. Read the full text. 

I figure a lot of you are breathing a deep sigh of relief right about now. This is the last week in our “Dad Jokes” sermon series. As we’ve discussed the last couple of weeks, this series is about exploring the overall story of the Bible. The story of how God is in the ongoing process of rescuing humanity from itself. And we’re telling that story through three of the “dad’s” of the Bible. Read the full text. 

This is the second week of our sermon series “God’s Dad Jokes” in which we’re exploring the big, overarching story of the Bible—God’s rescue mission for humanity—through the stories of three “dad’s” of the Bible. So, last week, we started with Adam. And there wasn’t a whole lot of funny in Adam’s story. We talked about the Fall; how Adam and Eve broke the relationship of divine love that us humans were created to live in when they disobeyed God; when they failed to trust in God’s fundamental goodness and love; when they thought they knew better than God. Read the full text.

So, how did Adam and Eve feel when God expelled them from the Garden of Eden? They were quite put out. Here’s another one. What did God say after He created Adam? “I can do better than that.” So, he created Eve. Read the full text. 

We are concluding our series on Daniel this week. Whew! It has been quite a trip, and this week's Scripture is the wildest yet! Lions, leopards, bears, and beasts, oh my! The volunteer preaching the children’s sermon this week said she would NOT be using this week’s passage for the children’s sermon. I cannot blame her! This passage is filled with symbolism from Daniel’s nightmarish vision. It's not a story to tuck the kids in at night. Read the full text.

Daniel in the Lion’s Den is one of the Hebrew Bible's most well-known and beloved stories, mainly because kids love it! Lions are so cute and cuddly, right? This is another Hebrew Bible story like Noah that gets sanitized for the kids because, in this story, lions are not cute and cuddly but potentially deadly in their use as instruments of capital punishment. Read the full text. 

You can sometimes tell a lot about something from its name. If you have been a Methodist for a while, you may already know that like the term “Christian,” the name “Methodist” was originally a term of derision. Those who encountered John Wesley’s growing movement scoffed at Wesley’s strict “method” of prayer and frequent small group meetings. Eventually, the name stuck, and the Methodist movement wore the name proudly. I am glad that the name of John’s first group of disciples at Oxford was not the one that stuck. They were derisively called the “Holy Club.” “Salado Holy Club” doesn’t have the same ring to it! Read the full text. 

Last week we finished up our sermon series on prayer discussion Jesus’ instructions on the importance of yielding our agendas, our wants and needs, and our very selves to God. In fact, that entire series was based on Jesus’ teaching in the Lord’s prayer. But in preparing for this week’s sermon, I realized that I left out one really important thing. Sure, Jesus told us how to pray. He told us lots of other really important stuff too, like how to get eternal life. But all of that begs the question, “why should we listen to him?” Why should we trust him? Read the full text. 

Have you ever stopped to wonder why the disciples asked Jesus how to pray? We say this prayer every single Sunday. I’ve been saying it my entire life. But until this last week, it had never occurred to me to ask why Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray. I mean, think about it. They had all been raised as Jews. And if there’s anything Jews knew how to do, it was pray. Jewish law established set times to pray, set days and festivals to pray, what to pray at what time. The disciples most certainly knew how to pray. And they knew they knew how to pray. Read the full text. 

As a child, I hated asking someone in a store for something. I was so shy. Bad things happened when you combined this shyness with a dad who loved embarrassing me. My dad would lead me by the hand through the store, roaring, “WHY ARE YOU SCARED TO ASK THESE NICE PEOPLE WHERE THINGS ARE? ARE YOU A CHICKEN?!??!!!” Good times. And to be honest, I haven’t changed much. I still prefer to find things myself rather than ask someone. They might be busy with something else, right? Read the full text. 

So, here we are, our third week in this series on prayer. And I’ve got a question for y’all. What do you do when you pray? What do your prayers look like? For a lot of us, our prayers pretty much boil down to asking God for stuff. Asking God for things like health and peace and joy for ourselves and others. And this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a vital part of prayer, and Paul’s going to be talking with y’all about it next week. Read the full text. 

I’ve got to tell you. The story behind this scripture is one of the most fascinating stories in the whole Bible. Here’s the background: Elijah is THE preeminent prophet of his time, maybe the greatest of all the Israelite prophets after Moses. And he spent most of his time prophesying against maybe the worst of Israel’s kings, which is saying a lot. King Ahab had rejected God and insisted that his people worship the pagan got Baal. But as bad as Ahab was, his wife Jezebel was even worse. She not only rejected God, but she set out to kill ALL of the prophets of the one true God. Read the full text. 

Why pray? It’s a pretty common question. This is the first week in a new sermon series that will take us through the next 5 weeks, called “Lord, teach us to PRAY.” Like our last series, it’s based roughly on a really good book, “How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People,” by Pete Grieg. Now, that whole “normal people” thing may be assuming some facts not in evidence, but I’m willing to give most of y’all the benefit of the doubt. And if you want to go deeper in your prayer life, I really recommend this book. Read the full text. 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cloversites.com/33/33713afb-ec24-4aa3-8c03-c63a965291c2/documents/05-19-24-Sermon.pdfStill, all these years later, I remember that day like it was yesterday. That was the day the world changed. Thinking back, it’s funny how it all started. I was a fisherman. My brother, father and I had just finished a good morning’s fishing and as we sat in our boat mending our nets, this guy walks up to us. On the outside he looked like most anyone else, but he had a sort of magnetism, a sort of power about him. He looked at me like he was looking into my soul and said to my brother and I, “Come, follow me.” Read the full text. 

Jesus had a friend to save. Lazarus was one of Jesus’ very closest friends, maybe even closer than some of the apostles. And so, when Jesus heard that he was sick, you might think he would immediately pack up and hurry to Lazarus’ side. His friend was sick. He might even die. Jesus needed to hurry. But no. He waited 2 days. It makes no sense. Read the full text. 

The apostle Paul was a really, really interesting guy. He was born a Roman citizen, which was pretty unusual for a Jew. As a result, he was entitled to substantial privileges and position. He studied under Gamaliel, probably the most famous and influential Rabbi of the day. By the standards of his culture, he pretty much had it made. Read the full text. 

There they were. Free … and in the middle of nowhere. For as long as they could remember, the Israelites had been Egyptian slaves. They were born slaves. Their parents had been slaves. Their grandparents had been slaves. Their lives consisted of being told, moment by moment, what to do, when to do it, and how fast to do it. The concept of freedom was completely foreign to them. Read the full text. 

Imagine this: You get up in the morning and turn on the TV, or tune in to your favorite news podcast. You make yourself a quick breakfast and hurry out the door. You get in the car, and turn on the radio or maybe another podcast to listen to as you drive. You get to work and turn on the radio or the podcast, or maybe that’s not an option because you have to jump right into 8+ hours of straight work. And as you work, you’re multitasking three or four things at once, in the midst of which, you manage to check your news feed or social media 20-30 times. You eat lunch at your desk while catching up on your podcasts and checking social media...  Read the full text. 

If I just had a little more time. How many times have you said that? If I just had a little more time. Now, of course, we know that when we’re asking for more time, we aren’t really asking for more time. I mean, that would be silly right? We know there are only 24 hours in a day and that’s not going to change. No, what we’re really asking for when we’re asking for more time is a suspension of the laws of physics, so we can do all the things on our ever-expanding to-do lists within that 24 hours we’re given. Read the full text. 

Peter thought he was set. He was Jesus’ right-hand man. And when Jesus ascended the Jewish throne and kicked the Romans out of the Holy Land, Peter was going to have it made. But then Jesus died. The man who could cure the blind and raise the dead couldn’t figure out a way to escape from the priests and the Romans? Actually, it was more like he hadn’t even tried. It was as if he’d expected or even wanted to die. Read the full text. 

In case you happened to miss the kids coming in with the palm branches, this is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. And I’m sure most of you know this, but the reason it’s called Palm Sunday and the reason we wave all those palm branches around is because that’s what the people did on the first Palm Sunday. They came out of Jerusalem to welcome Jesus into town for the annual Passover festival. And the reason they welcomed Jesus with tree branches, and also by laying their cloaks on the ground before him, was that’s the sort of thing you do for a king. Read the full text. 

I’m spiritual, just not religious. You’ve heard that, right? I hear it a lot. The Gallup polling company recently released a study on trends in church affiliation and attendance. The study found that while 47% of people in the US say they are religious (which is a 10% drop from 2012), only about 30% attend church regularly. Thirty-three percent of the population say they are spiritual but not religious, which is a 3% increase from 1999. And 18% say they are neither spiritual nor religious, more than twice as many as in 1999. Read the full text. 

It was time to pack up. Kirsten and the kids and I had spent the morning saying goodbye to a piece of property we used to own out around Ballinger. I loaded the last items into the back of our suburban, closed the door, and started to walk away. Then I heard it. A clicking sound, as if the suburban had locked itself. Of course, that’s crazy, right? Cars don’t lock themselves. Well, actually, this one did … with our keys inside. Read the full text. 

This is the third Sunday of Lent, and this Lent, we are studying the Apostles’ Creed. As I mentioned last week, the Creed is organized along the lines of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about God the Father, so this week, we’re going to talk about Jesus, God’s only Son. Read the full text.

The Creed we just professed begins with, “I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” But come on now, does God really exist? Now, up until about 300-400 years ago, that would have been a ridiculous question. Everyone just assumed there was a God, or gods. All you had to do was look outside at the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. Or just contemplate the beauty and complexity of a leaf or a lion or a human being; the incredibly intricate interdependence of all living things. Read the full text. 

What does it mean to believe? It’s not as easy to answer as you might think. For one thing, there are different types or belief. I might believe it’s going to rain today. Or, I might believe, correctly as it turns out, that ice cream is the greatest food ever created, followed closely by pizza and bacon. Or, I might believe we should all be kind to one another. And there are political beliefs, which I’d just as soon not get into. Read the full text here. 

So, here we are. The last Sunday in our journey towards greater generosity. Pathway to Generosity Sunday. And as we’ve traveled this road, we’ve talked about why we give. We give because we are created in the image of a supremely generous God. When we give, we are simply living into, and simultaneously going deeper into, that identity. We’ve talked about why we give to the church. The church is the body of Christ, Christ’s physical manifestation in the world. Our mission is Christ’s mission: to spread new, abundant, eternal life to everyone; to bless the world. Read the full text. 

So, we’re starting to wind up our generosity initiative, Pathways to Generosity. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about why we give. We are generous because God is generous; He loves us so much He gave His only Son so that we would not have to spend eternity separated from him. And we were created in the image of that generosity. Then, last week, we talked about why we give to the church. We give to the church because we as the church are the body of Christ. Our mission is his mission: to spread new, abundant, eternal life across the world—to multiply followers of Jesus and, in the process, multiply God’s blessings for those in need of comfort, healing, food, shelter, and justice. Read the full text. 

Last Sunday we talked about why giving is a vital component of our spiritual growth. We worship a giving and generous God. In fact, we were created in the image of a giving and generous God. So, when we are generous, we are living into our true identity. And, what’s more, we become a beacon of hope for those around us who are struggling to make sense of life in a culture that’s all about selfishness. Read the full text. 

No one likes stewardship campaigns. I know y’all don’t like them because I’ve been where you’re sitting. Some of y’all may not give at all, or just a little bit, and you resent being made to feel guilty about it. Been there. On the other hand, some of you DO give regularly. You see the value in supporting the mission and ministry of this church. But you might resent the fact that we’re taking 4 weeks away from “real” preaching and teaching to talk about money, or you might just not like the church being all up in your financial business. Again, been there, done that. Read the full text.

When Pastor Tommy asked me to come and preach here this morning, he shared with me that part of the focus for Salado UMC this new year will be around community and the fact that when we participate in intentional and deep community with other followers of Jesus we find a framework that supports us as we grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and then encourages us to go out from our community and invite others to come and see who Jesus is and what he can do in their lives. So, I began to think about and pray over what God might want me to share with you this morning about community. And what kept catching my attention was the phrase everything in common. Read the full text.