The Sunday after Easter (technically called the Second Sunday of Easter) is usually a bit of a let-down. We showed off all the lilies and heard the wonderful anthems that our choir sang, and heard words about the Resurrection of Jesus. But that was last Sunday. How do we go back to more ordinary things today? Well, the fact is, we really don’t, or aren’t intended to, at least The Easter Season runs fifty days, from Easter Sunday through Pentecost (pentekosta is the Greek word for “fifty”). During this period the Revised Common Lectionary gives us a reading each week… Continue reading →

Today we have used an age-old Easter greeting and response: “Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen, Indeed!” And, though it is true, we also proclaim that this resurrection was not Jesus’ own act, as if he rose up all by himself. Jesus’ resurrection is primarily God’s act; an act that vindicated Jesus’ life and death. In the Gospel Lesson this morning the young man who spoke to the women at the tomb did not say that “Jesus rose from the dead.” He said, “He has been raised.” He means “raised by God, as Peter made abundantly clear in his sermon… Continue reading →

For those of us who have put in some years inside most any church, today’s Gospel story is familiar. It occurs in all four Gospels, and we read one version of it every year on this day. We recognize it readily: the procession, the palms, the “hosanna’s” are things that I have either heard preached or preached myself for most of my life. Baptists tend to be better at Palm Sunday and Easter than we are at Lent or Good Friday. I’ve engaged in ecumenical dialogues on this where it’s been suggested that Baptists don’t have an adequate theology of… Continue reading →

As I looked back three years to see what was happening the last time these readings from the Lectionary came up, I discovered that Maxine and I had just been through the death and funeral of Maxine’s sister Betty’s husband Dennis. Most everyone here knows that Maxine’s sister Mary died and was buried just over a week ago. In addition last Sunday night Maxine and I attended the closing of my home church in Eau Claire – the place I came to faith, the place I was baptized, the place I will always picture in my mind and heart when… Continue reading →

I want to begin today by explaining the sermon title, which is a line from the 19th Psalm with which we began today’s worship. The Psalm sings about God’s communication with humankind. In the last part of the Psalm, God speaks through the Torah, which is not just a written word, but the teaching that accompanies it from God through faithful people. I hope we participate in being a channel of God’s speech each Sunday. At the beginning of the Psalm, however, God communicates by the wonder of the creation, which shares its wonder and intricacy without words. There are… Continue reading →

There’s a wonderful sentence that begins Hebrews chapter 11: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is the witness of both the Hebrew and Christian faiths that the unseen world – God and all that God implies in the life of this seen world – is completely and wholly a reality, though unseen. Our faith is the inner and outer assurance and conviction that this is so, even though others may doubt it (and so may we from time to time). In order to think or talk about our faith we… Continue reading →

This past Wednesday, in addition to being Valentine’s Day, was Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. I remind you, almost annually, that Lent is the time we prepare for Easter by reflecting on how we’re doing spiritually. It is more than that, however, since it centres on the Gospel stories of the journey Jesus took to Easter. It’s important to remember that one of the greatest practical and, if you will, marketing difficulties for the earliest Christians had to do with the fact that the founder of their movement had been rejected by the powerful among his people,… Continue reading →

The bulletin cover reminds us that the last Sunday of Epiphany points us toward Lent. It is traditionally called Transfiguration Sunday, and the Lectionary Gospel deals with that story that reveals, briefly, Jesus’ glory. This Last Sunday of Epiphany also affords us another opportunity to look at how the baby of Bethlehem we so recently welcomed is a revelation (an epiphany) of God’s nature to us in his teachings. It is important to understand that these teachings are not only so we know information about Jesus and his life, but also how discipleship to Jesus is shaped, not only in… Continue reading →

All week long I have been thinking about our annual meeting and the conversations we had. I appreciated the spirit and tone of it all. Since, we’ve been together a long time now as pastor and people, it’s good to reflect on things that have been accomplished over the past decade and a half. It has been a work of love on the part of both Maxine and myself to offer leadership to what is very much a church of leaders with good ideas and stamina. Over the years we’ve been as creative as any ABC church in Wisconsin (and,… Continue reading →

Tomorrow would be my father’s 107th birthday. As most of you know, he was an American Baptist minister. He preached every Sunday (sometimes twice) for about 45 years. He then had about a dozen interim pastorates where he preached less often, but most weeks of the year. When I became a minister and teacher, my father and I developed a wonderfully supportive colleagial and pastoral relationship. We differed on many things, but both of us were OK to leave those things alone. I can remember asking him what to do, and I don’t think he ever gave me advice directly.… Continue reading →