Fourth Sunday of Easter - A
Wayne Brouwer
"A grave is a sobering thing," said Wordsworth. We try to mark each with snippets of meaning that will defuse the scandalous superficiality of life that Emily bemoaned in Thornton Wilder's Our Town. "If I was so quickly done for," asks the wee voice etched on a child's grave memorial, "what on earth was I begun for?"
Schuyler Rhodes
Remember the movie, Field of Dreams? Kevin Costner plays the lead role of an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella who is haunted by a voice that says to him, "Build it and they will come." After several sleepless nights Ray (Kevin) finally figures out what "it" is --"it" is a baseball diamond. Ray, much to the consternation of his wife, begins plowing down his cornfield and spends what little money the family has to build a lighted ball field -- in the middle of Iowa!
Once built, players from the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox baseball team begin to show up. The team had thrown a World Series game that year and were banished for life from baseball. Ray's field was their chance at redemption and Ray's chance to confront the demons of a bad relationship with his father. The...
Once built, players from the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox baseball team begin to show up. The team had thrown a World Series game that year and were banished for life from baseball. Ray's field was their chance at redemption and Ray's chance to confront the demons of a bad relationship with his father. The...
R. Craig Maccreary
People have all sorts of travel styles. I am constantly amazed at those who can just pick
up and go on their journeys with minimal amounts of preparation and packing. For me,
even the simplest of journeys requires hours of preparation. When recent security
concerns required the average traveler to show up at the airport hours before their
planned flight I remained largely unaffected. I had been doing that for years. You never
know when a mix up might land you at the wrong place or the wrong time. It is best to
allow time just in case. Requiring a passport for all air travel was no big deal for
me. I have had one for years in which I slip the phone number of the American Counsel
at my destination. You just never know. Currency exchange required: done before I leave
the...
Remember the movie, Field of Dreams, from a few years back? Kevin Kostner plays the lead role of an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella who is haunted by a voice that says to him, "Build it and they will come." After several sleepless nights Ray (Kevin) finally figures out what "it" is --"it" is a baseball diamond. Ray, much to the consternation of his wife, begins plowing down his cornfield and spends what little money the family has to build a lighted ball field -- in the middle of Iowa!
Once built, players from the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox baseball team begin to show up. This team had thrown a World Series game of that year and were banished for life from baseball. Ray's field was their chance at redemption and Ray's chance to confront the demons of a bad relationship with...
Once built, players from the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox baseball team begin to show up. This team had thrown a World Series game of that year and were banished for life from baseball. Ray's field was their chance at redemption and Ray's chance to confront the demons of a bad relationship with...
We do not give much thought to shepherds and sheep these days. Many preachers dread the lessons for this Sunday because they cannot -- rightly -- bring themselves to continue the analogy of the Scriptures that the people are sheep. To so portray human beings as animals -- not even animals in the first cars on the brain train -- is an insult to us modern folks who pride ourselves in making our own decisions and exercising our freedom. Besides, how many of our listeners have ever seen a sheep except on a mural above the altar in Jesus' arms or in the movie Babe?
Two of the lessons for today -- the second and the Gospel in addition to the Psalm -- take us smack into the ancient world of sheep and shepherds. As they do, they focus not so much on the sheep as on the Shepherd...
Two of the lessons for today -- the second and the Gospel in addition to the Psalm -- take us smack into the ancient world of sheep and shepherds. As they do, they focus not so much on the sheep as on the Shepherd...
Three weeks after Easter, the "Fourth Sunday of Easter," ought to be a time in which the glow of Easter morning, the odors of the garden, the bread of the upper room, the ecstasy of being around in the face of divine disclosure ought to have kept its sway.
Not so: almost immediately, for all the living hope and holy awe, for all the mutual support and gladness of heart, the disciples get reintroduced to the real world. Often this takes the shape of being alert to outsiders who would deceive them, would tear apart their communities. At other times it seems as if civil authorities are persecuting them. Certainly they are religious deluders and challengers.
What this all amounts to: Easter and the preaching of the resurrection is not a one-shot venture. The...
Wayne Brouwer
There are two themes that run through the passages for today. On the one hand there is the "Call of the Wild" (like Jack London's 1903 novel), in which we are commanded to follow our Shepherd Jesus through what might be trackless wastes and difficult places in responding to the great challenge of faith. On the other hand, there is the "Call of the Safe" (like Larry Crabb's great book on small groups, The Safest Place on Earth [Word, 1999]), which places us in the middle of a community of care and grace.
George MacDonald helps us understand both of these homing calls in his children's tale, "Papa's Story." Papa tells of a shepherd who brings his flock home late on a stormy evening. One lamb is missing, however. So, after supper, the shepherd calls for Jumper the dog,...
George MacDonald helps us understand both of these homing calls in his children's tale, "Papa's Story." Papa tells of a shepherd who brings his flock home late on a stormy evening. One lamb is missing, however. So, after supper, the shepherd calls for Jumper the dog,...
Wayne Brouwer
Thomas Long told about the examination of ministerial candidates in a North Carolina presbytery. One elderly minister always kept quiet through the bulk of the ordeals, according to Long, and then invariably asked the same final set of questions just at the close of each examination.
“Look out that window,” he would order the candidates. “Tell me when you see someone walking out there.” So they did. When someone walked by he would say, “Now, describe that person to me theologically.”
Each person’s answer would be a bit different from the others, of course. Yet they consistently could be reduced to just two basic ideas. One group of ministers-to-be would say something like “Well, there goes a sinner who is on his way to hell unless he repents!”
...
“Look out that window,” he would order the candidates. “Tell me when you see someone walking out there.” So they did. When someone walked by he would say, “Now, describe that person to me theologically.”
Each person’s answer would be a bit different from the others, of course. Yet they consistently could be reduced to just two basic ideas. One group of ministers-to-be would say something like “Well, there goes a sinner who is on his way to hell unless he repents!”
...
Mark Ellingsen
God takes charge! This is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” It is a Sunday for celebrating the various ways in which God has been in charge.
Acts 2:42-47
The First Lesson is a report of the concluding events of the day of Pentecost, part of the second half of a two-part history of the church (the first half being the Gospel of Luke) traditionally attributed to Luke, a physician and Gentile associate of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24). The author’s concern is to stress the universal mission of the church (1:8) and so to validate the ministry of Paul. There is also a concern in both Acts and Luke to stress the work of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:42-47
The First Lesson is a report of the concluding events of the day of Pentecost, part of the second half of a two-part history of the church (the first half being the Gospel of Luke) traditionally attributed to Luke, a physician and Gentile associate of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24). The author’s concern is to stress the universal mission of the church (1:8) and so to validate the ministry of Paul. There is also a concern in both Acts and Luke to stress the work of the Holy Spirit.
Wayne Brouwer
You remember the story... Abraham was a great old man, probably 125 or so! God had come to him in the past in strange and wonderful ways. When he wore a younger man’s clothes, the VOICE had called him on a journey with no fixed destination. But the beckoning was always one of blessing: “I’ll give you land beyond measure! I’ll make sure you have a child, old as you are! Your descendants will populate these hills and valleys like rain!”
Well, the land sort of took him in. Moreover, after some fits and starts, he and Sarai did get a child. And even though his pension plan was still not entirely clear, life in these later years was peaceful and prosperous. After all, there was Isaac. His boy’s name meant “laughter!” and that’s certainly what he brought Abraham these days. Life had...
Well, the land sort of took him in. Moreover, after some fits and starts, he and Sarai did get a child. And even though his pension plan was still not entirely clear, life in these later years was peaceful and prosperous. After all, there was Isaac. His boy’s name meant “laughter!” and that’s certainly what he brought Abraham these days. Life had...
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