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Justice, Kindness, Humility

1/29/2017

Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31;Matthew 5:1-12January 29, 2017

The ideal sermon, they say, has three clearly defined points to it. Now I've never been accused of giving ideal sermons and it seems I seldom get to give a good three point sermon. I've been accused of giving hot air sermons, we can't forget the hand dryer joke...push button to hear sample of Pastor Gordy's sermon. Then there was the time I was preaching over in Harrison. It wasn't going well, I didn't seem to really grab their attention. I asked, “Can you hear me in the back?” “Not really” came the answer. So the people in front got up and moved to the back.

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We Are The Church Together

1/15/2017

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Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
January 15, 2017

The Apostle Paul was a letter writer. He wrote letters to churches and he wrote letters to individuals. Today we look at his letter to the church in Corinth. To understand the letter, we need to understand a bit about the church and why Paul was writing to them. You see, Corinth was a very prosperous, commercial, busy city on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It was also a religiously diverse city. Modern archeologists have found evidence of over 2 dozen different temples. And it was a city with a reputation. It was the original “Sin City”. Here is how Eugene Peterson describes it in his introduction to this letter in The Message: they “had a reputation as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people.” And this was the city in which Paul established a church for this new sect, the Christians. And since the people there had not been exposed to moral living, they had a hard time living the Christian faith, even in the church community. Again from Peterson, “Paul received a report...that in his absence things had more or less fallen apart....Factions had developed, morals were in disrepair, worship had degenerated into a selfish grabbing for the supernatural.” I won't get into all that today, but it is an interesting book to read when you understand the why of Paul's writing. Today we are looking at just the first nine verses with an eye toward our own church. As we ordain and install officers today we are reminded of the connections to this church 2000 years ago.

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Sin is our only Hope

1/8/2017

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Isaiah 42: 1-9; Acts 10: 34-43; Matthew 3: 15-17
January 8, 2017

My first “protestant” pastor was Don Doane, pastor of the Methodist Church in Atwater. Julie and I joined that fellowship in 1980? Matthew and Richard were baptized there. He was our pastor but also our friend, which was a new experience for me. I grew up Catholic and we had a tendency to place our priests on a bit of a pedestal. They seemed to live on a higher plain and the church polity tended to keep the laity and the priests separated. As I got to know Don, I discovered that real people could be pastors! He even swore on occasion! I bring him up because one Sunday during his sermon he got a little brave and tried his version of an altar call. Now it was the only altar call I ever saw him try and perhaps he never tried it again as no one went forward. And I think a big part of it was that we were all caught by surprise. This morning I'm going to do my first version of an altar call and I'm telling you now so perhaps some will work up enough courage to come forward.

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Carry Christmas Into the New Year

1/1/2017

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Carry Christmas into the New Year
Isaiah 63: 7-9; Hebrews 2: 10-18; Matthew 2: 13-23
January 1, 2017

I heard the radio announcer on WCTS say, “now that Christmas is done...” and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Those are such sad words after weeks of anticipation ...Christmas is done. I'm going to challenge us all this morning to carry Christmas--its joy, its peace, its freedom, its promises --with us into the new year.
We've been hearing from the prophet Isaiah for 6 weeks in a row now. I begin with his encouragement in today's reading: “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us,
and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”
When we recount the gracious and praiseworthy acts of the Lord, the favor shown in Christmas, when we remember the abundance of his love in the gift of the baby, we carry with us the promise of Christmas. Not just that Jesus came to earth, but that God has shown his faithfulness through the years, centuries, millenniums.

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Justice, Kindness, Humility

We Are The Church Together

Sin is our only Hope

Carry Christmas Into the New Year

Pastor Gordy

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