“The Meaning of the Verb ‘Love’”
Note this: the love Paul commends in this chapter to the members of Heart of Corinth Christian Church is something you do, not something you feel. If I understand love as a feeling, then how I treat others will change according to how I feel about them on any given day. If, however, I understand love as Thomas Aquinas defined it as “willing the good of another,” then no matter how I feel about someone, I will strive, God help me, to love them – intend the best for them – no matter what. Biblically speaking, we choose to love ... or not.
View the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 34:10.
“Jesus in Twenty Minutes”
Say what? You’re going to say everything there is to be said about Jesus in twenty minutes? I don’t think so.
So, I’ll tell you what I did. I called for help. I have a few friends older and wiser than I who have done this kind of thing already. Each of them has tried (and succeeded!) in depicting the significance of Jesus in an economy of words. So, I called each of them, told them my dilemma (Something about Jesus in twenty minutes, please), and asked them for their advice.
Watch the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 27:27.
“Faith and Science”
Faith and science are not mutually exclusive. Adversaries. Irreconcilable worldviews. To the contrary, I’m with Galileo who said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” He believed that understanding the world through science is a way to understand the mind of its Creator (an act of faith).
View the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 30:10.
“Inaugural Address”
What does it say about Jesus that of all the Bible verses he could have read for his first sermon, he read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (61:1, 2). I’m curious: If you had your chance to preach just one sermon, what would you preach about? What scripture would you base your remarks on?
Watch the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 35:42
“The Longest Journey”
Herod is stripped of his title— dethroned by a baby boy! Which ought to assure us that no matter what scars the headlines in 2025, we can hold fast to the belief that in God’s time all of history’s Herods will be dethroned, defanged, defeated. Which is precisely the bold claim made in the hymn “This is My Father’s World.” that goes, “O, let me ne’er forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
View the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 28:30
“Losing Jesus”
I want to suggest that for some of us to grow deeper in our faith we may need to “lose Jesus” for a while. Say what, preacher? Lose Jesus! Hold your horses. Hear me out.
View the video of this sermon Sermon begins at 28:50.
"Elizabeth’s House Christian Church"
Thank goodness for the Elizabeths of this world.If Mary’s reason for making haste to leave Nazareth was the judgment that surrounded her there, her reason for making haste to Elizabeth’s house was her belief that welcome, protection, and mercy awaited her there. Her world turned upside down, Mary made haste to the one place she knew she would be safe: Elizabeth’s House. Hear me when I say I hope every church, including Heart of the Rockies, would be an "Elizabeth's House Christian Church" – a place of welcome in a world too quick to shame and judge, a place where runaways from whatever circumstances know they’ll find refuge with grace-filled cousin Elizabeths.
“Season’s Greetings”
Have you ever noticed how the angels in the Christmas story scare the living daylights out of the people they greet? The angel says to Mary, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28) and the Favored One nearly faints… I've come to the conclusion that Mary and company's anxiety is perfectly understandable. After all, it's the case throughout the Bible that whenever God draws near to greet someone it's never just to chit-chat. It's usually to make a request of that person-- and a humdinger at that!
View the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 37:45
“Life in the Key of G –Gratitude”
When I was little, I thought Thanksgiving was for what I had. But now I understand Thanksgiving is for Who has us…
View a video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 37:21
“God’s Trustees”
As I was thinking about a person’s legacy, I got to wondering about churches. Do churches create a legacy? How would a church hope to be remembered? I remember several years ago a book that asked: If your church disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community grieve?
Sermon begins at 34:46
“A-w-e-s-o-m-e Generosity”
our Scripture this morning witnesses to what only can be called awe-inspiring giving. Paul wrote of the stewardship campaign at Heart of Macedonia Christian Church, “They begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing” (2 Cor. 8:4) Now, as someone who has undertaken his share of stewardship campaigns over 42 years of ministry, that beats anything I’ve ever heard of. People begging to make a pledge? Pu-leeeze! Richard Austin. You’re our Financial Secretary. Treasurer Gordon Thayer. Have your cell phones been blowing up in recent weeks due to people begging you for an Estimate of Giving card? I don’t think so.
Watch the video of this sermon. Sermon begins at 27:30
“Vital Signs”
You’d expect vitality from a church that has Heart in the middle of its name. So how do you measure a heart’s vitality? We speak of vital signs – Body temperature. Pulse rate. Respiration rate. Blood pressure. But how do you measure a church’s vitality? Can’t stick a thermometer into Heart of the Rockies. Can’t put a blood pressure cuff around your upper arm and two fingers on your wrist to check your heart. How do you measure a congregation’s vitality? One way is to measure worship attendance, budget, baptisms, new members. But I think those numbers are but fruits of much deeper sources of vitality. If the deeper vital signs are there, all the numbers will take care of themselves.
So, what are those vital signs?
"The Deepest Hunger of the Heart"
Isn’t it true that from birth through our teen years and on into adulthood the deepest hunger of our hearts is to know that we’re beloved, that the favor of someone else rests upon us? Human beings are born hungering for love.
“The Gospel in Miniature”
People bear witness to their faith in many ways, some of them unusual. Take the guy who used to show up at every major sporting event with rainbow-colored hair and a made-for-TV-sized placard that read JOHN 3:16. I used to wonder how he got the tickets he did because he always seemed to be close to the field. At football games, he sat in the end zone behind the goal posts so that when the cameras covered the extra point attempt, his placard would appear in the lower right-hand corner of the screen like a footnote to the score: Chiefs 17 Broncos 14 John 3:16.
“Traveling Music”
From the time God's people left bondage in Egypt through the 40 years of their wilderness wandering and into the Promised Land, music accompanied their every step. Call it ‘traveling music.’ That’s what music does: it goes before us throughout our life’s journey – accompanies us through life’s high points as well as low points to the point that it can be said that music takes us places. Isn't that what our love for the old favorite hymns is all about? No matter what's going on in our lives, if we can just bring to mind a few bars of favorite music, we'll be all right. Just hearing a few notes takes us places.
“Power with a Purpose”
Pastor Jesus promises his congregation he’ll leave them some dynamite: the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now, there are a lot of people who'd get a good laugh out of that – saying churches are powered by dynamite. I can hear some smart aleck say, Pardon me, Preacher, but if you asked me to come up with one word to describe my experience of church, dynamite wouldn’t make the top ten. Words that mean the opposite of dynamite would be there instead. Words that connote more fizzle than sizzle. Know what I mean?
“Where Treasure, There Heart”
We might wish Jesus would stay out of our pocketbooks and stick to heaven, but Jesus often mentions pocketbook and heaven in the same breath as if there’s a relationship between the two. This morning's scripture is a case in point. Says Jesus, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
“The Macedonian Miracle”
I submit to you that the miracle among miracles is what Paul witnessed at the church in Macedonia where he says (and I quote), “They begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing” (2 Cor. 8:4) … in a Stewardship Campaign. You heard me right: a congregation that begged to contribute to a Stewardship Campaign. As someone who has undertaken his share of stewardship campaigns over 42 years of ministry, that beats anything I’ve ever heard of. People begging to make a pledge? Pu-leeeze!
“The Easter Posture”
There’s such a thing as an Easter posture. It’s exhibited this morning by the women running from the tomb exuberant, falling all over themselves to tell others what they’ve seen and heard. By contrast, there were two other postures exhibited that first Easter morning that are un-Easterlike…but not unusual. The postures I speak of represent two unhealthy orientations toward life. Let me describe them for you and tell you how Easter delivers us from them so we can rise up and live our lives out of an Easter posture.
“On a Borrowed Donkey”
Jesus borrowed everything, I tell you. And here's the bottom line: He'd like to borrow you. He'd like to borrow your life for the rest of your life. If I might borrow the words Jesus used on that first Palm Sunday: "If anyone asks you 'Why?', tell them the Lord has need of it." The Lord has need of your life.