Monday, July 30, 2012

Sermon: Pentecost 9B

Talk about an overly inflated sense of entitlement. It seems that David believed everything belonged to him, even the women.

We don’t think of David as a peeping tom, but that’s what we have here. Why David was spying on Bathsheba when she was having a bath raises more uncomfortable questions about David’s character than perhaps we want to ask.

After all, his story started so well! David is the shepherd boy who slew the giant Goliath with a sling-shot. He’s the unlikely child elevated to king over all of God’s people. He was the golden boy chosen to lead God’s people into a glorious era of prosperity and peace. God had great plans for David.

But here we have a David who behaves like a spoiled frat boy rather than the wise king that we expect from him.

And this was no mere youthful indiscretion or a case of “boys will be boys.”

What David did was an act of (whole thing here)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sermon: Pentecost 6B

 A prophet is not without honour except in that prophet’s hometown, and among the prophet’s own kin and in their own house...” Jesus tell us.

Wow. I’m glad I’m not a prophet. Or else it might be a tad awkward for us if Jesus is right about what hometown friends do to prophets.

I’ve been back where I grew up here in St. Catharines for the better part of a month, and I can’t say I’ve experienced the angry stares and angrier words that Jesus endured when he stepped foot back in his hometown in Galilee.

As most of you know, in the bible, a “prophet” isn’t just someone who can predict the future, although that could be part of the prophet’s job. A prophet is someone who speaks for God.

A prophet is someone with a special authority to speak God’s renewing Word to a specific people in a specific time and specific place.

A prophet is a poet, spinning visions of a new world.

A prophet sings songs of changed lives, of people turning from a life of woundedness to a life of healing.

A prophet tells stories of sin condemned and forgiveness received. A prophet exposes injustice and speaks out on behalf of the oppressed.

A prophet sees a world of possibility - God’s possibility - where others merely see suffering and pain.

I think the frosty reception at home must have stuck like a stone in Jesus’ sandal because he gives his followers...(whole thing here)