sermon

8 powerful images of the incarnation

I hope these images will help you contemplate Christmas, complete a sermon, or come close to the feet of Jesus in worship.

A commando in enemy territory
In my mind’s eye, on Christmas Eve I see a single commando tumbling out of the bomb bay doors of a B-52 at 30,000 feet. He falls silently in the midnight darkness into enemy territory. Satan sleeps, not knowing that he will organize a rebellion. The empire of sin will fall, not from without, but from within. … Like a commando severely hurt as he landed from far above, who has no apparent capacity to mount an effective action, or for that matter any action at all, the powerless infant turns his face to ours and makes what, in that obscure stable, seems like a crazy, impossible demand: “Join me.”- R. R. Reno, Christmas Draws Near

A King entering a city
You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death. – St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Life in a prison cell
Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent: one waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other—things that are really of no consequence—the door is shut, and can only be opened from the outside. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger [I used this image in my 2012 Christmas Eve Sermon on John 1:1-14]

Christ has come uninvited
Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, and yet He must be in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst… It is in these that He hides Himself, for whom there is no room. – Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable

The second Adam
How can the human race be rescued out of rebellion and avoid inevitable condemnation when everyone, without exception, is bound under sin? The only way is to bring another Adam into the world; someone who, like that first Adam, was without sin and who could once again have the choice to obey or disobey, but this time get it right. In other words, there had to be a way to go back and rewrite that first chapter of the human story recorded in Genesis chapter three on the Fall of Man. – Tim Tennent, Thirty Questions: A Short Catechism of the Christian Faith

Moving into the neighborhood
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. – John 14:1, The Message

The climbing down of God
The nativity mystery’ means that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus, his ‘climbing down of God’ is Holy Spirit and Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes from this human being. Born of Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God; he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. Not only similar to us, he is like us. – Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline

A free act enabled by grace
The virginal conception occurred entirely by consent, not coercion. The virgin Mother was receptive to the divine address. As the incarnation of the Son was voluntary, so was the virginal conception. Mary was willing to be the human bodily means by which the Word became flesh, even as the Son assumed flesh voluntarily. As the Savior’s conception was voluntary but without works of merit by grace, so is the believer’s new birth into the Christian life voluntary yet entirely by grace. Mary consented without impairment of the liberty that made her human. “It was only after having instructed her and persuaded her that God took her for His Mother and borrowed from her the flesh that She so greatly wished to lend Him” (Cabasilas, “Homilies Mariales Byzantines,” Patrologia orientalis 19, 3). – Thomas Oden, Classic Christianity

"Nativity" - Gentile da Fabriano — *Nativity* – Gentile da Fabriano

December 22, 2013 by Jonathan 4 Comments

Ash Wednesday Sermon on Psalm 51 – The Truth About Ourselves

One fun thing about being a young preacher is that I have many “first” sermons: a first Christmas Eve sermon, a first sermon without notes, and many first sermons from different books of the bible.

Last week I had the opportunity for two first sermons: my first Ash Wednesday sermon and my first sermon to the congregation where I received my baptism, Conyers First United Methodist Church (UMC). While Jesus said, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown,” they accepted me and the challenging message of Ash Wednesday with open hearts.

My sermon was from one of the day’s lectionary passages, Psalm 51:1-17. I hope that it will both challenge and edify you. Audio/video of the sermon is available here.

Iglesia en Ataco - Concepcion de Ataco, El Salvador — Concepcion de Ataco, El Salvador

The truth about ourselves

Some of you know that I majored in political science in college and worked on a political campaign just before I headed off to seminary. I’ve always enjoyed keeping up with politics. I love campaigns and elections. And while I rarely watch sports on television, I love following the always-changing nature of the political world through the news, debates, and the fast moving world of twitter. But like many of you, there are times when I get disillusioned and discouraged with the current political landscape. And the times I get most down about things are when I hear a non-apology apology from a politician.

Now I wasn’t aware that there was a proper title for these types of apologies until I began working on this sermon. And while you may not have heard of a non-apology apology before, I think you’ll know one when you hear it.

Here’s one that was offered by Congressman Joe Barton after he made a controversial statement about the government’s dealings with BP in the midst of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a while back. Congressman Barton lamented, “If anything I have said this morning has been misconstrued to the opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstrued misconstruction.”

Or there’s this one from the chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, John Sununu, after he was caught violating some White House travel rules. He stated, “Clearly, no one regrets more than I do the appearance of impropriety. Obviously, some mistakes were made.”

But as you probably know, non-apology apologies aren’t just limited to the political realm. When Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunctioned at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show Justin Timberlake’s agent offered this apology, “I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance.”

Scholars have even documented the common features of the non-apology apology and have defined a few characteristics that are common among them. First, they tend to offer a vague and incomplete acknowledgement of the offense. Second, they usually use phrases like, “I’m sorry that you were offended.” Third, they tend to minimize the offense. And finally they tend to question whether a victim has actually been harmed or damaged.

I don’t need to spend all this time explaining this phenomenon, because if you’re like myself, you’ve probably had decent practice forming these types of apologies yourself. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but if I did…” “It’s regrettable that our relationship ended this way…” “I guess I was wrong.”

February 20, 2013 by Jonathan Leave a Comment

First impressions versus final impressions

Preaching your first sermon at a new church is a stressful activity. Especially when you’re an Associate Pastor.

If you make a bad first impression, you won’t have a chance to redeem it for at least another month. On top of that, alot of people may not come to the next service where you’re preaching because they’re thinking, “the Senior Pastor is taking a day off so we might as well too, especially since the Associate is preaching.”

All of the above thoughts ran through my head before I preached for the first time at my new church a few weeks back.

These thoughts continually led me to prayer. I prayed to God for peace and wisdom.

In the midst of these stressful thoughts and humble prayers, I knew that the pressure I was feeling was self-induced. I had to remind myself that the people in the congregation weren’t my peers in preaching class looking for numerous ways to critique my sermon. The people in the congregation were rooting for me to do well. They didn’t count my “umms” like people used to do when I spoke at Toastmasters for Youth. They were listening for God to speak to them through me.

My text for the sermon was Acts 20:17-38, a farewell speech given by Paul to the church leaders at Ephesus.

In this speech, Paul reviews over his time with the Ephesians and emphasizes the final impression he wants to leave upon the leaders.

He offers himself up as a model leader of the church and paints a beautiful picture with his words of what a model leader should say and do: they should serve with humility, be led by the spirit, declare that people must turn to God in repentance and have faith in Jesus, consider their lives worth nothing for the sake of the Gospel, not hesitate to speak truth when its helpful, keep watch over those they’re in leadership over, not covet the riches of others, help the weak, and remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Do those attributes sound familiar?

August 14, 2012 by Jonathan 1 Comment

Where is God in the Hunger Games?

The Hunger Games trilogy is set in the nation of Panem, home to a dystopian society that exists in a post-America and “post-God” world.

Panem largely occupies what was formally North America. Its residents live in “The Capitol” and thirteen other geographically distinct districts. The elite and wealthy of the nation live in the Capitol alongside the leaders of Panem’s dictatorial government. The districts are governed by this regime and face constant oppression as they fulfill what the Capitol sees as their sole purpose for the nation — the production of goods and services for the people of the Capitol. In most of the districts the people are poor, dependent on welfare from the government, and live in fear of what may happen if they step out of line.

The Hunger Games are an annual event that the Capitol established for the purposes of keeping the districts in line and providing the citizens of the Capitol entertainment. The Hunger Games Wiki (yes, the trilogy has its own dedicated wiki community) sums up the games well when it states that the games are an event “in which twenty-four children between the ages of twelve and eighteen, one boy and one girl from each district, are chosen from a lottery and entered into a gladitorial competition where they must fight each other to the death until only one remains standing.”

The games are brutal and savage. They put on display the gross manifestations of the sin and desire for survival that lies deep within the contestants. The games also display ways the oppressive government sins against the contestants and the districts. And if all of this weren’t bad enough, the people in the Capitol love watching every minute of the games, capitalizing on the contestants who become celebrities, and talking about them wherever they go.

This background material helps one understand why the author, Suzanne Collins, named the nation Panem. According to The Hunger Games Wiki, the name “derives from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, which literally translates into ‘bread and circuses’. The phrase itself is ‘used to describe entertainment used to distract public attention from more important matters.'”

The idea of distraction and the nation of Panem fit well together. The Hunger Games distract the people of the Capitol from realizing the ways that they oppress the people of the districts. The Hunger Games distract the people of the districts from realizing that they have great power even in the midst of the oppressive system that they are under. And everyone in the nation is distracted from asking big questions about the government or why their world is organized the way it is.

The questions that the series raises about oppressive governments, love beyond boundaries, the effects of war, self-sacrifice, the brutality that people can inflict upon others, dedication, and hopelessness are all relevant for us today.

Yet, readers may notice that in the midst of these “ultimate questions” there is no form of religion or concept of God among the people of Panem.

This fact is what led the professor of one of my preaching classes, Dr. Joy Moore, to assign our class the first book of the trilogy. Dr. Moore pointed out to us that a “post-God” and “post-Christian” world is one that we as preachers may soon inhabit. As religious concepts and the story of God’s redemption of the world in Jesus Christ fade in importance throughout society, the preacher will have to be ready to tell the story in new ways.

In order to help us begin practicing living and preaching in such a world, Dr. Moore assigned us the task of preaching a sermon to the people who reside in the Capitol city of Panem based on the first book in the trilogy, The Hunger Games. Dr. Moore asked us to look for echoes of the Christian story and glimpses of ways God might be working in the post-America and post-God world of Panem that is narrated in the book. We were then asked to faithfully preach the Christian story, the Gospel, to this “congregation” who has no conception of God.

Below are three sermons from my class. We each took a different creative approach.

I envisioned preaching my sermon, which is audio only, to a group of Capitol citizens I encountered on the Capitol’s busy streets. Here is the audio:

Pete Brazier, a visiting student from the Methodist Church in Britain, produced a short sermon that he envisioned would be given to small groups of Capitol citizens and perhaps also be broadcasted over the airwaves.

Andrew Ruth’s sermon assumed that any challenge to the Capitol’s reign would warrant immediate death. He produced a 5 minute video to quickly convey his message.

Andrew aptly introduced his video by stating:

I don’t think that my single sermon can include neither all the nuances of Christian faith nor the particularities of every Bible story. These will require conversations and community to gain intelligibility (cf. Kallenberg).

Thus, I am pretending that there exists an underground Christian community. I assume that I am a product of this community, and their faithful, though clandestine witness to the Triune God. This underground movement retains copies of the Bible in languages they comprehend. As I imagine myself in this community, I assume that at one point I was a full participant in the culture and life of the Capital City. I altered my appearance and filled my existence with entertainment. The physical alterations I made to my body via cosmetic tattoos still remain, while I have slowly relinquished other practices I once held.

We as a community have decided after much prayer and fasting that the Lord is calling us to announce our existence, even if it means inviting persecution. To do so, I will hack into the national television feed during the middle of the Hunger Games, and as quickly as possible share the content of the Christian faith. We pray that the Holy Spirit falls, like at Pentecost, and that through this sermon and the subsequent conversations instigated by the Underground. Pray with us.

This assignment stretched our thinking about how we are to proclaim Christ in a modern world that is quickly changing. And it led most of us to delay our other assigned readings so that we could finish the trilogy.

Best of all, it pushed us to see anew that God’s redeeming activity pops up in our everyday lives. We asked: Can we recognize it? Can we communicate it?

Can you?

Have you read The Hunger Games? If so, what were your thoughts on the book and how it could connect to Christianity?

February 29, 2012 by Jonathan 3 Comments

Are you running to win?

Below is the sermon I preached last week in Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School on 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. It was a privilege to share the Word of God with students and professors who have journeyed with me over the past three years in school.

“Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.”

While this theme wasn’t fully explored in the sermon, never forget that God invites us to start the race, the Holy Spirit is our strength throughout the race, and a life fully conformed to the image of Christ is the finish line of the race.

February 23, 2012 by Jonathan 2 Comments