Brian's Sermons

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 What do you think of when you hear the word "meek?" One picture generally comes to my mind and that is a mouse or a mousy person. Meek doesn’t seem like a positive word – people generally don’t want to be described as meek. It carries the connotation of being weak or being a push-over. You can probably think of someone who you might describe as “meek” – and it’s probably not a good thing. Meekness seems to present a contrast with strength. The Greek word that has been translated "meek" or "humble" or "gentle" is πραος pra-os . Praos can also be used three interesting ways: it describes a soothing medicine; it is used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze; and is used by farmers to describe a broken colt. If you think about it this way, medicine can be soothing, but too large of a dose can be devastating. Sailors love a gentle breeze, but a gentle breeze can turn into a...

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 “You know what I love about funerals? It’s great having all those sad, grieving people all in one room. I love all the tears. I love the misery. Most of all, I love the clichés and the platitudes…” said no one ever. One of the universal experiences of life is the experience of sorrow; ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and death entered the world, we all experience grief. There are times when grief is so strong that you feel like you can touch it. When you’re grieving, nothing else makes sense. The strangest experience is leaving a graveside to see people going about their everyday business. Going to lunch. Taking walks. Going to work. Meanwhile your soul is screaming. Everything around you is darkness. Jesus speaks into the darkness with the second Beatitude: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 There is an old saying: Time heals all wounds...

It’s not my fault. Someone else is to blame. I would never have done that. I’m the victim here. These are not new claims; in fact, they are the oldest excuses in the book – the Bible, that is. They go all the way back to Genesis, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the snake… It seems like the same thing gets repeated again and again and again and as we repeat it, we get better at it. We even start to believe it ourselves! The more we tell a story, the truer we think it is. And one story we tell a lot is “it isn’t my fault.” If you don’t know the back story behind Psalm 51, in 2 Samuel 11, King David was at the height of his power, but in the Spring, when kings go to war, David was lollygagging around the palace, spying on a neighbor woman bathing. He acted upon his urges, got her pregnant, tried to cover it up by bringing her husband home from war, but when he wouldn’t sleep with her, David had the husband killed in the war. He felt pretty ...

Luke 2:1-20 The Christmas story is a familiar one – so familiar that we can lose sight of how radical it is. Looking at the historical big picture should show us that Rome is in control. This is when the Roman Empire was on the rise, annexing or conquering everyone around. Augustus Caesar is the emperor of the most mighty nation/empire known to man. What Caesar says, goes. So Caesar decides to flex his muscles and count his subjects. Just an aside, it is never a good idea to count how awesome you are, whether it is counting your subjects, as Caesar is doing, or counting your fighting men, as King David did in 2 Samuel 24. Why is this a problem? Listen to Psalm 20:7. Some trust in chariots some in and horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. There is a reason why God chose this exact time for the birth of the Messiah – it was when Caesar was counting how powerful he had become. Before you nod your head in agreement, remember this when you start counting your money...

When I was in seminary, our neighborhood was a regular target for Mormon missionaries. We lived across the street from a Mormon family, so whenever we would have block parties, they would invite the Mormon Elders over. One thing I realized in talking to these young men was that we could talk for hours without really understanding what the other one was saying. The problem was that we talked right past one another. We used the same words, but they had different meanings. There are words we sometimes find in church that are unclear or just don’t carry the same meanings in our culture as they did when they were written. For example, I remember being rather confused that my church would sing “How Great Thou Aren’t ” and that we would pray, “Our Father, who aren’t in heaven…” Or how about the familiar words of the 23 rd Psalm which declare that “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” There are other words we tend to overuse to the extent that the word loses its meaning. This...

When I was a little boy growing up in church, we learned the steps to becoming a Christian. We learned that we first had to realize that we were sinners, confess our sin, repent of our sin, get baptized, and live-the-Christian-life. The last step was always said as almost an afterthought; the focus was to get us in the door. I left children’s church thinking that it would be easy to live the Christian life. If you’ve been here for long, especially if you attend our 11 service, you have doubtlessly heard Jesus’ words repeated: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ” (Matthew 11:28). These are words from Jesus himself, and they are true, and they go hand in hand with my early understanding that it was easy for adults to live the Christian life. Some of you are new along this journey and you might still be under the illusion that it’s easy for the rest of us. After all, you might only know us all from Sunday mornings, when we all look our best and wh...