The Church

I'm afraid my age is showing. When I used the picture of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo as an illustration I got blank stares from the teenagers down front. When I asked them if they knew who Mr. Magoo was they shrugged their shoulders. Another cultural icon gone forever. When I asked a couple of college students after the sermon about my statement, "I'm afraid at times the church is having an affair with Madison Avenue" they told me they didn't know what Madison Avenue was. Wikipedia reports, "The term 'Madison Avenue' is often used metonymously for advertising, and Madison Avenue became identified with the advertising industry after the explosive growth in this area in the 1920s." Alas, a cartoon character from the 60's and a metonymy made popular in the 20's perhaps don't communicate to the younger generation in this new millennium. Hopefully, the scriptures (written in the 50's - that's not the 1950's but the real 50's!) were more relevant and timely than the illustrations.

On another note several asked about my son Jeremy and his move to Dallas. He and Adrienne left Saturday and he will begin classes at Baylor Dental School this fall.

The Spirit

For years I've been convinced that the best preaching is expository where the preacher's objective is to preach directly from a specific text of Scripture. The task for the preacher is to first attempt to understand what the scripture meant to the original readers and then, using that information, determine what the message is for today. The final step is to decide how to best communicate that message in the sermon. It certainly is not the easiest way to preach, but I feel the process builds in a certain amount of controls so that what is preached is in fact "the word of God" and not simply some good ideas with a few passages of scripture tacked on.

My goal with each sermon is not so much to give neat and tidy answers to the difficult questions of life, as it is to cause people to think. After wrestling with a text all week it is almost a relief to hand it off to others to roll it around in their minds for awhile. One of the greatest compliments I hear in preaching is for someone to say, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about the passage you preached last Sunday."

The sermon this morning, with it's contrast between thinking as a natural individual and thinking as a spiritual individual in the natural world, is just such a sermon. My hope is that by wrestling with this concept God's spirit will help each of us see practical ways he desires us to live in the natural world as a person full of his Spirit.

The Message

A few years back I read The Unnecessary Pastor by Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn. A thought provoking read to say the least. Can any of us honestly claim to be "necessary"? How easy it is to think of ourselves as more important than we really are. The marvel and beauty of recognizing that we are "unnecessary" is when we realize that God desires to use us anyway. There is only one Savior and all the rest of us are simply servants doing our assigned duties. Spiritual elitism can occur when we elevate certain preachers, teachers, methods, seminars, authors, counselors, etc.... to the position of Savior. In essence we elevate ourselves because of our association with the one we have elevated.

From here it is a very small step to the development of a faction. The end result is envy, fighting, jealously, quarreling, bitterness, and so forth. The bread and cup call us to remember the message. Messengers are "unnecessary". They certainly have a job to do and they should do the best they can with the message they have to deliver! However, today's messengers will not even be known in a few decades. God will raise up new messengers.

The bread and the cup direct us to give all our allegiance to Christ. He is the message. In him we will find unity with one another.

The Call

We looked a long time last week to find a picture to use for the sermon series, "Supper Time", which began today. I wanted a picture of the bread and cup but had a terrible time finding a picture that looked like something you could possible have for supper! To have the heading "Supper Time" over a picture of a pinch of cracker and a thimble full of wine just didn't look right. I finally found this one which we used in the presentation today. It's a thought provoking picture don't you think? What thoughts come to your mind as you examine it?

I've never considered that the answer to the problems of unity and holiness would be found in the Lord's Supper until this past week. I'm excited to dig deeper in to 1 Corinthians to uncover the power of this simple observance that Christ told us to do "in remembrance of me."

Small but Powerful!

I knew there would be photo requests after this morning's sermon, so here are Willie and Bear, our 6 month old puppies who supplied one of the sermon illustrations. I'm sure there will be more to come!

Jeremy Pierce told me he was disappointed that I did not include the description of Willie that was first uttered by my wonderful daughter-in-law. Since Willie is constantly licking people she said, "Willie can't handle his 'licker'". Sorry Jeremy for the oversight. You would think in a sermon on the tongue that I could have found some use for that expression.

Thinking about how destructive our words can be is a sobering thought. My hope is that we can encourage one another to use language that builds the kingdom of God instead of setting loose the fire of hell.

On another note, Dan Miller's illustration of the candy bar was perfect! For those who missed it here is the brief recap of Dan's words before we took up our contribution. Dan gives his child a candy bar and asks if he can have some of it back. The child grudgingly pulls the smallest piece from the corner and gives it to him. May we all grow in our love for God and may it find expression in our financial generosity.