A family Feud: Gen. 22:1-14
June 29, 2008
A. The text for today’s message is not the sort of text Joel O’Steen would select—indeed most ministers I think want to avoid it; I know that I have struggled with this story throughout my ministry.
1. The story is about Abraham’s “dark night of the soul.” He believed that the God who had spoken to him promising him a son in his old age was now asking him to sacrifice that son. What a horrible, unthinkable act! Surely God would not ask that of him!
2. There were some in those days who did practice human sacrifice, but certainly Abraham was not one of them! In fact, some have conjectured that that may have been why he left Ur in the first place.
3. This story plays against our logic, our emotions, and our sense of what is right and wrong. In fact, Soren Kierkegaard asked if this story was a “teleological suspension of the ethical.”
4. Does God sometimes call people to do things they know are wrong and that they choose not to do?
5. That certainly seems to be the case here doesn’t it? And one has only to recall Deitrich Bonhoeffer.
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A Family Feud: Gen. 21:8-21
June 22, 2008
A. I struggled with the name of this sermon, and the idea that no house is big enough for two women was my first thought, but then it occurred to me that they were living in tents, not houses, so the title became “A Family Feud.”
- One of the remarkable aspects of the Hebrew scriptures is the unvarnished presentation of family relationships.
- These documents tell the truth about how some families worked in an unblinking and even painful fashion. For me that is an evidence to the authentic and inspired nature of these writings.
- Many families have their “secrets.” The unpleasant, the inappropriate, and perhaps even embarrassing stories in the family. The family learns that “we just don’t talk about it.”
- But the Hebrew texts present the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar in a very candid and unflattering way. The scriptures present to us “a family feud” within the founding family of the Judeo-Christian faiths.
Sermon: April 8, 2007
April 8, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION:(9 a.m. – Frank Bender) Sometimes in our daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We fail to say hello many times, please, thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment or just do something nice for no reason. I want to share with you a story about Charles Plumb, who I had the opportunity to meet in the mid-1980s.
Sermon: April 1, 2007
April 1, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION: (11 a.m. – Dr. F. Wayne Bryant) Someone a long time ago wrote, “Lord, when we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ and then fold our hands without a care for souls Thou hast died to save, we do but mock Thee with our prayer.” The offering is a time to show, in a very tangible way, our concern for those who benefit from the gifts that we bring of our tithes and offerings.
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Sermon: March 25, 2007
March 25, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION:(9 a.m. & 11 a.m. – Sean Harry) If you’re a visitor this morning, you’re probably aware that there is an undercurrent of some things that are going on here in the congregation that we’re sort of not talking about because we’re trying to muddle through service because our time here in worship this morning is to be focused on God and not our own problems, our anger, our frustration, our sorrows, but rather on God. I was a pastor for 20 years, and one of the things that I learned is that in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of deep depression, one of the best things that people can do is to do something that is familiar. So I visited John the Tuesday after his wife had died and he was out mowing the lawn. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m mowing the lawn because it’s Tuesday.” “But, John, your wife died yesterday.” He said, “I know. I need to do something familiar.” So it’s important for us also as we sort of muddle through worship today not speaking about those things that cause us great pain. It’s important for us to do something familiar. So I would ask you all to reach into your purse or into your back pocket, go ahead, do it, right now; find the largest denomination of bill you have there, and we’re going to do something familiar today. As difficult as it may be for us, we’re going to receive an offering, and as you give your offering this morning, I ask that you do so trying to worship God in whatever space you are in. Will the deacons please receive this morning’s offering.
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Sermon: March 18, 2007
March 18, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION:(9 a.m. – Dr. F. Wayne Bryant) Last Sunday, I forgot my offering envelope. And you have to understand that for me, the act of giving is almost equal to communion when I worship. I don’t pay my church pledge by credit card, I don’t mail it in once a month, we place it in the offering tray on Sunday morning, and I had forgotten my checkbook, or I misplaced it. I even apologized to the deacon as she came by me with the tray. I said, “I don’t have my checkbook.” She looked at me rather strangely, but that’s the way it was. Well, I found my checkbook…last Sunday’s, too. As the deacons wait upon us, may we share in an act of worship as we give our tithes and offerings.
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Sermon: March 11, 2007
March 11, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION:(9 a.m. & 11 a.m. – Trudy Bradley) When I was thinking about sharing an offering thought with you today, I was thinking about what our monthly giving is, which is for the church Helping Hand. Of course, when I think of church, I think of family. I was a little girl in this congregation when my grandparents and parents and all came to church. I just got done writing a little thought about my grandfather, Grandpa Scott, which some of you will remember, George, and how he and I had a special deal. I had an ice-cream cough with him. I’m sure at some point in my life I was being baby-sat and had a sore throat and it came up in the conversation that ice cream is good for sore throats, so Grandpa took me down to the local ice cream store and we had some ice cream. Well, it got to be a common thing for me to go over there and when I wanted ice cream, I had a cough, and Grandpa would always say, “Oh, do you need some ice cream?” I’d cough some more and say yes. Well, I kind of think about Helping Hand and First Christian Church as somewhat like that ice-cream cough. Sometimes we need just a little extra as individuals and this is our family and that’s what the Helping Hand money is used for, our family. So, if you have an ice-cream cough and don’t have a Grandpa Scott, you do have a First Christian Church.
