From the "Jonah" Sermon...

"If God does not love everybody, then there can be no love for anybody.
If God is not gracious toward all, there can be grace for none."
Pastor John Jewell

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Funeral Sermon on John 14

Once more I have had the unpleasant experience of having to listen to a "pastor" expound on the John 14 text in a way which focuses exclusively on "what we get when we get to heaven." Central to this position is the insistence that "you better believe in Jesus - have a personal relationship with Jesus" or else you won't be getting one of those nice mansions." This is not the Gospel and it is not what this text is saying. In fact I find this approach to funeral sermons to be reprehensible as it subjects vulnerable and grieving men and women to a manipulative religious diatribe which is totally irrelevant to the occasion - the loss of a loved one. Not only that, but I have experienced also the dishonesty of evangelical "pastors" enlisting the deceased in their manipulation (e.g. Mildred believed in Jesus so you all should be like Mildred and believe in Jesus). This is NOT the Gospel. This is manipulation and it is irresponsible. So, for al
Read more

Reflections on Transfiguration A - Matthew 17:1-9

Image
Read the text here:  Matthew 17:1-9 Listening to What? (or - "The Law and the Prophets Sing") How well do you take advice?   How well do you listen to others and consider their counsel?   If we are honest, most of us are not terribly good at this. Yes, we ask others what they think about this or that, but usually we just want those others to confirm our already set decision or course of action.   In fact, I think we pride ourselves on being self-sufficient and independent so much that sometimes we can make some really terrible life decisions simply because we refuse to listen to anyone else.   “I don’t need anybody else,” we say, “I can do it on my own, thank you very much!” Rarely do we consider that our vision and ability to make objective and wise decisions may be skewed by our pre-conceptions, prejudices and priorities. Listening is therefore difficult for us and it is not just general life and relationship decisions that are affected but
Read more

Reflections on the Parable – “The Workers in the Vineyard” – Matthew 20:1-16

Image
Read the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard here: Matthew 20:1-16 It's Not Fair! Over the course of our focus on the Parables of Jesus there have been two very important themes that have emerged: 1. God loves God’s creation – extravagantly, madly, passionately and showers upon the beloved creation this love and grace in outrageous abundance.   God’s goes to extravagant and illogical extremes in showing love, grace and forgiveness to all of God’s creation – that would be us, you and me.   And the 2 nd theme is related and comes forth from this: we are called to be in community and to reflect this crazy extravagant love and grace and forgiveness in the way we relate and treat and interact with others! This is not so easy for us and Jesus acknowledges this fact in the parables while at the same time shocking and challenging us to move beyond our inclination to be focused only on ourselves and our tendency to judge and our desire for selfish fairness.   It is this
Read more