Posts tagged “Parables”

Sexagesima 2012

Posted on February 12th, 2012

Luke 8:4-15 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Word of God is not information. There’s information there, to be sure. But the Word of God is not information. That isn’t its purpose. The Word of God is also not the Bible. Now hear this carefully: if I turn that sentence around, I’m saying something different: “The Bible is the Word of God,” that is, what is in the Bible comes from God, is inspired by God, is true and inerrant. That’s all true. But one can read the Bible in such a way as to never encounter the Word of God. That happens when we look at the Bible as information, merely telling us things…

Categories: Sermons

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Parton/Townes Wedding Sermon

Posted on December 26th, 2009

From the wedding service of Richard Townes, III and Kyle Parton, on Saturday, December 19. We had a major snowstorm that caused the wedding to start late (see pictures below), and unfortunately some of the guests also couldn’t make it. But it was a beautiful wedding. I’ve been trying an experiment with some of my sermons lately – writing outlines instead of full manuscripts. Thus, what is below is not what I actually said. My experiment confirmed what I have learned before: I preach much, much better from a manuscript than just an outline. The Gospel reading was St. Matthew 25:1-13, The Parable of the Ten Virgins. Introduction: The bridegroom was delayed! And thus was the marriage. That’s from the parable, but perhaps you’ve…

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Sexagesima: Luke 8.4-15

Posted on February 15th, 2009

In childhood, my mother often chided me by saying, “Patience is a virtue.” Sinner that I am, I prefer Ambrose Bierce’s definition better. Ambrose Bierce was a 19th century American author who wrote wickedly sarcastic columns which were later collected into a book called The Devil’s Dictionary. There he defined PATIENCE as “A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.” Patience has become a condition we have to tolerate when we cannot have our way immediately. Technology has made daily life move so quickly, only accelerating the experience of life passing us by like a river flowing too swiftly. Both in culture and in the church, patience has become a vice, not a virtue. If we don’t have the fastest connections, if emails…

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Septuagesima – Matthew 20.1-16

Posted on February 8th, 2009

  The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner. When Jesus begins in this way, it means He’s telling a parable. A parable is a story that teaches us a lesson. It’s not necessarily a moral lesson, and in the case of Jesus’ parables, it’s almost never a moral lesson. Jesus tells us what His parable is about: the kingdom of heaven.

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