The next subject in our series, The Seven Deadly Sins, is LUST.

The Bible text is from Matthew five:

 ²⁷ You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

From the sermon:

The disciple of Jesus doesn’t disconnect the body from the mind. We realize, as taught in our text that what we allow to filter in and settle in the contours and crevices of the psyche eventually affects our bodies. In Matthew, Jesus radically re-defines adultery and gives much stricter dimensions to lustful thinking. Christ teaches it isn’t enough to refrain from the overt act but that the battle begins in the imagination. As someone said, “It isn’t a sin to look once, it is to look twice”. Or in other words, to let the dangerous thoughts multiply. Frederick Beuchner describes it this way, “after a while, x-rated titillations tend to turn tawdry and tedious, even days later, they keep flickering away somewhere in the back of the mind to a captive audience of one.”

Title: The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust

                    Bible Passage: Matthew 5:27-30

Nowhere is the seriousness of this catalog of vices more questioned than with today’s focus; GLUTTONY. Certainly, Gluttony is dangerous in the sense of being unhealthy but deadly? A capital sin? A root sin? Anger can lead to murder. Greed can lead to theft. Envy can lead to despair. But what’s the worst thing gluttony can lead to? High cholesterol… Extra pounds… Premature death…? These are all pretty bad but driving too fast can also kill us before our time. Of all the things that can destroy the soul, we want to focus on overeating? Even Jesus was charged with feasting too much and called a glutton in Luke’s gospel.

Title:   The Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony

           Bible Passage:   Matthew 5:6

This Sunday is July 4th. We’ll take a break from our sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins to consider how the formation of the Church can find parallels in the birth of our nation. Both institutions can trace their origins to a revolution which sounds noble but can be riddled with challenges.

From the sermon:

What a radical word “revolution” is. It’s revolt against the established rule, whether good or bad. It’s an invitation to chaos and uncertainty. Revolutionaries are by definition troublemakers who stir the pot of unrest. They are despised by the established powers. Our nation was formed when rabble rousers of all sorts decided to overthrow the government of King George III.  It was audacious, a bit foolish, and doomed to failure. It was a dwarf picking a fight with a giant.

Sermon Title:     Revolution, Constitution, Institution

   Bible Passage:    Galatians 5:1

Last week we started a series of sermons on the seven deadly sins. The desert fathers were the first to teach on the deadly sins, also known as capital sins, or “root sins.” It was felt that if you dug down past everything else, all other forms of transgression, you were left with these seven vices. Today we consider envy. Like most of the seven sins, there is no one here unfamiliar with envy. As a child someone else had a toy we wanted. As a teenager someone else received the scholarship we wanted. As a twenty something someone else got the job we wanted. Somewhere along the line someone else has possessed or received recognition, attention, or possessions we felt we needed, deserved or simply desired.

Title: The Seven Deadly Sins: ENVY
Bible Passage: GENESIS 4:1-16

Sunday is Communion which is always a good time to think about the mysteries of God. We keep with our series on Moses as we consider the series of plagues brought on Egypt and Pharaoh. Here’s a thought from the sermon:

The question we always ask is how did the Egyptian wise men duplicate the things Moses did? After all they replicated turning the Nile to blood, calling up hoards of frogs, etc..  Wondering how they did such things is the wrong approach. I think the Bible’s point is how can Moses and Aaron, slaves from slaves , do such a thing?  In Exodus 7:11 we’re told the King, “summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.” This is the ancient equivalent of pitting the faculty of Harvard against two nobodies who know nothing. But what makes these men who they are is the Lord who stands with them.

Sunday we consider what happens when hope and despair share the same boat. The context is Moses’ return to Egypt. He tells his people God has heard their cries. What a wonderful thing it is when we know the Lord has let His eye rest on us. From the sermon:

What would it be to know that God had seen your misery? Think about that. If somehow I could convince you that wherever you find yourself today God has noticed. What would it be if I could go down to the Gulf Coast this morning, assemble the residents who are watching oil roll up on their beaches with no end in sight and say to them, “God has taken notice of you and has promised He’s getting ready to do something.” What do you think that would do to their collective psyche?  If you’ve ever had a parent, a boss, a friend, step in at a difficult time and say, “let me help” you know to a degree what Israel felt when Moses and Aaron fed them sweet morsels of hope that day. That’s what Israel heard—God has seen your misery. And they worshipped. Wouldn’t you? Don’t you? When hope flows in your veins don’t you whisper prayers of gratitude?

In Sunday’s sermon we’ll consider the return of Jesus to heaven after the resurrection. The text is from Luke 24 and the title is, “The Hands and the Feet.”

As one has written just as the resurrection completes the crucifixion, the ascension completes the resurrection. Some maintain that Jesus returning to the Father is the most neglected doctrine of the Church and that we cannot understand Jesus apart from it. Perhaps we can best appreciate it by hearing how Peter sums it up in a sermon from the book of Acts, “This Jesus” proclaims Peter, “is exalted at the right hand of God.” We must remember that these early followers didn’t hang their heads low when Jesus left. They didn’t kick the can all the way back to Jerusalem. They didn’t say, “Well. That’s that.” No, Luke tells us: “And it came about that while he was blessing them, he parted from them, and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising God.”

This Sunday we begin a series of sermons that examines how each of the gospel writers handle the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. This week our text is Matthew 28:16-20 typically referred to as “the Great Commission.” From the sermon:

Perhaps the most unique perspective on the resurrected Jesus provided by Matthew is the very last phrase in the text which are the last words of the gospel, “And remember, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” You see when the curtain drops in this first gospel Jesus is still here. There is no ascension in Matthew. There’s no flying away into the clouds like Luke reports. Matthew wants us to know Jesus didn’t die and go away like everyone else we know. The resurrection isn’t a poetic way of saying that the spirit of Jesus lives on as a constant inspiration to us all. That’s a pretty modern, and fairly vanilla, way to view Easter that makes the resurrection as bland as cottage cheese.

Our sermon text for Sunday is one short verse about the wife of Pilate. Recall that she had a disturbing dream about the man Jesus. Here’s a paragraph from Sunday’s sermon.

Instead of a soothing presence, Jesus may be, as he was for Mrs. Pilate, a source of great suffering. Why? Because he whispers things you must forsake or embrace. He reminds you of things that need to be said, or of times you need to keep quiet. He calls us away from peaceful rest to a time of unsettled stirrings that cause us to leave the bed and walk the floor. Remember Jesus wasn’t crucified for being upbeat and affirming. You don’t bring the prophet of positive thinking to a cross. It’s the troublemaker—the agitator who receives crucifixion.

Sunday’s text is from Matthew 26:6-13. It’s the story of the woman who gave a perfume gift worth a year’s wages to Jesus. It was also an act that drew the scorn of his disciples. Here’s a snippet from Sunday’s sermon:

Jesus catches them off guard. He scolds them and rebukes their attitude. “Don’t give her a hard time” he says. He reminds them they always have the poor, but he will be with them only a little while longer. Christ sees this action by the unnamed woman as an anointing for his burial. A meaning that I’m sure was lost on his disciples. I have a hard time understanding Jesus in this story. I must admit I have a hard time understanding the actions of the woman as well. I can, however, understand the disciples. Their reaction resonates with me and I’m sure with others also. You see, this type of thing is repeated every day in this church and thousands of churches around the world. At Christmas we give money to put a poinsettia in the sanctuary. Could that money be better spent on the needy? Here at Easter when lilies will adorn many houses of worship, wouldn’t it be better to use those funds to feed the hungry? All that money congregations spend for new buildings and furnishings, would we not be more in line to use that on the mission field somewhere? It’s easy to preach these kinds of things from this story and these are legitimate questions. But I’m afraid they’re not the right kind of questions for this particular episode.