Witness: The Kierkegaard Way

Our college had a thing they called, “Forced Christian Labor.” Okay, that was not its real name, but I have buried those horrific memories so deep in my subconscious that I cannot think of its actual name.  Let me explain: Each week, we would have to report on all of the ways we had witnessed to people in that week. You read that right. We were obligated to fill out a form that asked how many unsaved people we had witnessed to that week; how many Christian tracts we had handed out; how many backsliders we had restored; and how many acts of Christian service we preformed. Every single week . . . and failure to do so meant a meeting with the Dean of “Do it again and you won’t graduate.” Now, thankfully, I worked at the 100,000-watt Christian radio station that broadcast the gospel in all of its

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A Not-So-Wild Goose Chase

Who knew there were so many idioms about geese! You can be loose as a goose. You can cook someone’s goose. You can kill the goose that lays the golden egg. You can lay a goose egg. You can even be a silly goose. We all know that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, that a wild goose never lays a tame egg; and we know people who would never ever say boo to a goose. You can go on a wild goose chase. You can get goose bumps, and you can even get goosed (but we won’t go there). All that to say, geese are pretty cool. But that’s not just my opinion; Kierkegaard thought so, too. We are looking at Mark Tietjen’s excellent book, Kierkegaard: A Christian Missionary to Christians (IVP Academic, 2016). Specifically, we are looking at his chapter on “Christian Witness,” especially

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The Right and Wrong of Reading Revelation

This sermon introduces our new teaching series and is based on Revelation 1:1-8. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Codes and codebreaking—they used to be so much fun. “Dits” and “Dahs” used to mean something when put together in the right sequence. To get into the speakeasy, you needed to have the coded password (it’s “swordfish”). And if you are Ethan Hunt, when the delivery man says, “A storm is coming’,” you need to say, “I am the storm.” Let’s face it, codes are “dit-dah-dit” cool, unless you are reading Revelation. Trust me, if you are reading Revelation like it is a code book, then you are going to be in “dit-dit-dah-dah” trouble. See, Revelation wasn’t written about things to come, but things that are already here. It wasn’t written so that we could get the right date for the (pre,

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Wrestling with God for Your Children

This sermon on Father's Day ends our series and is based on Genesis 31:36-44, 53-55. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Jacob in the Bible was a schemer, a swindler, a screw-up and a pretty shameful sinner; but somehow, he ended up as a patriarch and the father of the twelve tribes (it’s a mystery!). In any case, Jacob did one good thing (he asked his brother to forgive him) and one great thing—he wrestled with God. In that, Jacob was not alone. After all, Job wrestled with God and the teacher in Ecclesiastes wrestled with God and Hannah wrestled with God and Abraham wrestled with God (and there are more besides this). Now, contending with God doesn’t sound like a good idea, but as strange as it sounds, God invites us to wrestle with him with our hearts in the

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The Woes of Being a (Bad) Witness

Cool Hand Luke contains one of the most epic movie quotes ever when Strother Martin said: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”  Unfortunately, he was wrong. He should have said: “What we’ve got everywhere is a failure to communicate.” Apparently, a failure to communicate is a sign of our times. For instance, here’s a sign from a furniture store with a very interesting marketing campaign: “Buy this bed and get free one night stand.” Here’s a lecture slide gone awry: “The average North American consumes more than 400 Africans” (I must be below average because I haven’t consumed even one African!). It is seen in signs around swimming pools: “The pool is closed until further notice. Sorry for the incontinence” (I’m blaming autocorrect here). It is even seen in signs behind other signs! One company was advertising for new employees with a sign saying: “Help Wanted.” Behind

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Failing to Wrestle with God for Isaac

This sermon is based on Genesis 22:1-14. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Jacob in the Bible was a schemer, a swindler, a screw-up and a pretty shameful sinner; but somehow, he ended up as a patriarch and the father of the twelve tribes (it’s a mystery!). In any case, Jacob did one good thing (he asked his brother to forgive him) and one great thing—he wrestled with God. In that, Jacob was not alone. After all, Job wrestled with God and the teacher in Ecclesiastes wrestled with God and Hannah wrestled with God and Abraham wrestled with God (and there are more besides this). Now, contending with God doesn’t sound like a good idea, but as strange as it sounds, God invites us to wrestle with him with our hearts in the balance. That’s right, you’ve been invited to a skirmish.

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Kierkegaard and the Problem with Pastors

Okay, let me be absolutely honest. If I had a pastor, I would want him to be Ted Lasso. Now, either you get that (and you’re incredibly wise) or you don’t (and you are . . . well, we’ll just leave it at that). The Apple TV series Ted Lasso ended last week and Jo and I are still in mourning, but what better way to go through mourning than together.  After all, Ted said: “I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and being sad.” That is some great pastoral advice. But Ted is filled with such wisdom. For instance, “For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field.” “You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It's a goldfish. You know

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Wrestling with God for Sodom

This sermon is based on Genesis 18:16-17, 20-32. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Jacob in the Bible was a schemer, a swindler, a screw-up and a pretty shameful sinner; but somehow, he ended up as a patriarch and the father of the twelve tribes (it’s a mystery!). In any case, Jacob did one good thing (he asked his brother to forgive him) and one great thing—he wrestled with God. In that, Jacob was not alone. After all, Job wrestled with God and the teacher in Ecclesiastes wrestled with God and Hannah wrestled with God and Abraham wrestled with God (and there are more besides this). Now, contending with God doesn’t sound like a good idea, but as strange as it sounds, God invites us to wrestle with him with our hearts in the balance. That’s right, you’ve been invited to a

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On Being a (Sinful) Human

As Ted Lasso comes to the end of a magnificent three-season run, I thought it would be good to remember four of his (its) best lines. "You know what the happiest animal on earth is? It's a goldfish. Y'know why? It’s got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish." "You beating yourself up is like Woody Allen playing the clarinet. I don't wanna hear it." "You two knuckleheads have split our locker room in half. And when it comes to locker rooms, I like 'em just like my mother's bathing suits. I only wanna see 'em in one piece, you hear?" "Our goal is to go out like Willie Nelson, on a high." All of that, to get to this. In episode 9 of season 3, there was a great dialogue between Rebecca (the owner) and the irascible and ill-tempered Roy Kent (former player, now one of the coaches). Rebecca was

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