They Did What?

We all know that Alexander had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It was so bad that, according to Judith Viorst, Alexander wanted to move to Australia. But that is not all we know. We also know that Mark had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ending. Unfortunately, we can’t ship Mark 16 off to the Land Down Under and hope that all our problems go away. No, we have to do something. We already know the extended version (vv. 9-20) is not authentic, and we made a pretty good case that verse 8 is not as bad of an ending as we might have thought at first blush (just like calling our favorite country to the south, “Straya,” is not as bad of a name as we originally thought). But there are two other options that we have not yet considered. But to grasp those arguments,

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The Nobody from Nowhere

This sermon begins our new series and is based on Amos 7:10-17. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Perhaps, there are a few notable exceptions, but for the most part, the Bible is filled with little people—nobodies from nowhere who seemed destined for nothing. But then something happened, and these little people went out and did big things. Huge things. World-changing things. What was the secret behind these “Small Wonders”? It’s called, “calling.

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Now, That Is an Ending!

Horrible endings. We’ve all read them, watched them and experienced them. Agatha Christie made us endure page after page on a train, trying to figure out who did it, only to discover that everyone did it. We saved Private Ryan only for him to be consumed at the end of the movie, not with gratitude, but with a deep fear that he hadn’t earned the right to be saved (don’t you think he should have worried about that decades ago?). Tony Soprano was sitting at a booth enjoying a nice meal and then it all went black; and by “all,” I mean the whole series. And we won’t even bring up my time with my first girlfriend which indeed ended very badly. Maybe even horribly. And that is the point: We’ve all encountered bad endings. The question is, do we encounter one at the end of Mark? Let’s admit it

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Missing the Mark

Quick, name one of the absolute worst movies ever made. If your list included any of the following three classics, you win. Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) or They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1968). Why? In Plan 9, Bela Lugosi (the star of the movie) died midmovie and was replaced by his body-double who didn’t look anything like him, but he “fooled” the audience by covering his face in every scene with his cape. Classic! The name of the movie alone should land Santa and the Martians on this list; and if that is not enough, the plot is also horrific. And any movie where Hitler’s dead, severed head hopes to rule over a new Third Reich from South America can’t, by definition alone, be any good. All of these could qualify as the worst movie ever. Quicker, name one of the

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The Little Things Are Infinitely the Most Important

There are Sherlock Holmes’ quotes and Sherlock Holmes’ QUOTES. Some prefer, “The game is afoot” (The Adventure of the Speckled Band). Others choose, “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth” (The Sign of Four). Others enjoy citing these words when they, once again, know the correct answer, “It is my business to know what other people don’t know” (The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle). But for me, the greatest Sherlock Holmes quote comes from the story of “Silver Blaze.” Inspector Gregory can’t figure the case out, but he realizes Sherlock has seen something that he hasn’t. And so, he asks, "You consider that to be important?" Sherlock replies, “Exceedingly so." Gregory is still at a loss: “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Sherlock answers: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory is exasperated, “But

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Not Where It Is Supposed to Be

Luther the dog was all fur, fun and family. He was a Bernese-Mountain-Dog-and-White-German-Shepherd mix, and he topped the scale at 120 pounds (at the time, our two boys combined didn’t weigh that much!), and most of that was pure love. See, Luther loved to play, go for walks, cuddle up on the couch with us and let the boys crawl all over him. In other words, he was part of the family. But that was the problem. When we weren’t with Luther, Luther went bonkers. Luther didn’t suffer from separation anxiety. He suffered from separation panic. And when a 120-pound dog panics, a dog who is alone in your house, you can be sure there will be damage in his wake. A few examples. When left alone, Luther ate a library book, a plant, a pillow, a couch cushion, a green-magic marker, a baby-gift for a friend, three-quarters of a

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