Dane Lewis

About Dane Lewis

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So far Dane Lewis has created 767 blog entries.

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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An Eye for the Difference

I grew up reading the Swedish newspaper. Technically that’s true, but it probably wouldn’t stand up in court, especially if it was a Swedish court. The truth is, I can’t read Swedish, but I can comprehend Swedish cartoons. And honestly, that was the only thing I was interested in reading. See, in every edition on page 4, there was always a spot-the-difference game where there were two almost identical pictures; and we, the readers, were to find ten differences between the two. Now, that sounds easy, but try doing it in Swedish! In any case, it was there that I first developed an eye for differences, but I had no idea that skill would be necessary to read the Gospels, but it absolutely is.  I first saw how necessary this skill was when I purchased a book for my Synoptics class in seminary.  The book was aptly named, Synopsis of

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Seven “Quote” Reasons to Love the Prophets

You may find it strange, but I didn’t always love the prophets. Before I graduated from seminary, I would have listed my favorite three Old Testament books as Deuteronomy (my MA thesis was “The Form and Function of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32), Ecclesiastes and Genesis (not a prophet, major or minor, in the group!). But then I read Abraham Heschel’s, The Prophets: An Introduction (1962, Harper Torchbooks) and that changed everything. His words made the prophets come alive for me and I fell in love with them (granted, more so Isaiah than Obadiah, but Obadiah is still fun to say). That was many years ago, but I have never looked back. And that got me thinking, maybe a little Heschel will move you to love the prophets, too. And a little Heschel we can do. As the essayist Joseph Epstein once said: “I believe it was Gayelord Hauser,

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Discerning the Body of Christ

This sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 11:23-34. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Thirteen times. That’s how many times each year we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at River’s Edge (Surprised? Can you name when those thirteen times are?). Six times. That’s how many times we find at least a mention about the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament (Surprised? Most people think there has to be more!). Zero times. That’s how many times we have had a sermon series devoted to this topic in the past 24 years (Surprised? Me, too!). Five times. That’s how many times I bet you will be absolutely surprised by something we say in this upcoming series on communion (Surprised? There may be even more surprises than that!). Numerous times. That’s how many times you will remember something from this upcoming series as you come

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Seven More from the Prophets

Consider three sets of movie quotes. Here is set one. All three should be very familiar to you.  I’ll give you the quote, you provide the name of the movie. First quote: “I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." Second quote: "Go ahead, make my day." Third quote: “There’s no crying in baseball!” If you said, The Godfather, Sudden Impact and A League of their Own, you win the first category. Here is set two. All three of these quotes are related because all three are angry statements. Again, you get to name the movie. Fourth quote: “I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" Fifth quote: “You can't handle the truth!" Sixth quote: “I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" If you said Midnight Cowboy, A Few Good Men and Wizard of OZ, you have won the second set. Here is the third set. What connects

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In an Unworthy Manner

This sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 11:17-29. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Thirteen times. That’s how many times each year we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at River’s Edge (Surprised? Can you name when those thirteen times are?). Six times. That’s how many times we find at least a mention about the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament (Surprised? Most people think there has to be more!). Zero times. That’s how many times we have had a sermon series devoted to this topic in the past 24 years (Surprised? Me, too!). Five times. That’s how many times I bet you will be absolutely surprised by something we say in this upcoming series on communion (Surprised? There may be even more surprises than that!). Numerous times. That’s how many times you will remember something from this upcoming series as you come

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Seven from the Prophets

Roughly 16,000. That is how many football players are eligible for the NFL draft each year. 16,000; but only 250 or so are selected. 2,000-3,000 prospects are considered for the seven-round NHL draft each year, but only 224 are selected. Apparently, 140,000 players are eligible for the MLB draft each year, but out of that number, only 600-700 are selected. Now, if you were a major league general manager, choosing the right prospects out of a field that big should not be a problem. Why then, out of a field of 23,145 Old Testament verses should choosing seven verses be so tough?   For the past seven weeks we have been looking at Christopher Wright’s book, The Old Testament in Seven Sentences (IVP Academic, Downers Grove, IL, 2019). When I purchased the book, I thought it would be a fun thought experiment that would definitely stretch the imagination, but would ultimately

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Made Worthy by Jesus

This sermon begins our  new series and is based on 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Thirteen times. That’s how many times each year we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at River’s Edge (Surprised? Can you name when those thirteen times are?). Six times. That’s how many times we find at least a mention about the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament (Surprised? Most people think there has to be more!). Zero times. That’s how many times we have had a sermon series devoted to this topic in the past 24 years (Surprised? Me, too!). Five times. That’s how many times I bet you will be absolutely surprised by something we say in this upcoming series on communion (Surprised? There may be even more surprises than that!). Numerous times. That’s how many times you will remember something from this

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194 (or More) to 1

Paul Simon told us—“There must be fifty ways to leave your lover.” Now, I realize there are numerous ways to interpret this song: Is the person speaking about a friend, his mother, a woman who wants him to leave his current lover so that he may embrace her (literally and figuratively), or is the speaker his current lover who is dismissing his pain by mocking his comment that he is thinking about leaving her? But the point the speaker is making is clear: it is easy to leave someone you no longer love (“You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. You don’t need to be coy, Roy; Just get yourself free.”). But if that is so, the opposite must also be true. It must be extremely hard to leave many lovers behind because you are forced to choose just one. For instance, I’m going to

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Custom Made to Grow

This sermon is based on Hebrews 5:11-14. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Stephen Covey said lots of great and important things: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” “The way we see the problem is the problem.” But my all-time favorite is: “Start with the end in mind.” The truth is, we have a good end in mind for you. It is the main thing we are trying to do here at RE, and we want you to understand what it is because if you don’t . . . well, that’s a problem. So, what is this end? We are custom-making disciples. It’s what we are called to

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Isaiah’s Beautiful Feet

It was a very formal Southern church in which there was no messing around. That also meant it was a very serious and uptight church where nothing unseemly was allowed—ever. And that is what makes this story so much fun. Stuart Briscoe was one of my heroes—a great pastor, a spectacular teacher, and a phenomenal communicator and, on top of all that, he had an outrageous sense of humor. On one formal occasion, he was speaking at the above serious church on a very uptight Sunday morning. More to the point, he was speaking about today’s verse (as it is quoted in Romans 15): “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” And to prove his point, he swung his leg up and plopped his foot on the very formal, serious pulpit so that the sole of his shoe was facing the very formal, proper congregation. A

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Custom Made to Be Relevant

This sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Stephen Covey said lots of great and important things: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” “The way we see the problem is the problem.” But my all-time favorite is: “Start with the end in mind.” The truth is, we have a good end in mind for you. It is the main thing we are trying to do here at RE, and we want you to understand what it is because if you don’t . . . well, that’s a problem. So, what is this end? We are custom-making disciples. It’s what we are called

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