Sermon Archives

wealth
October 10, 2021

Job’s Bitter Complaint

Job’s Bitter Complaint

Mark did a terrific job last week launching our 4-Sunday series on Job. He used his law background to good advantage. I wouldn’t want to oppose Mark in a court of law! Job asks the really big questions of life: Who is God? Where is God? Who are we as humans? Why is there suffering […]

August 23, 2020

The Joseph Project and Jesus

I A while back I had a Christian friend in another state who was an avid supporter of one of the two major political parties in the United States. He gave large donations to candidates of his political party and to political action committees that supported his party. Since he was a moderately wealthy person, […]

December 1, 2013

Wash Yourselves

Ten years ago the state of Alabama almost took the Bible seriously. Almost. This remarkable story started in 2001 with a woman named Susan Pace Hamill. Ms. Hamill was (and still is) a professor at the University of Alabama Law School where she taught courses on tax law. In 2001 she was granted a sabbatical […]

November 3, 2013

How Long, God?

How long, God? 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty. 14%! That’s 4% more than the 10% tithe you ask us to give you for your mission in the world! I know one of those Americans who live in poverty. His name is Sam. Lives right here in Indiana. Has a full-time job working 40 […]

September 29, 2013

The One Whom God Helps

This morning I want to talk about dogs. Not just any dogs, but the dogs in this parable. It turns out that the dogs have an important role in this story—and when we properly understand the role of the dogs, a doorway opens to understand the parable more clearly. When Americans think about dogs, they […]

September 22, 2013

A Generous God Whose Love Knows No Limits

This parable is known by a couple of titles: The Dishonest Steward, and The Shrewd Manager. The commentaries are consistent on one point about this parable: that it is the most difficult one that Jesus told! After that, they go off in a variety of directions and interpretations. And who can blame them, for Luke […]

August 4, 2013

Rich, But Not Distracted

Most sermons on this passage in Luke offer the same basic interpretation, more or less. That basic interpretation runs something like this: Be generous with your wealth! Don’t be like the fool in this parable, who one day decided to hoard his bumper crops. But because he died that same night, he never got to […]