December 15, 2017 · 8:43 am

It’s a Wonderful Life: Hope In It

In Isaiah 61:1-3 the poet prophet writes that he has been anointed “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to give them a garland instead of ashes”.

You may recognize some of these words from Luke 4:18ff where Jesus incorporates them into his first sermon preached from the synagogue in Nazareth. He receives a rather mixed reaction from that congregation, some of whom spoke well of him and were amazed at his words, while others drove him out of town, ready to hurl him off the cliff. Tough audience! Continue reading →

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December 8, 2017 · 11:51 am

It’s a Wonderful Life: Believe It

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When I was a kid our family often traveled for a summer vacation.  Our highway travels took us all across the United States to a variety of destinations, some of which had “believe it or not” attractions.  These varied from the billboard advertised “unbelievable” and “world’s largest” or “world’s greatest” this or that, to the only slightly more respectable Ripley’s museums you find in tourist towns.  Despite getting my hopes up that we might stop, pay the fare, and feast our eyes on the unbelievable – as it turned out, I learned that our family (especially dad) were not believers when it came to these attractions.  Instead we were treated to some of God’s more unbelievable natural attractions in the nation – Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, and so forth.  In hind sight I think we got the better deal!

As you read the narrative accounts of Christ’s birth in Matthew 1 and Luke 2, they might strike you as containing stories that are too good to believe. Continue reading →

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November 30, 2017 · 10:44 am

It’s A Wonderful Life: Endure It

How do you feel about endurance?  How do you feel about enduring something?  If you are like most people, endurance is not usually a welcome entity in your life.  And yet, one might argue, that endurance is very common ground to living.

During the Season of Advent, we at FBC Columbus are going to come together in worship around the theme “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  This, of course, is the title of Frank Capra’s 1947 film that featured Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed and their life in the fictional town of Bedford Falls.  Stewart’s character, George Bailey, has to endure many twists and turns that take him away from his big dreams and goals for life.  The untimely death of his father, and his own sense of loyalty and service, land him in a position as the executive officer of the struggling Building and Loan.  It’s a life he can’t seem to extricate himself from, and over the course of the film we see how he often resents it. Continue reading →

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November 22, 2017 · 3:40 pm

A Prayer at Thanksgiving

In this blog post I want to share a Thanksgiving prayer. I expected to write something somewhat traditional along the lines of recounting the many blessings for which we can offer thanks to God.  And while there is an abundance of such blessing to recount – for which I am thankful – the prayer that began to form in my heart and mind went a different direction.  This prayer is much more one of intercession for things in the news over the past year that many find troubling.  As a pastor I have seen the effects the deterioration in our national dialogue has had on friends, families and the church.  Perhaps you have as well.  If so I invite you to join me in this prayer at Thanksgiving.

 A Prayer at Thanksgiving

O God, in the noise and clutter of a confused and troubled world, help us to hear you. Continue reading →

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November 10, 2017 · 8:45 am

SERVE

This week I put out a query through social media regarding “service”.  I asked three questions: 1. Why do you serve others?  2. Where did you learn to serve?  3. What have you gained by serving?

I want to thank all of those who responded. There were several thoughtful replies and they’ve helped me think about this topic more in preparation for sharing a sermon on “Serve”.   I thought I’d use this post to share my answers to these three questions: Continue reading →

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