healing

Shocking Inclusion: A sermon on Mark 7:24-37 and James 2:1-10, 14-17

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Mark 7:24-37
James 2:1-10, 14-17

Comedian Mike Birbiglia has a great line. In the early years of his comedy it became a sort of signature line in his particularly vulnerable style of story-telling.  In one version of a set called “My girlfriend’s boyfriend” he’s interrupted a story about a woman he recently dated to talk about the first girl he fell in love with in high school.

I find that when you fall in love, you tend to overlook certain red flags. One of them was that she would say really mean stuff to me, but then she would pull it back. She’d be like, “no one likes you at all. Only kidding.” Or, like, “you’re like a nerd, but you’re not even smart. Just joking.”

Second red flag with Amanda was that she was a liar. And I don’t… I don’t mean that in an offensive way.

The final red flag with Amanda was that she told me not to tell anyone that she was my girlfriend.    

I know. I’m in the future also.1

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From personal faith to public action: A sermon on Mark 1:29-39

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Mark 1:29-39

During Pub Theology last week, while extending my welcome to the group of over 50 people who had gathered, the 1980s alternative rock song, “Personal Jesus,” by the band Depeche Mode came on in the brewery. It made my Gen X heart sing. It also gave me a spontaneous “way in” to our conversation that night about where and how we find meaning and purpose in our lives. 

The song is on my mind again as I’m think about the story we explored in worship, the story of Jesus healing Simon’s mother-in-law in the gospel according to Mark. It’s a very personal act of Jesus, emphasized by the intimacy of Jesus taking the woman by the hand, and yet it is surrounded by very public acts of healing and exorcism. Is Jesus Simon’s mother-in-law’s “Personal Jesus”? What does her response to the healing tell us about her own answer to that question? 

The worship video of this sermon is also available here.

Dare to Believe – A sermon on Mark 5:21-43

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A couple of months ago I was at Willow River Elementary School where I was volunteering in my son’s classroom to teach an art appreciation lesson.  I stopped in the supply room near the office to pick up the things I needed before heading up to the room.  In addition to carrying 3 large mounted art posters, I had a couple of zip lock baggies of teaching props, two shopping bags holding 24 canvas boards for a painting project, a large tub filled with tubes of paint in every color from raging red to perfect purple, and a couple of tin cans of paint brushes in every size and shape.  Needless to say my hands were full.  As I came out of the supply room and began the trek across the school to the opposite corner and up a couple of flights of stairs to the 3rd grade classroom a young student spotted me, took one look, and graciously asked, “Do you need some help?”

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