Psalm 90: 1-17 (links validated 9/10/23)
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Sermon Starters (Proper 28A)(2023)
I remember when was in Kindergarten or maybe first grade, we made gifts for our fathers. We were tasked with working with clay that could be fired in a kiln and then glazed. Many of us—yes, what I am about to say is true as this did once happen—made ash trays. My father smoked cigarettes so I knew he’d like another ash tray especially if made by his little boy. In truth, the ash tray I made was pathetic. It was not round, had uneven edges, was kind of an ugly shade of green. And my father loved it. He used it. Aside from retrospective guilt in my aiding and abetting a really bad habit (!), what I remember is that my gift, though the very imperfect work of my very imperfect little hands, was received by grace and in love. Maybe our works are like that in the sight of God...Life Is Short, so Live a Full, Meaningful Life with the Time God Gives You
One Christian who took the words of Psalm 90 very seriously was the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley. Nearly every minute of Wesley’s long life was carefully planned. For 60 years he always rose at 4:00 A.M. and almost always went to bed promptly at 10:00 P.M. For 50 years he preached at 5:00 A.M. He learned to use every small piece of the day for learning and prayer. He read and wrote while riding horseback. How did he do it? “I rode with slack rein,” he explained. In the more than 40 years he spent on horseback, Wesley traveled more than a quarter of a million miles and preached 42,000 sermons. His incredibly disciplined life allowed him time to write history books on England and Rome as well as volumes on logic and health. He prepared grammars on Greek, French, and English and completed an excellent English dictionary. He even wrote hymns, though brother Charles was the master hymn writer, penning more than 6000 hymns of beautiful poetry, often for an illiterate public. At age 77, Wesley’s vigour remained. He rode 100 miles in 48 hours, a feat he duplicated 10 years later. He complained at 83 that he could not write for more than 15 hours without hurting his eyes. At 86 he traveled throughout Ireland for nine weeks, preaching 100 sermons in 60 towns, often in the open air. Though we will remember him for his writing and his vigorous stands on social issues (he was very vocal in his opposition to slavery), Wesley will be best remembered for his organizational genius and his passion to know and experience the love of God. “We are saved by faith,” he declared thousands of times. “God is gracious and loving.” This message and his fervent desire for people to live righteous lives is a word that the church in our own day still needs to hear...
Resources from 2020 to 2022
Sermon Starters (Proper 23B)(2021)
It reminds me, too, of a novel I once read that was set in a Roman Catholic convent. At meal times the sisters were to eat in silence or perhaps listen to Scripture being read. But one possible focus for their minds while eating was the calvarium or skull that sat in front of the Mother Superior at he head table. It was to stand as a reminder not to enjoy the food too much because in the end, they would all die anyway and so at mealtimes as at all times they had to entrust themselves to the Lord.Sermon Starters (Proper 28A)(2020)
Few writers in recent times have done as good a job at reminding us of the meaning of the cross than Fleming Rutledge in her landmark 2015 book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. In particular Rutledge highlights the curse of the cross and also the horrible public shaming of Jesus that the cross and that particular kind of death entailed. Appreciating both aspects is vital to understanding the how and the why of Christ’s death. At one point Rutledge recalls the terrible death in 2000 of the young gay man Matthew Shepherd. Shepherd appears to have been tortured and beaten before finally being murdered by some local anti-gay thugs. When they were finished with their evil deed, they tied Shepherd’s body to a fence, a grim display for all to see. One of the police officers who found Shepherd’s body commented later to a local newspaper on the horror of the spectacle, saying that they tied him up “like a scarecrow” and also commenting that it reminded this police officer “of a crucifixion.” We don’t like to think of God’s anger or wrath over sin. But it is real. That is why Jesus was hoisted up on a wooden spike, like a scarecrow, shamefully on display for all to see just how cursed he had become.Teach Us to Number Our Days
Art historian Ingvar Bergström discusses Vanitas Still Life by Jacques de Gheyn II (Jacob de Gheyn) at length in the 1970 journal article “De Gheyn as a ‘Vanitas’ Painter.” The commentary that follows is derived from that. In de Gheyn’s painting, a skull sits inside a stone niche on a bed of dry grass, a reminder that “all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth . . .” (Isaiah 40:6–7; cf. 1 Peter 1:24). Sitting on the left side of the ledge, the tulip and the wild rose with the fallen petal symbolize how man “cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down” (Job 14:2). The smoking urn on the other side references Psalm 102:3: “my days are consumed like smoke.” Between these two are a spill of Spanish coins and a Dutch military medal, and propped up against the ledge on each side is a gold ten-ducat coin showing, on the obverse, Joanna and Charles as sovereigns of Aragon. The message is that beauty, riches, and worldly power and honors all come to an end...Almost Living
Former Indy race car driver Scott Goodyear talked about fatal crashes at the Indianapolis 500. “You don’t go look at where it happened,” he said. “You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened.” The Speedway itself encourages this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of an accident, a crew heads out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through the years, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the racetrack. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here. Nowhere is there even a mention. Many of us take this same approach in our personal lives. Death is something that we just don’t want to think about...
Resources from 2014 to 2019
Contemporary Art: Made Last Week
For generations you have been our home. That's the opening line of the song that is Psalm 90. The psalmist sings of the longevity of God and of God's relationship with the people (Psalm 90:1-4, 13-17, Proper 25A[30]/Pentecost 21A). We think of things that are passed down from generation to generation: land, jewelry, books. Television shows like "Antiques Roadshow" are often filled with stories of a great-great-grandparent's belonging that has been passed down through the family. Henry Louis Gates' show "Finding Your Roots" discovers stories and characters on family trees, sometimes going back six, seven or more generations. "Generations" means years, decades, centuries. God has been our home for a long time, sings the psalmist...
Resources from the Archives
Let the Little Children Laugh
That reminds me of a cold winter when a family cat was left outside during a freezing blizzard. There was no where for the cat to get protection from the minus 20 degree weather and the 30 mile per hour winds except the front porch. In the morning the dad went out to get the newspaper and found the cat nearly frozen to death. The poor animal was barely able to breathe and certainly not able to meow. Carefully the dad picked the cat up and brought it inside. He phoned the vet and asked what should be done to get this animal thawed out. The vet suggested one teaspoon of warm milk mixed with a lesser amount of gasoline and fed to the cat. When this was done, the cat raised up on all fours, hissed once, and began running in circles around the living room -- onto the couch, over to the chair, in front of the tv and onto the couch again. After four such circles, the cat suddenly stopped, coughed once, and fell over. .... Was it dead? ... No, it just ran out of gas...