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Faith, Certainty, and Me

  Friends, you’ve made it! It’s the final Sunday of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then researched and delivered by me. A few of you put ideas in the proverbial hat that are already in the lineup for Stump the Preacher 2026! For today, the finale of Stump the Preacher, season 2025, we get Andy’s request: this question about what faith is, what doubt is, what certainty is, and which of those things I have. Well, here goes nothing. But first, an old story, about some teacher at a college somewhere, beginning a lecture in a business class by putting a large jar on a table. He took out a bag of big rocks, and dropped them in the jar one by one until they reached the top. He asked the class, “is this jar full now?” The class nodded, but the professor said “no, it isn’t!” Then he took out a bag of gravel, and poured the gravel in the jar until the gravel filled in all the cracks between the big rocks, and reached the top of the jar. The professor asked the class, “...
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Is Heaven as Scary as It Is in the Book of Revelation?

  Friends, we’re in the last 2 weeks of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by y’all and then delivered by me. This week’s request was from our dear Fae, who wanted to know if heaven is really as scary as it is in the book of Revelation. Good question, Fae! And I get it. I read Revelation all the way through for the very first time when I was 12. It was the spring of 1999, and Y2K was coming. Remember that nonsense? It was an era where everyone was getting nutty because they were scared and they were being fed false information…and not for the last time. If you were a younger Christian then, you had Y2K fear mongering coming from the news, or your parents, in one ear, and then the Left Behind book series in the other ear, and we were getting kind of obsessed with this notion that the world might end. And of course, it didn’t, and we’re still here. Please remember that next time you get invited to a fear mongering parade. I read Revelation with my Sunday School teacher, who w...
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The Ten Commandments 2025

  Friends, it’s another week of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then researched and delivered by me. This week’s request came from our friend Terri, and she wanted to hear more about the ten commandments! Specifically, Terri had these questions: were these rules written just for the Hebrews, in their context, or are they general life advice? The answer to that question is “yes”, and you’re invited to stay to hear the rest! Terri was also curious about why the ten commandments are in the Bible in multiple different places, with different wording? Great questions, Terri! This is what Jesus meant when he advised us to love God with our whole MIND. Oh boy, the ten commandments. The very first time I ever preached on those was back in 2012, in my first pastoral appointment, back when I was a wee baby minister. Back then, I commended the flock I was preaching to on their incredible bravery in listening to a sermon on this topic. 13 years later, y’all are no less bra...
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Translating the Bible

  Translating the Bible  Friends, after taking 2 weeks off, we’re back to Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then delivered by me. This week’s request comes to us from our friend Terri! She wanted to hear more about what went into translating the Bible. Good question, Terri! The first thing y’all need to understand about translating anything is that translating means loss. Loss of nuance, loss of turns of phrase, loss of voice, and loss of original intent. When you translate anything, even if it’s as simple as “Frere Jacques” from French to English, you have to make decisions on behalf of the original speaker, who often isn’t standing next to you to approve your choice. It’s hard work, and we owe the fact that the Bible is available in such a wealth of languages to the hard work, and tough decisions, made by many, many translators. It’s estimated that the Bible is available in 3,700 different languages. As I hope y’all know, the Bible did not originate from ...
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The Good Samaritan

  One of the many reasons why this parable has remained so dear to my heart is because of this fascinating impact it’s had on our culture. It’s because of this story that the phrase “good samaritan” is part of our popular lexicon. This phrase is heavily used across local news and social media, and it has a pretty consistent definition: “a stranger who steps in to help when they see someone in public in danger.” But…our definition of what it means to “help” can be a bit variable. I did a search of the internet for “good samaritan” stories from news headlines this week, and here’s just a sampling of what I found: “Good samaritan pulls driver from a burning car” “Good samaritan pulls two people from a burning boat” “Good samaritan performs CPR on a shooting victim” “Good samaritan spends two days reuniting a woman with her lost purse” “Good samaritans find a lost wedding ring and return it to its owner, who hadn’t taken it off once in over 50 years” And the one that really got my atte...
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Mary and Martha

  Friends, for the next two weeks we’re taking a short break from Stump the Preacher, because there are two stories from Luke that come up in the lectionary just once every three years, that are so precious to me that when they come up I really want to lift them up for you. This is one of them. Mary and Martha. I’m a Martha. No question about it. And I’m not the type of person to literally believe we all fall into types, especially binary ones, and I believe that humans have the ability to grow and change from day to day, so categorizing us is hardly ever helpful, except for when this story comes up in the lectionary. Because I’m a Martha. I had a holy experience with this short text about a decade ago, when I was working with a spiritual director. If you’ve never done spiritual direction before, or known someone who did–imagine you and God were in couples therapy together. Actually, since Christians believe in a triune God, maybe it’s a group therapy situation. That’s spiritual di...
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Why do some people struggle so much more with their health than others?

  Luke 5: 17-26  Jesus Heals a Paralytic 17 One day while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem were sitting nearby, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. [ a ] 18 Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, [ b ] 19 but, finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the crowd [ c ] in front of Jesus. 20 When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, [ d ] your sins are forgiven you.” 21 Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, “Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up ...
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