12/01/2025
What Jacob Marley Would Do,
If He Could Do It…
I thought about using the following for a benediction—since Jacob Marley was warning Scrooge about the danger of loving money and what it could buy. Ends up with the Cantata and everything else going on, I didn’t have the time. So here is what you might have heard if the sermon itself was 5 minutes shorter!
· In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. federal government
spent about $99.8 billion on SNAP
· In 2004 SNAP served an average of 41.7 million
people (about 12.3% of the U.S. population)
· Americans are expected to spend between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion on holiday retail in just the two months of
November and December 2025.
· They also estimate that the average consumer will spend about $890.49 per person over the season on gifts, food, decorations,
and other seasonal items.
If we knew now, what we will know 5, 10, or 20 years from now, will we think it’s a good idea to spend more than 129 million in two months on ourselves? That is, aside from making sure the most vulnerable around us have enough food to eat? It’s shameful that feeding the children and families who depend upon our body politic for food has become a partisan issue. And though Mary, Joseph, and Jesus didn’t get food benefits as asylum seekers in Egypt, wouldn’t it have made their lives so much easier if they did?
May we all find a way to let go of scoring political points and allow the God of Jesus Christ to work through us to do what is good and right for the last, the lost, and the least among us—remembering that once upon a time that included someone like Lazarus and knowing that once upon a time it included Jesus himself. Amen.
Archived Posts
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...