Who Do You Think You Are?

Luke 4: 16-21 & 1 Corinthians 12: 27-31

Roger Lynn

May 21, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

For the past several years I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions. The particulars take a variety of forms, but in the end it all seems to come to one query. “Just who do you think you are?” It is a question worth pondering from time to time. What does it mean to be me? What am I called to do? Who am I called to be? Just who do you think you are?

I am certainly not the first person to ask these sorts of questions. Such pondering is firmly rooted in our faith tradition, as well as in every other major faith tradition. I would even venture a guess that it is embedded in our DNA somewhere. Asking such questions seems to be a part of what it is to be human.

2,000 years ago, when Jesus asked such questions, he found himself drawn to the prophet Isaiah.  In Isaiah’s words Jesus found a description of his own identity – bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, God’s favor for all. “Who do you think you are?” Jesus asked himself. The answer he found was that he was one who could be a channel for God’s work restoring wholeness to the world. And he went about doing so by using all of who he was – his compassion, his gift for telling stories, his sense of God’s presence in his life and in every life. 

Taking It To The Next Level

John 17: 1-11

Roger Lynn

May 14, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

John’s Gospel is notoriously difficult to follow sometimes. The language seems to fold back in on itself. There are times when I’m reading passages from this Gospel and I find myself staring at the page, saying “huh?” It is easy to get lost in the details. But if you take a step back, relax and try to get a sense of the bigger picture, some powerful images pop out.

In Jesus’ prayer from our reading for this morning, what we find is a desire for unity among those who are seeking after God. “God, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:11) Protection is needed because we seem to be very good at finding ways to foster separation instead of unity. All too often “us and them” seems to come more naturally than simply “us.” And so Jesus prays that we might all be one – not sameness, not uniformity, but community, connection, relationship. At the time John’s Gospel was written, late in the first century, there was a sense that this unity was limited to Christians. And maybe at the time that made sense, at least in terms of a starting place, because there was no unity even within the early church. Following Christ did not guarantee getting along with each other.  We understand about that. 2,000 years later there are still times when it seems as if we have elevated inter-church fighting to an art form. The prayer that we might all be one, even if only limited to Christians, still has not been realized. It’s still not a bad place to begin.

Challenging the Gatekeepers

John 15: 9-12 & Acts 10: 44-48

Roger Lynn

May 7, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

According to John’s Gospel, Jesus said, “This is my commandment – that you love one another.” And we’ve been struggling to live up to that challenge ever since. It’s not always easy and there’s usually lots of room for improvement. There is a sign on my office door which asks the question, “Which part of ‘love one another’ don’t we understand?” It is, however, a challenge worthy of our very best ongoing efforts. Now, more than ever, our world stands in need of the healing balm of such all-encompassing, welcoming, accepting love.