Thoughts on Life and Worship

Introduction – Experiencing Something New One of the biggest challenges I face each week as I prepare a sermon for the morning service is to identify an experience I’ve had and with which you might resonate.  That’s not always easy.  But when I identify that common experience, we can set out on the sermon path together.  As I was considering how I might begin today’s message, I thought I might relay my experience with opera in honor of our new friends from California.  How many of you really like opera?  That’s what I thought.  I didn’t grow up appreciating it either. Most middle class Americans don’t have much of a clue when it comes to opera.  And because the experience they may have had with opera was diminished from its ideal, many, if not most Americans would rather pass.  I had exposure to opera in school through music appreciation and music history classes.  I watched a little on PBS.  I also attended a few amateur an...

( NOTE: There are three places in this post where I reference the hymns, "Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord" and "All Creatures of Our God and King."  Unfortunately, I couldn't upload a copy of the print music.  If you're curious, I recommend a hymnal to get a visual on what I'm describing.) Corralling the Cows in the Corn There are two competing silly stories that have been making the rounds in churches since the 1990’s. They go like this: An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the farmer. “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.” “Praise choruses?” asked the wife. “What are those?” “Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer. “Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife. The farmer said, “Well it’s like this … If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the ...

The following is an excerpt from my sermon, "God's Design for Marriage" which I had given as part of my series on Nehemiah.  The topic in the text was God's prohibition against intermarriage between Jews and the surrounding nations. You can find the entire sermon in audio or PDF format at http://fbcaberdeen.com/site/audiodownloads.asp?sec_id=180007979 .   God’s Design for Sex To understand the nature of marriage, we need to reflect at the beginning – the stories in the first chapters of Genesis.  In the beginning, God created.  He didn’t create because he needed to do so.  God has no needs.  He created simply for his own pleasure and as an expression of his nature.  God’s nature is one expressed in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, when God went to make man, the Scriptures say “Let us make man in our own image” (Genesis 1:26).  Now within the Trinity – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – there is a ...

This post is a second attempt on this topic.  The first was pushback on the cartoon above that a friend had posted on Facebook. It was lacking in grace.  I regret that but remain committed to my point.  I have a good sense of humor.  I enjoy the satirical website, Lark News , and even my own copy of A Field Guide toEvangelicals and Their Habitat.  I can laugh at myself and my evangelical tradition.  But I don’t find jokes about worship music very funny. Most of the time, it is contemporary praise and worship songs that are the target of the jokes and cartoons I’ve seen and heard.  There was a variation of Cows in theCorn several years ago that poked fun at hymns.  Nevertheless, the repetition found in praise and worship is the usual target.  It is my experience that people who don’t like the genre think the jokes are really funny.  I don’t.  I never have.  Here’s why: Praise and worship songs are differe...

The Wonder and Paradox of Christmas No one knows the exact day that Christ was born.  It’s really not important.  December 25 th is the day that the Church has chosen to celebrate his coming.  But we do know that the true meaning of Christmas has been under attack for quite some time now.  I don’t want to rehearse the stuff about whether or not we should say, “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” or whether or not public schools should sing Christmas carols.  It does seem a bit hypocritical to me that we can use the word “Christmas” and sing the carols to draw big audiences and sell products in our culture, but to actually believe the story and the Bible from which it came is deemed somehow bigoted and uninformed.  The limitations that the world imposes on the Gospel aren’t fair.  But when has the world ever been a friend to God?  Let’s lay that aside.  We get ourselves sometimes so worked up over the cultural battles that we can b...