Woodlawn CC

Woodlawn CC

Monday, January 26, 2015

Sermon at New Life Baptist Church



Yesterday, Gail and I attended service at New Life Baptist Church in Bellevue, NE.  Their Pastor Rick Wheatley, left this week to go on a Mission trip, and so I was offered the chance to provide pulpit supply for them.  New Life is a very upbeat and happy congregation.  Their service has a good deal of energy, and they are greatly blessed with folks with musical and singing talents.  It was a very uplifting service, and I enjoyed it immensely.

New Life Baptist Church, Bellevue, NE

Gail was able to record the sermon and miraculously, I was able to get it loaded up to Youtube without any issues.  The sermon topic was 'The Lord's Prayer'.  Since I had fairly short notice about the opportunity to preach for New Life, I didn't really have time to write a new sermon.  So, I did something I have never done before, and I just revised a sermon I had already preached in the past.

The last time, however the video didn't cooperate so I wasn't able to load the recorded sermon onto this blog.

Here is the video, I hope you enjoy the sermon.  Remember, I never claim to be the smoothest preacher out there, but the message is a good one in my opinion. (of course I am somewhat biased)



I pray that you all will have a wonderful week, and I will leave you with the prayer that I used to close the sermon.

God's abundant Love & Grace to you all,
Roy



God above, Father, Abba

Holy, Sacred and Revered Lord.

We pledge our hands, our feet, our hearts and our spirits
to you Oh Lord, to fashion this world as you
would desire.

Let us ever be your emissaries of Love,
Charity, Grace and Forgiveness in this world.

Let us follow the model that you have given us, of Jesus who is the Christ, as we pursue your perfect example of grace and love to this broken world.

Allow us Oh Lord, to come into communion and relationship with you.  Give us the strength of body, mind and spirit that we require to serve you.

We pray for your protection from those that would oppose and harm us, and from our own sinful and selfish egos.  

Oh Lord, guide us steadfastly down your path of Forgiveness, Grace, Charity and Love onto this world.

For yours alone Oh Lord, is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, until the very end of all time.

Amen





Thursday, January 22, 2015

Marcus Borg has passed away



I am sad to report that Marcus Borg passed away yesterday (Jan 21st).  The world has lost one of it's great scholars.  God rest his soul and comfort and peace to his loved ones in their time of sorrow.


Link to Article about Marcus Borg

(quoted from above link)
 Marcus J. Borg, a prominent liberal theologian and Bible scholar who for a generation helped popularize the intense debates about the historical Jesus and the veracity and meaning of the New Testament, died on Wednesday (Jan. 21). He was 72 and had been suffering from pulmonary fibrosis.
Borg emerged in the 1980s just as academics and theologians were bringing new energy to the so-called “quest for the historical Jesus,” the centuries-old effort to disentangle fact from myth in the Gospels.
Alongside scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, Borg was a leader in the Jesus Seminar, which brought a skeptical eye to the Scriptures and in particular to supernatural claims about Jesus’ miracles and his resurrection from the dead.
Like other scholars, Borg tended to view Jesus as a Jewish prophet and teacher who was a product of the religious ferment of first-century Judaism.
But while Borg questioned the Bible, he never lost his passion for the spiritual life or his faith in God as “real and a mystery,” as he put it in his 2014 memoir, “Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most,” the last of more than 20 books he wrote.
“Imagine that Christianity is about loving God. Imagine that it’s not about the self and its concerns, about ‘what’s in it for me,’ whether that be a blessed afterlife or prosperity in this life,” Borg wrote.
Borg was the youngest of four children, born March 11, 1942 in North Dakota and raised in a traditional Lutheran family. He attended Concordia College in Minnesota where he majored in philosophy and political science.
He remained fascinated by the New Testament, however, and accepted a fellowship to do graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he delved deeply into the Jewish background of the Gospels and Jesus of Nazareth and studied with some of the major theologians teaching there. Borg then went on to further studies at Oxford and taught at various Midwest universities on his return to the U.S.
In 1979 he joined the faculty at Oregon State University and taught religion there until his retirement in 2007.
Borg’s 1987 book, “Jesus: A New Vision,” launched him to prominence. The book summarized and explained recent New Testament scholarship for a popular audience while presenting Jesus as a social and political prophet of his time who was driven by his relationship with God. Borg viewed this relationship as more important than traditional Christian beliefs based on a literal reading of the Bible.
In subsequent books, three of them co-written with Crossan, Borg continued to press and expand on those ideas, becoming a hero to Christian progressives and a target for conservatives.
Borg loved to debate but was no polemicist, and over the years maintained strong friendships with those who disagreed with him, developing a reputation as a gracious and generous scholar in a field and a profession that are not always known for those qualities.
For example, Borg co-authored a 1999 book, “The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions,” with N.T. Wright, an Anglican biblical scholar who took a more orthodox view of the Gospels. But Wright also recommended many of Borg’s books and lectured alongside him on occasion.
“Spanning the study of Jesus and a wide variety of subjects, Marcus shaped the conversation about Jesus, the church, and Scripture in powerful ways over the space of four decades,” Frederick W. Schmidt, Jr., of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog on hearing of Borg’s passing.
“I came to different conclusions about a number of issues, but Marc was always incisive, tenacious, thoughtful, and unfailingly gracious; and over the years he became a cherished friend,” Schmidt wrote.
The Rev. Barkley Thompson, an Episcopal priest and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, broke the news of Borg’s death in a blog post in which he spoke of how much he had learned from Borg and how close they remained even as Thompson’s beliefs became more traditional and veered away from Borg’s.
“I once introduced Marcus to a church audience by saying, ‘I agree with roughly 75 percent of what Marcus will say to you this evening,’” Thompson wrote in his tribute. “When he stepped into the pulpit, Marcus quipped, ‘I’m tempted to forgo my notes and discuss with Barkley the other 25 percent!’”
During a question-and-answer period with parishioners at one event, someone asked Borg, “But how do you know that you’re right?”
Borg paused and responded: “I don’t know. I don’t know that I’m right.”
Thompson said he had corresponded with Borg in late November and asked how he was doing.
“I may have ten years left,” Borg wrote back. “Not sure I want more. There comes a time to let go. And I could, with gratitude, sooner than that. My life has been very blessed.”
While raised a Lutheran, Borg gravitated to the Episcopal Church, which was his home for much of his life. His wife, Marianne, is an Episcopal priest and former canon at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Ore., where Borg frequently lectured and was given the title of canon theologian.
With characteristic humor he said his wife informed him that “canon” means “big shot.”
YS/AMB END GIBSON


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Preaching at New Life Baptist Church in Bellevue, NE



Today I was offered the chance to do Pulpit Supply for New Life Baptist Church in Bellevue this coming Sunday.

New Life's service is at 10:30 am and their address is: 
801 Kayleen Drive, Bellevue, NE

If anyone is interested in coming down to hear the sermon just come on down, or give me a call if you'd like to ride along with Gail and I.

In Christ,
Roy
402-740-4875