Salvation

Sell all your stuff and give to the poor!

By Joel A. Hess –

Sell all your stuff and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Seriously!

I’m not sure most people take Jesus’ response to the rich young man seriously. The guy asks a valid question. Bravo to this kid. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? That’s the question! It’s the question behind all religions. Every single one. It’s the problem too. We are all dying. We don’t want to die, and that’s it. Or worse, we don’t want to entertain the possibility that we will literally never see our dearly loved friends and family again.

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Sacrifice

By Paul Koch –

The story of the rich young man, as it is usually called, is an especially difficult text for us to deal with in the church. Not that it is a complex story that is hard to unpack, not that it is full of analogies that are distant from us and therefore hard to understand. No, this text is difficult for us precisely because it deals with the heart of the matter. It cuts to the core of our desires and hopes in the church. It is not a theoretical discussion about heaven and hell. It’s not a description of an evangelism mission seeking to convert the unbeliever. This is not a text that seeks to simply enlighten your hearts and minds or give your cause to ponder heavenly things. This is a text that leaves no one untouched, that gives you nowhere to hide, that exposes everything. For this is about a man who ardently desires to be saved. He comes directly to the source, to our Lord Jesus Christ, and asks the question that all long to have answered; “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

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Running from God

By Paul Koch–

I was a Vicar at Peace Lutheran Church in Bremerton Washington 17 years ago. I remember, with astonishing clarity, driving down to church early in the morning and listening to some bewildering news on the radio. An airplane, no, make that two airplanes, had struck buildings in New York. Upon arriving at the church Day School office for morning devotions I found all the teachers and staff huddled around the computer watching the news as it was unfolding. It was a bit sketchy and disjointed as the reports came in but the picture began to develop; this was no accident but an attack.

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More Than You Can Handle

By Paul Koch –

Deep down I have always been a fan of doing hard things. Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy just lounging on the beach or getting in an afternoon nap. Rather, I believe if we simply default to the path of least resistance, to the easy and simple, we miss out on something important. For it is often in the strain and the hard of work of life, both work and play, that we find the greatest means to shape and build our character. I love going hiking in the mountains, having to work hard to make it just over the next pass. The tired legs and aching back make the expansive views even sweeter. I like taking my kids for little day hikes up in Arroyo Verde Park and when they begin to complain about how tired their little legs are, that’s when I tell them we have to go over just one more hill (or more likely two). It is that final press toward victory that makes the journey so rewarding, and you can see it in their faces when they smile under the shade of a tree and talk about how far they went.

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We Are Not Our Own Saviors

By Tim Winterstein –

[SPOILERS, BUT YOU CAN PROBABLY GUESS THEM ANYWAY]

That seems like far too important a title for thoughts about a dinosaur movie, but underneath the fantastic and seamless CGI, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is claiming to be far more than simply an adventure movie with dangerous animals. The tired part of the movie is that people always do stupid things when it comes to dangerous animals about which they really know nothing. Yeah, we get it: If you’re ever in a room with a caged dinosaur, do not open the cage, no matter how much you want a trophy or a closer look. Don’t pretend to be Chris Pratt if you’re not.

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A Dwelling Place

By Paul Koch –

We have often romanticized the image of the lone rugged cowboy who doesn’t need anyone else, who can ride into town and save the day and then ride off alone into the sunset when it is all over. But the reality is, no one does much of anything alone. People need each other, we thrive when we are together. Whether we call it a family or a tribe or a fellowship, the gathering together of people who will care for each other and protect each other and challenge each other seems to be part of the human spirit. It is in our friendships and our families that we learn better who we are and find the strength to overcome our weaknesses. It is together that we endure. There is truth in Kipling’s words when he writes the law of the jungle and says, “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”

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The Cost

By Paul Koch –

We’ve probably all heard the story that our Lord told about counting the cost. It’s been retold in various ways over the years, but it is still a good thing to learn. He said, “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” Or, “What king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?” The cost of any endeavor is a real thing; it cannot be overlooked. No one wants to look like a fool having started off on some great campaign only to succumb to failure because the cost was too high, and they were unable to bear it. The unwillingness to consider the cost is problematic at best and catastrophic at worst.

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How’s your walk?

By Cindy Koch –

Have you followed the footsteps of Jesus? Sometimes I think I can be kind enough, sometimes I think I can love like he did. Every once in a while I have a really great day when the sky looks a little bluer and I’m pretty proud of myself for my gentle tongue and thoughtful actions. But then there is the day when I lose it, I am angry at just about everything. How can I possibly get any better? Is this Jesus stuff not really working for me? Sometimes I think I need to take a good hard look at my walk.

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Worthy

By Paul Koch –

The fact that we gather together here this morning, in a place of worship, a building designed to hear the word and receive the sacraments of our Lord, is not all that uncommon. I’m not saying that it is necessarily a popular thing, at least the way in which our world values its use of time. But most people in our lives here in this great country have some understanding of church: why people go to church, the point of church, that sort of thing. Even if they perhaps don’t want to go, they will usually respect your commitment to go to church on Sunday morning.

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C’est le suicide: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

By Joel A. Hess –

Il n’y a qu’un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux : c’est le suicide

– Albert Camus

It would seem that we have witnessed more celebrity suicides than ever, though I don’t know if that’s true. It would seem that the celebrity world is only predisposed to suicide as the skin begins to wrinkle, the applause fades, and the mirror can no longer lie. Suicide has increased overall, however, according to a variety of statistics.

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God’s Ugly, Ordinary Church

By Joel A. Hess –

The American dollar is the ugliest of all currencies. As a kid I was always infatuated with the different paper monies I would come across on my travels and would wonder why ours is so blah. Then I learned how paper money works. It’s just paper! In and of itself, it’s absolutely worthless. Yet despite the American currency’s unattractiveness, it is regularly the strongest of them all. Why? Because it’s so beautiful? Not at all. The flimsy greenish paper is backed by the most powerful government in the world! Its value is based upon the promise of the U.S. government. By itself it’s worthless. Humorously, the more beautiful the currency, the more worthless its value!

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You Choose Hell

By Cindy Koch –

Whole faith systems are built to keep you away. Churches and teachers go over and over the roads of escape. Narrow paths are forged. Gated communities are constructed. Actions, music, words, and deeds are scrubbed crystal clean so that you might be protected. When someone starts to slip back into the pit of darkness, you have to fix them up quickly. When you begin to lose your seemingly solid foothold, it just might be too late.

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Can These Bones Live?

By Paul Koch –

As a child, we had one of those rooms in our house in which nobody ever sat. Not that you couldn’t sit there: there was a large sofa, some complimentary small tables and lamps, and of course the well-appointed window dressings. It looked like a delightful living room, or family room, or whatever you called that room. It would have been a nice place to sit, just nobody ever did. However, in that room we had a large family Bible. It was the type that was full of beautiful images from the paintings of Rembrandt to the etching of Gustaf Dore.The image of Ezekiel’s prophecy over the valley of dry bones was by far my favorite. It was dark and terrifying, full of half formed skeletons worthy of a modern-day zombie movie. Standing over them in the background was the image of the prophet himself overlooking the scene with a stern resolve. The caption below the picture was taken from the text itself. It was a simple question asked by our Lord, “Can these bones live?”

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Pain in Childbearing

By Paul Koch –

Now today is a great day. It’s Mother’s Day! And if there was ever a cause worthy to observe, I think that motherhood is a great one. Now, truth be told, sermons on Mother’s Day can be a bit dicey. See, while we all may want to honor our mothers on Mother’s Day, it sometimes goes awry in practice. So, on Mother’s Day you will have those who will be consumed with guilt for how they have treated or mistreated their own mothers, and a sermon highlighting how mothers ought to be honored will only drive them further into despair. Then there are the mothers who will hear the glowing praise of motherhood in a sermon only to receive it as some impossible standard that they have not kept.

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Behold, this is our God

By Paul Koch – 

Today is the celebration of the pinnacle event in all human history. Today we rejoice in the great working of God who interceded at a specific moment in time to overturn the power of darkness and sin and death. This is the dawn of a new day and the promise of something better. In the beginning of human history, mankind rejected the Word of God and set out on their own journey in opposition to their Creator. They ate the fruit of the forbidden tree so that they might become like God knowing good and evil, and know it they did. And so, is seems, do we all. And with that knowledge came punishment and brokenness and selfishness and pride and anger and a whole host desires that pervert and destroy relationships. But today we confess a gift that comes through a different tree, the tree of the cross. There your Lord died, and he died for all that deserves death and punishment in this world. He dies so that there might be life, so that there might be hope for you.

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Forgiveness is in the Blood

By Paul Koch –

How is this night unlike all other nights? It is a significant night to be sure, but just what is it that makes it so important? Well, for starters, this night marks the initiation of the great events of our Lord’s passion. If you were to say that our Lord’s story is one that points ultimately to his death and resurrection on Easter morning, then this night is the moment when things begin to hone down and become focused. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that this night is what everything has been leading up to. Everything from our Lord’s birth in the little town of Bethlehem, to his Baptism in the Jordan River, to his transfiguration before his disciples, all of it has been driving towards this night.

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