Author: Chris Kelly
Chris Kelly
– November 9, 2008
Text: Amos 5:18–24
There have been in the press lots of comments about John McCain’s concession speech on Tuesday. It was gracious, relaxed, and forward-looking. Many people have said that the real John McCain had re-emerged. They said that this was the McCain they had known and admired. Some people speculated on whether the results of the election would have been different if this McCain, this brave and gracious man, had been the one who had campaigned over the past few months. For the general consensus was that in the campaign the candidate had not been true to himself. That in the campaign he had been fighting against his own nature.
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Chris Kelly
– November 2, 2008
Text: Revelation 7:9-17
Other texts: Matthew 5:1-12
If you were looking for a book in the Bible that talked about the other world you might decide to turn your Bible over and open it at the back and look at Revelation.
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Chris Kelly
– October 26, 2008
Text: John 8:31-36
Other texts: Romans 3:19-28
It is an unfortunate fact of life that the older we are the creakier we get. Speed becomes slow. Fresh becomes foul.
This tendency of things flowing and free to thicken up like jello in the refrigerator appears in organizations just as much as it appears in organisms. The brash entrepreneur becomes the timid boss. The upstart competitor becomes the conservative market leader.
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Chris Kelly
– October 19, 2008
Text: Matthew 22:15-22
There are some who say that Jesus is doing a coin trick. Holding the coin that the Pharisees give him, Jesus says: Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Give to God the things that are God’s. The trick, according to some, is that Jesus knows that nothing is really Caesar’s. Caesar claimed divinity, but Jesus knows, and we know, that Caesar was just a man. He neither made the world nor owns the world. The world is made by God and the world is God’s. So what is God’s is everything. And Caesar deserves nothing. This interpretation of the passage is good for those who are trying to get people to give money to the church.
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Chris Kelly
– October 5, 2008
Text: Philippians 3:4b-14
Paul writes about claustrophobia and about the open air.
He writes about forest-covered narrowed-horizon New England and about the open plains of the midwest where you can see the weather coming miles away. He writes about Tokyo with its twisty narrow streets and about Paris with its grand wide boulevards. He writes about oppressive, stultifying relationships and about partnerships of shared adventure and enthusiasm.
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Chris Kelly
– September 28, 2008
Text: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Three hundred years after the death of Jesus, the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. Before that time Christians had been outlaws. After that time, Christianity became an authorized religion in the empire. Granting Christians authority to gather in worship made the institutional church possible. Some say that was good, some say not so good. Certainly without Constantine Christianity would have been very different, and we would likely not be sitting here today in this beautiful building, spending time in public worship, and singing grand hymns loudly.
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Chris Kelly
– September 21, 2008
Text: Matthew 20:1-16
Other texts: Jonah 3:10-4:11
A blessing is a favorable outcome. When we ask for God’s blessing, we ask God to contribute to a favorable outcome. When we sit down to eat, we say a blessing (which is also called “grace,” and I’ll talk about that in a minute). Bless this food, we might say. Meaning make this food be good for us, keep us healthy, gives us energy for life. It doesn’t mean transform this food into superfood. When we ask for a blessing of some tangible thing, like a new house, we are asking that God make our time here good, that what goes on here be full of joy and not sorrow. Or bless this new endeavor, meaning make it go well, be prosperous, give pleasure to those involved.
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Chris Kelly
– September 14, 2008
Text: Matthew 18:21-22
Other texts: Romans 14:10
Imagine.
Imagine a world in which people held grudges.
Imagine a world in which people extracted revenge for sins committed against them. Or against their friends, or even their ancestors. Imagine a world of blood feuds.
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Chris Kelly
– September 7, 2008
Text: Matthew 18:15-20
Other text: Ezekiel 33:7-11
It is not surprising that Ezekiel’s audience was discouraged and disillusioned. Their identity as a people and as a nation—the people and nation of Israel—was eroding. Who they were depended on a notion of God who had given them a land that was theirs to keep, a dynasty of powerful kings who would always rule, and a special spot in God’s heart. Yet now the land was occupied, and the kings and the other leaders captured and in exile. And as for God’s heart? Maybe God was fickle. The people, for their part, were losing heart.
Read more on Losing God, Losing Others…
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Chris Kelly
– August 31, 2008
Text: Romans 12:9-21
Other texts: Matthew 16:21-28
To be holy means to be separate. That’s what holy is: a place, a people, a culture separate from the world around it. Holy does not mean religious.
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