Author: Chris Kelly
Chris Kelly
– October 1, 2006
October 1, 2006
Text: Mark 9:38-50
In institutions there is a tendency to favor structure over vitality. Even though, as in the body, it is the vitality of the parts that strengthens and preserves the whole. Our living, energetic cells, constantly moving and making, keep us intact and sturdy. The structure of an institution is a myth. Without vitality, there is no structure. Without vitality, structure is death, like a snail shell without the snail, a skeleton without breath.
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Chris Kelly
– September 25, 2006
September 24, 2006
Readings: Psalm 54 & Mark 9:30-37
The problem with claiming to be righteous is that we don’t know if we are righteous. Sometimes not. Probably not. The problem with claiming to be the greatest is that we have no idea how great we are. Sometimes not so great. Not very great.
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Chris Kelly
– September 24, 2006
September 24, 2006
Readings: Psalm 54 & Mark 9:30-37
The problem with claiming to be righteous is that we don’t know if we are righteous. Sometimes not. Probably not. The problem with claiming to be the greatest is that we have no idea how great we are. Sometimes not so great. Not very great.
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Chris Kelly
– September 17, 2006
September 17, 2006
Text: Mark 8:27-38
Jesus had a lot on his mind.
Lutherans are adamant about the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus was God in the flesh. More than others, even, Lutherans insist that Jesus was 100% divine and 100% human at the same time. That balance is even. Not mostly divine and a little bit human. Not mostly human with a touch of the divine. Not a god in human disguise, walking incognito on the earth. Not a good teacher and radical blessed by God. But God and human both.
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Chris Kelly
– September 17, 2006
September 17, 2006
Text: Mark 8:27-38
Jesus had a lot on his mind.
Lutherans are adamant about the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus was God in the flesh. More than others, even, Lutherans insist that Jesus was 100% divine and 100% human at the same time. That balance is even. Not mostly divine and a little bit human. Not mostly human with a touch of the divine. Not a god in human disguise, walking incognito on the earth. Not a good teacher and radical blessed by God. But God and human both.
Read more on A Mind on Human Things…
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Chris Kelly
– September 10, 2006
September 10, 2006
Text: James 2:1-17
My neighbor tries to start his old, rickety truck, whose springs are shot and whose bed always is full of some kind of junk or other. The truck won’t start. Urrm, urrm. The starter turns. Urrm. Again. And again. Finally it catches. He backs up, just missing clobbering the car behind, then surges forward, just missing mine in front. I surprise myself by thinking: “what is wrong with that person?”
Read more on Father of All Law, Mother of All Sin…
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Chris Kelly
– September 3, 2006
September 3, 2006
Text: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Preacher: Pastor Seitz
Today’s Gospel text presents Jesus in a very common situation. He is being challenged by “Pharisees and teachers of the Law.” They gathered around Jesus. They sat and watched the disciples and some were eating without washing their hands.
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Chris Kelly
– June 4, 2006
June 4, 2006
Text: Acts 2:1-21
We are home to images of God.
Being creatures made of flesh and bone, our minds try to imagine the unimaginable and to turn the indescribable into substance. How else can we understand things? We know the world through the senses of sight, sound, touch, and also the senses of hunger and sorrow and exhilaration. In our minds we paint pictures of the God that we know and we attach names of the ordinary to the divine. And we put those pictures on canvas and plaster and marble. Here is Jesus on the mural, Jesus the shepherd.
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Chris Kelly
– May 15, 2014
There is no Sunday School after May 18, but there will be a special summer program during worship. Speak to Tim Snyder for more information.
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Chris Kelly
– May 11, 2014
Text: John 10:1-10
Other texts: Acts 2:42-47
Fences keep people out. They keep people in. They protect. They imprison. An open door is an invitation. It is a breach. It brings freedom. It brings fear. But in all cases fences are engines of distinction. They separate one thing from another, creating two different things that once were one.
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