Posts

Palm Sunday (A) Let God’s Love Transform Us

Image
Palm Sunday (A) Let God’s Love Transform Us April 15, 1984 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell It is our high privilege to claim the freedom God gives through the cross, vital that we understand its meaning, and imperative that we share this powerful good news with our world. I have determined to make this sermon as simple and direct as I know how, with the hope that you will all be able to repeat the gist of it at the next opportunity. Ever since God created us with free will (the ability to obey or defy His plan for our lives), it has been our nature to defy Him. Every parent knows that if our children are allowed to behave in a defiant manner, undisciplined, we will lose the necessary authority to love them in the direction of worthwhile choices. Pity the child who defines his parents and is allowed to get away with it. Why? Because……. No teacher can teach in chaos…. no police officer can enforce the law in anarchy…. No government can survive if its citizens are allowed to flout authority. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lent 5 (A) From Death to Life

Image
Lent 5 (A) From Death to Life April 5, 1987 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell The lesson from Ezekiel with the wonderful imagery of the valley of dry bones , having life breathed into them by God, concludes with these words. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord. The Israelite ’s besting sin was their careless distancing themselves from God. The more removed they made themselves from God, the more their lives fell apart. Now, in their captivity in a foreign land where they worked as slaves, their lives it would seem were without hope. They were like…. dry bones. Then God raised up Ezekiel to deliver a message to his people. “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lent 4 (A) How Blind Are We?

Image
Lent 4 (A) How Blind Are We? April 3, 2011 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. Everyone was amazed because it was a healing miracle outside of human experience. The man who was healed concluded that the man who performed this miracle must be a prophet of God. So, they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” Not so fast, say the Pharisees , with their religious prejudices in high gear. THIS man that you say restored your sight can not be a prophet because he did what the law considers WORK on the Sabbath . He made a clay patch to put on the man’s eyes. He is no prophet. He is a sinner.  So, for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” Then the man born blind speaks up. I was taught to believe that God does not listen to sinners. This I know for sure; I was blind and now ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lent 3 (A) True Worship

Image
Lent 3 (A) True Worship February 24, 2008 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell In the Season of Lent, the assigned lessons reveal more and more of Christ’s being and purpose. This, the third Sunday of lent , we see Jesus traveling with his disciples through the region of Samaria where he meets a lone Samaritan woman at a well. The first thing we notice is Jesus expanding the Jewish boundaries of God’s concern and love. To the Jewish way of thinking, Samaritans were not nice people. Pure Jews were expected to keep them at a distance. Samaritans were Jews that had married outside the Jewish law . Example) A Roman Catholic father told his daughter that if she married the Episcopalian she was in love with, he would never speak to her again. We are talking strong feelings here. Jesus, a Jew, crosses that boundary when he strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan; a Samaritan WOMAN! Jesus crosses another boundary by speaking to a woman in public. By Jewish law, this would have made Jesus, a Rabb...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lent 2 (A) What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

Image
Lent 2 (A) What Does it Mean to be Born Again? March 15, 1981 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell In a recent Gallup poll 84 million people 18 years and older claimed to be born again Christians . That fact alone may explain why all three candidates for the Presidency in the last election laid claim to the experience of being ‘born again in Jesus Christ.’ The term ‘Born Again’ or ‘Born Anew’ or ‘Born from Above’ has its origin in this week’s Gospel. Nicodemus , a member of the Sanhedrin , the highest ruling body in the Jewish community, comes to Jesus by night with a question, “What must I do to experience the kingdom of God ?” (in other words), how can I personally enjoy, the mercy, love, power, and peace of God? how can I have the freedom of knowing that I am truly in God’s favor? How can I rest assured through all the changes and chances of human existence that my life has meaning, purpose, and a Godly destiny? I believe that we must assume that Nicodemus was a good man. He knew God’s law a...
Post a Comment
Read more