Ernest F. Campbell Selected Sermons

Easter 3 C Energized Instructed Eucharist at Camp Cross May 3, 1992 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell As I read and re-read today’s Gospel I began to pick up on the excitement and energy it portrays. Now, the apostles were still in shock, still not sure of any specific new direction for their lives, return to something they do know… fishing. On the lake of Galilee, it was common to fish at night; working by torch light. Unfortunately, like many fishing expeditions, their night of hard work had yielded nothing. For professionals, that was like a day without pay. Towards dawn they decided to head in…tired and most likely a little dejected. Then in dawns early light, when shades of gray make distant objects hard to distinguish, they hear a voice from the shore, “Have you caught any fish?” How many times have fishermen heard that question? It’s the moment of truth. The sound of the stranger’s voice skips with bell-tone clarity over the calm water. Their reply came skipping back…. “N...

Easter 2 C God Has Acted How Shall We Respond  April 2, 1989 By  Rev. Ernest F. Campbell  God has  acted! Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. But… what if you can’t believe it? What if you, or someone you know, simply can not or will not believe that a man, dead for approximately 40 hours, could be restored to life.  If you or someone you know find this hard to believe, you should be comforted to know that you are in good company.  In Mark’s account: Jesus appeared “First to Mary of Magdala. She went and told the news to those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.”  “After that He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked… and they went and told the news to the rest, but they did not believe it.”  From Luke’s account: “When the women returned from the tomb to tell the Apostles about the stone being rolled away and the two men in ...

 Easter Day C Believe and Be Saved April 16, 1995 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell Rev. Ernie Campbell When I think about the fact that after 42 years in the ministry this could be among the last Easter sermons that I am privileged to preach it makes me want to bear down a little harder. I asked myself…what really needs to be communicated? The stunning…awesome…. news that God raised  Jesus Christ from the dead is the bed rock foundation of Christian doctrine and the central thrust of Apostolic preaching. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says it like this: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and according to the scriptures He was raised on the third day. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, our faith is useless….and we are still in our sins.” In the book of Acts, Peter proclaims the resurrection of Christ like this, “Jesus was not abandoned to the grave, nor did His body see decay. God ...

Good Friday – Let Him Be Crucified April 13, 1990 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell Most of us have been here before. We know the routine of crucifixion so well we have it memorized. It is the kind of story that sears itself into the unconscious – where we would like to keep it…sealed. In a church I served in Minnesota there was a full size, rude beam cross hanging in front of a white brick wall over the main alter. Into its arms and base were driven three large steel spikes. It was awesome, but over the months and years, you …. got used to it. Except, I noticed as the church year approached Holy Week and Good Friday, it became more and more difficult to even glance at that ‘life-sized’ cross. If it is true that ‘the message is in the medium,’ looking at that cross on Good Friday was all that was necessary to understand how fiendishly cruel death by crucifixion was calculated to be.  I found an article written by a medical doctor titled, “The Physical Death of Jesus.” in the article, he d...

 Palm Sunday C Remove This Cup from Me March 23 1986 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell In my mind the most significant words spoken by our Lord in His ministry came while He was at prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was while He was on His knees in prayer that the painful reality of His earthy mission came clear. Humanity was trapped in the deadly destructive poison of man’s sinful nature. Jesus had been sent to take that deadly poison…. away.  Can you imagine someone handing you a cup and telling you that it was filled with the poison of all men’s souls. Then telling you that you must rid the world of that cup forever. You could not pass it on to someone else --you could not hide it or bury it – you could not pour it out lest its systemic characteristics would allow the sinful corruption to spread.  The only way to finally cleanse the poison of men’s and women’s souls would be for a man totally free of the poison to drink every drop…. Into his own being. It would be pa...

 Palm Sunday C Irresistible Theology March 19, 1989 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell The world seems to be caught up in a deadly argument. The greater the commitment to an idea, a cause, or a person; the greater the intensity of energy and power that gets mustered for battle.  A simple appeal for support becomes buglers call to make war. When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was in Rome… in prison. Reports had come to him that two women had quarreled in the church at Philippi. Their argument was endangering the peace. His letter is an appeal to maintain the unity of the church. Not even the healthiest church is immune from the danger of evil’s energy unleashed. If the devil had his way, he would destroy all meaningful and nurturing relationships. In writing to the church at Philippi, Paul identifies three great agents of disunity: There is selfish ambition. Those who instead of trying to advance the work… advance themselves. There is the desire for personal prestige...

 Lent 5 C To Forget, Remember March 20, 1983 By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell The parable of the “Wicked Tenants” is just another version of an old problem. The problem of ownership. We have all seen it rear its ugly head wherever human beings meet to work or play. It sounds like this: This is my toy, this is my house, this is my child, this is my school, this is my church, this is my block, this is my town, this is my life! Our Lord is merely retelling the Adam and Eve story--where the self-willed nature of man was first introduced in scripture. In short, it is human nature to want life on our own terms. To have “the last word” on what is right and fair from our point of view. But, as we learned in today’s parable, our obsession to have “the last word” is our downfall. What this allegorical parable is telling us is… that when we deny God’s claims for justice and compassion the results are ultimately self-destructive. It will help to understand that; the vineyard stands for the n...