A Good Sermon Is Going To Disturb

So This Is Reality, This Forgiveness, This Reconciliation, Is True For Everybody. Paul Insisted That When Jesus Died On The Cross, He Was Reconciling "all Things, In Heaven And On Earth, To God." All Things, Everywhere. ...this Reality Then Isn't Something We Make Come True About Ourselves By Doing Something. It Is Already True. Our Choice Is To Live In This New Reality Or Cling To A Reality Of Our Own Making.

It Often Takes Suffering And Lost In Order To Remind Us Of How Precious Life Is.

The Great German Scholar Helmut Thielicke Once Said That A Person Who Speaks To This Hour’s Need Will Always Be Skirting The Edge Of Heresy, But Only The Person Who Risks Those Heresies Can Gain The Truth.

Some Communities Don't Permit Open, Honest Inquiry About The Things That Matter Most. Lots Of People Have Voiced A Concern, Expressed A Doubt, Or Raised A Question, Only To Be Told By Their Family, Church, Friends, Or Tribe: "we Don't Discuss Those Things Here." I Believe The Discussion Itself Is Divine. Abraham Does His Best To Bargain With God, Most Of The Book Of Job Consists Of Arguments By Job And His Friends About The Deepest Questions Of Human Suffering, God Is Practically On Trial In The Book Of Lamentations, And Jesus Responds To Almost Every Question He's Asked With...a Question.

We're Rediscovering Christianity As An Eastern Religion, As A Way Of Life.