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Tuesday, August 25, 2009
When Jesus Comes Calling
 Exodus 3:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20
The pastor rang the doorbell, then knocked when no one came to the door. Still no response. So he wrote on the back of his business card, "Sorry I missed you. (Revelation 3:20)" and tucked it in the door frame.
The verse quotes Jesus as saying, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door to me, I will come in and we will eat together."
When he returned to the church office a voice mail message was waiting for him. He recognized the voice of the woman at whose house he had left the card, "And I'm sorry that I missed you. Genesis 3:10."
He knew Genesis 3 was about Adam and Eve's fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, but he had to look up the exact wording of verse 10. Here's what Adam says to God there, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
This week's sermon took a lingering look, not at Adam or Eve or the naked lady in that joke, but at the stained glass representation of Jesus knocking on a door and speaking those words of invitation in Revelation 3:20.
It's surprising enough, when you think about it, that he should do the inviting. After all, he's dependent on the person inside the house to open up the door. Without that generous welcome, there's no way he's going to get inside.
For two good reasons:
1. There is no handle on the outside of the door, so it can only be opened from the inside.
2. He specifically says that he will enter the house if the person inside will kindly open the door.
What if Jesus came calling at your door? Would you be ready and willing to let him in?
Are you sure?
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:31 AM
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
God Loves Children
 1 Samuel 3:1-10; Mark 10:13-16
It's a sweet picture, and one of the all-time favorites among our Sanctuary's ten stained glass windows depicting Jesus and his meaning.
He's sitting with some children, each of them obviously happy to be close to him and to have his undivided attention. In the background we see some grown-ups bringing more children to join the joyful scene.
I have in my office another picture that represents this brief story in Mark's Gospel. Its mood is much darker than our stained glass version, and understandably so.
Drawn by a 10-year-old Sunday school boy, it's a kid's-eye view of how the story begins. A 10-year-old boy stands facing us, visible from head to toe. On his right we see the feet and legs of two adults, the rest of their bodies disappearing above the picture. To his left an arm reaches into the picture to push the boy back and away.
Now we realize that we are standing in Jesus' sandals, and the boy is looking us in the eye to ask, "What will you do now?"
Our young artist has supplied his own answer as an inscription: "I'm a kid. All kids are important to Jesus. I am too."
What a shame the disciples didn't think of that when they tried to shoo away the children that busy day so long ago.
I can see why they were distracted and forgot their manners. Here was Jesus putting in one more long hard day of teaching and preaching and healing and all. Who had time for any kind of interruption?
Besides that, he'd been telling and retelling the hard bad news that when they got to Jerusalem for the Passover he would be captured and killed! Who had mental or emotional space for anything else, with all that weighing heavy on their hearts?
Well, Jesus is who.
He invited the children to come sit with him. He held them, smiled at them, spoke to them, probably laughed and winked and mussed their hair a bit. And he blessed them in God's good name.
And he said to his disciples (and to us), "Never underestimate how important a single child is in the heart and mind of God. In fact it's absolutely essential for every person -- no matter how long in years and wise in worldly ways -- to have the attitude of a child when it comes to knowing and trusting God."
Psychology tells us there's a child inside every one of us all the days of our lives, who will not tolerate being forgotten or ignored for very long. By ourselves, or by other selves with whom we live and move and have our being.
I discovered several years ago that inside my psyche there live at least three such kids: one age three, another age seven, and a very edgy sixteen-year-old. It took me a long time to get to know these kids, an even longer time to come to terms with them. All these years later, I'm still working on how best to team up with them occasionally, to have some fun for one thing, and also to become the mature man that God has in mind whenever my name is mentioned around heaven.
Meanwhile, words fail me to fathom this amazingly wonderful fact: Every kid is infinitely important to Jesus, especially the kids who live inside you and me!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:19 PM
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
First Things First
 Psalm 24; John 20:1, 11-18
This week I preached the first of ten sermons that will focus on our Sanctuary's stained glass windows that portray ten scenes from Jesus' life and ministry. In each installment of "The Gospel in Stained Glass" I begin with some attention to the picture itself, then I dig into the Bible story behind it. My plan is to retell the story in plain speech and apply its eternal meaning in some timely ways for the way we live today.
First off, we see Jesus stopping Mary Magdalene in her tracks on Easter morning.
She had come to the tomb to take care of his dead body only to find him standing there full of life! The picture shows her kneeling in awe and reaching out to hug him. But no. Jesus has his hand raised high, index finger pointing towards the sky.
This is the moment when he tells her, "Don't be touching me just now."
But what about that body language of the pointing finger? What can the artist have in mind? What could Jesus have in mind, in the original story?
For a few minutes I played around with some possibilities...
+ If waving back and forth: "No, no, Mary!"
+ If on the Devil's metaphorical football field: "I win!"
+ If on-line: "Click here for link."
+ If prioritizing: "First things first!"
+ If theologizing: "God and I have some work to do."
Doggone if I didn't conclude that all five possibilities made pretty good sense, on their own and all together. To see what I mean, just...
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:48 AM
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