November 24 - Power and Love

For more on the Christian calendar check here. If you would like to intentionally organize your life more around the Christian calendar, you can actually order a wall calendar based on it here. It's an interesting idea and looks to me like a good product. It doesn't ignore the months of the year, but it puts the emphasis on the Christian seasons.

Malala really did confront Obama. Here's a link to the CNN story from October 11.

The quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. is from a speech he gave. Here's an excerpt on YouTube.

November 17 - To See or Not to See

If you haven't already, you may want to read this week's newsletter. It contains a brief reflection on the Council of Bishops' statement.

Sermon Notes

Some of the information for today's sermon comes from The New Interpreter's Commentary. It's pricey, but if you want some of the best scholarship it's worth the price. I used several commentaries in my work, but this is the one I use most often.

We also use a variety of Bible translations, but the one we use most often is the Common English Bible. It's a newer translation. One of the most notable differences between it and other translations is the use of the title "The Human One" instead of "Son of Man" for Jesus. Here's a good starting point if you want to read more about the reasons behind the change.

Sometime I'll preach some more sermons just on the story of the Rich Young Ruler. The story appears in Mark and Matthew as well as Luke. Here's a sermon from another pastor that is similar to one of the two or three I would preach.

The Leonard Sweet quote is from his forward to the book Truth is the Word. I found the quote online. I heard him say something similar in person once and got lucky. I haven't read the book so can't comment on it one way or the other, but if Sweet recommends it it's probably a good read.

November 10 - High Hopes

Before we look at this week's message, please consider donating to UMCOR for relief in the Philippines. This is part of how we be the hope that God is calling us to be.

Today's Scripture passage comes during the Babylonian exile. You can learn more about the Babylonian Exile here and here.

Here's a slightly different version of the woman, rowboat, helicopter story from someone who relates it to faith healing.

I mention briefly that we know very little about Jewish life in Babylon during the exile. The little we do know comes from a discovery called the Murashu documents. Honestly, I know nothing more than the Wikipedia entry and a couple other websites I visited. If someone has the time to delve deeper into the subject I'd love to hear the results.

At the end of the sermon I mentioned the book Mere Christianity. It is an absolute must read. Like anything there are statements we will disagree with, but it is an outstanding book.