Dr. Harold McNabb
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Sunday, 04 September 2005 16:00 |
I suppose that for some people, the word "certainties" is a bit of a hot button. I hope it is, anyway. Some like their faith certain. Others prefer a bit of mystery. I think the accounts of the resurrection have some of both.
But I like to have some certainty in my life. I enjoy the routines of the day. I like it that I often stop at the Subway in the strip mall near our home to get a coffee I take into the office in the morning. I like it when my teams keep the same roster, though that is less certain now. There are a host of ways we each anchor our life to what is reliable and dependable.
Today we will repeat the Apostles? Creed once again as part of our worship at the Lord?s Table. The form is reliable but what of the content? Well I want to tell you again today that the content is reliable and that you can build a life around it. Particularly, I am certain about the part that says:
"...suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to . . .
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 September 2005 09:05 |
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Monday, 22 August 2005 16:00 |
We live with tension in our lives between conflicting beliefs and obligations. Most are resolved easily with common sense.
The right of free speech does not mean the right to yell "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire.
Some can only be resolved by making a conscious choice to ignore competing claims.
In the second world war, Christians in Holland hid Jews from the Nazis. They chose to disobey one authority and even tell lies about it for what the believed to be the higher authority.
In Romans, Paul tells us that magistrates are appointed by God for the common good. We understand this generally to be true.
But there are times when we choose to disobey a law if it is unjust.
Civil disobedience is a time-honored tactic for advancing a more righteous cause. Sometimes the gesture can be made peacefully with little consequence. But on other occasions, the consequences can be . . .
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Sunday, 14 August 2005 16:00 |
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 On December 1, 1997, Missy Jenkins was one of seven students gunned down at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, following a school prayer meeting. A bullet damaged her spinal cord, leaving Missy dependent upon braces and a walker in order to move around.
At the time of the shooting, Jenkins was 15-years-old and described herself as "without direction." During her convalescence, she not only found the will to stay alive, but the determination to go forward in a positive direction with her life.
"I realized I did not die that morning. I?m all here. I?m alive," said Missy in a recent interview.
On December 18, 2004, carried by that resolve, Missy received a bachelor?s degree in . . .
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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 August 2005 18:55 |
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Saturday, 06 August 2005 18:02 |
Recently I was officiating at a funeral where I did not know many of the family particularly well. As it was near Christmas, I decided to us the idea of Advent as a departure point. I said that Christmas was the occasion for the God of the ages to come into the world in a unique way. That way was by becoming one of us. This is God?s way of showing us His true nature.
When we contemplate our own deaths I wonder how each of us thinks about the time when we will face the God of eternity. Some face that day with faith. Others face it with fear. But when you think of meeting Jesus at the end of your life, I think it is a different matter, if you know who Jesus is.
At the internment, a family member said to me, "its comforting to know that the urn with the ashes is not my uncle. That is just an earthly body. His spirit lives on." I know this person well and could say, "yes that is true, but it is only through an earthly body that we know a person, and his earthly presence will be missed."
We can conceive of God in terms of many abstract . . .
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Between The Rock and a Hard Place |
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Monday, 01 August 2005 18:11 |
In the spring of 2003 a young man named Aaron Ralston was hiking alone in the canyons of Utah when an 800 pound boulder shifted and pinned his arm to the canyon wall. He struggled for five days to free his arm, but was unable. He had left no itinerary for anyone to come searching in case he went missing. Knowing this was a life or death decision, he first broke the bones of his forearm then proceeded to amputate his arm below the elbow with a dull pocket knife.1
When we find ourselves pinned between a rock and a hard place, the choices may not be as dramatic, but sometimes the solution can be life changing. Sometimes the changes can even be liberating.
Jacob and his family are headed home to Caanan and an encounter with Esau.
The reason they are headed home is because Jacob's relationship with his father in law, Laban had taken a turn for the worse.
Through a bit of very curious trickery, Jacob had ended up with the majority of . . .
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