Rev. Gale Watkins, Pastor

From recent Sundays at Westminster: 

Scripture and sermon from July 20, 2025

Proverbs 15:1-5, 18, 23 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

A soft answer turns away wrath,
    but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
    but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
    keeping watch on the evil and the good.
A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
    but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
A fool despises a parent’s instruction,
    but the one who heeds admonition is prudent.

Those who are hot-tempered stir up strife,
    but those who are slow to anger calm contention.

To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone,
    and a word in season, how good it is!

Ephesians 4:1-6, 25-32 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: 4 there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up,[b] as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

We have a problem.

In this country of ours, which we love, we have a problem, a big problem.

We now have trouble talking with each other and working together when we don’t see things the same way.

Having different views on important matters is not new at all.

We have had rival political parties for a long time.

But something has changed.

Members of political parties now see the people on the other side of the aisle not only as different, not only as mistaken on consequential matters, but as evil.

A Christian woman from Texas named Elizabeth Neumann has been studying these matters since she worked at the White House in the Department of Homeland Security.

Her focus was terrorism, domestic terrorism. 

She has found lately that the very things that make hate groups so dangerous are now widespread in the general population.

Our rivals don’t merely see things differently. 

It’s common for us to believe that they are actually evil people who must be stopped.

Survey results that Elizabeth Neumann discusses are alarming because they reveal that an increasing number of us are even willing to entertain the use of violence as a viable strategy.

She and others who are studying these trends are worried that political violence, which we can already see taking place, may well increase.

Like a lot of observers, I’m concerned about the future of the nation. 

But especially troubling to me is the way that people who identify as Christian are not exempt from engaging in these same behaviors.

A Christianity Today article in the May/June 2025 issue is called “A Splintered Generation.”

The authors, Skyler Flowers and Michael Graham, are sounding the alarm. 

They call attention to the way that church people interact in person and on social media.

They observe that even when we have the same position on a matter, we may have differing postures. 

It’s not only what we believe that shapes our common life, but how we arrive at that belief and how we embody it. 

Their article shows how the very problems that we see in our nation are also playing out in the Christian community.

We Christians are, these authors claim, splintered.

So I believe that we have a serious problem in our nation and in the Christian community.

I also believe that there is help at hand.

Our Christian faith provides resources that will help us find our way.

I’ve been happy to find people like Elizabeth Neumann and many others who have been wrestling with these difficult matters.

We’re blessed to have a number of wise Christian mentors.

We’ve even more blessed to have the Word of God.

Though the biblical writers don’t speak directly about partisan politics in the 21st century, they have plenty to say about how people who know the Lord are called to live.

I want to draw on a couple of different biblical writings that can provide us with wisdom for our time and place.

Scripture has plenty to say about what ails us.

We have in the book of Proverbs insight and counsel for many realms of life.

Some of the proverbs are insightful and relevant for our use of words.

They seem especially fitting for our in-person conversations and for online conversations as well.  

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

It’s not only what we say that matters, but how we say it.

The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Words are powerful, which is both good news and bad news.

Those who are hot-tempered stir up strife, but those who are slow to anger calm contention.

One peaceful person can have a massive impact.

These sayings are so true-to-life that you wonder if the biblical author has been reading our social media posts!

Lest we come away discouraged and cynical about our use and misuse of words, we have a proverb that is especially encouraging and hopeful.

To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone, and a word in season, how good it is! 

Wouldn’t it be great if Christians were known as people who who regularly says what needs to be said? 

These proverbs about our words are common sense observations on the way that life works.

Our words, both spoken and written, both in-person and online, can be very good or very bad.

If we want to go deeper to find out how we can make an apt answer no matter the issue at hand, we do well to turn to the New Testament.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians makes much of the way we speak.

His focus is mostly on life within the Christian community, though his teaching will shape our lives wherever we find ourselves.

Everything that Paul teaches us about our speaking rests on a solid foundation.

He tells us what is real.

There is one God. There is one body. We are members of one another.

This is reality, even though it can be hard to see in the thick of our intense arguments over disputed questions.

It is good news that there is a basis for a distinctly Christian way of life, which includes our speaking and interacting with one another.

Paul’s practical instructions, which are so timely, are built on a solid foundation, the unity of the Spirit.

Listen to what he says, and consider how his teaching could transform our common life.

Speak the truth with your neighbor.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths.

Your words may give grace to those who hear.

This sounds a lot like that proverb about making an apt answer and the goodness of a word in season.

Paul’s counsel is very practical.

He provides a long list of specific things to put away.

Bitterness

Wrath

Anger

Wrangling

Slander

Malice

Can you imagine a world without these all-too-common attitudes and practices?

Paul then provides another list, a shorter list, that sums up a different way of life, a better way.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

I realize that the teaching provided in Scripture doesn’t give us specific policy positions on current congressional votes, but it does provide us with a clear picture of the life we’re called to live in any environment.

Shaped by biblical counsel, we will have a certain posture, a certain attitude no matter the topic, no matter the position that we think is the better one. 

Jesus told his followers, You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.

While no individual Christian can singlehandedly reverse national trends, Jesus is telling us that as we follow him, our lives will reflect his values, which will make us influential in our world, as salt and light make a difference. 

It’s tragic when we who are identified with Jesus Christ are just as divisive and angry as everyone else.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

What a blessing it will be for church and nation when all of us hear and live by the good teaching that we have received in Scripture!

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Scripture and sermon from July 13, 2025

Psalm 32:1-5 (New International Version)

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them 

and in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me; 

my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”

And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

1 John 1:5-10 (New International Version)

 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Confession is good for the soul.

Or is it?

Let’s turn it around.

If confession is good for the soul, what happens when there is no confession?

Is it bad for the soul when we don’t confess?

People do sometimes say, I have nothing to confess. I don’t need to ask for forgiveness!

Or, even if you don’t say that, you may avoid confession because it’s so depressing!

But what happens when we stay as far away from confession as we can? 

Better, it seems, to keep things hidden, or to pretend that everything is all right.

However, one of the Psalms, Psalm 32, begs to differ.

It’s not theory.

It’s personal testimony.

It’s the story of a believer who for a time didn’t own up.

The result was not good.

It was like a deadly disease that eats you up from the inside.

It was like carrying a heavy weight, more than you can handle.

The Psalm is saying that non-confession is bad for the soul, and for the body too.

When we shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament, it gets worse!

Human beings have many skills.

Among our skills is the art of deceiving.

We can out-and-out lie, but there are other methods that are even more effective and more destructive. 

Deception is entertaining to watch, as we know from so many movies and TV shows. 

The trouble with deception, though, is that we can deceive not only our enemies but ourselves as well.

When you are self-deceived, there is no way out.

You’re stuck. 

So it is when we refuse to confess our sins.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.

You don’t even know what is real and what isn’t.

That is the trouble with not owning up.

Then you’re really trapped.

The Bible is telling us, then, that when we don’t confess, we do harm, harm to our relationship with God, and harm to ourselves.  

Psalm 32 tells a really sad story of being hemmed in.

Unconfessed sins does all sorts of harm.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, there is a turnaround.

The destructive coverup meets its match when there is a change of heart.

The believer who is telling his story reports that when he acknowledged his sin, life changed for the better.

He owned up.

He confessed.

It appears that this one thing that he did was enough.  

Quite often, we sense that there must be more to it. 

You tell yourself, I must pay up.

Or you think that you must do something really heroic to mitigate the offense.

But in the Psalm, it’s so simple.

Merely confessing sin is powerful enough all by itself.

Christians, reading the Bible, have been saying for a long time that confession really is good for the soul.

We’ve said that confession of sin is actually a means of grace.

New converts confess their sins.

They sing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

It turns out, though, that confession is a means of grace not only at the beginning of the journey but all the way through.

We never outgrow our need to walk in the light, to confess our sin and to receive the gift of forgiveness.

John Calvin goes so far as to tell us that confessing our sin as the psalmist did is a mark of spiritual health. He says, “The more eminently that anyone excels in holiness, the further he feels himself from perfect righteousness, and the more clearly he perceives that he can trust in nothing but the mercy of God alone. Hence it appears, that those are grossly mistaken who conceive that the pardon of sin is necessary only to the beginning of righteousness.”

So it is that many churches include a prayer of confession when they meet for worship.

Too depressing, some critics will say. 

If all you do is bewail your condition, that would be depressing.

You’re then locked into your misery.

But Christians, reading Psalm 32 and 1 John 1, have a different point of view.

It all depends on who is hearing your confession.

A wise Christian writer named Robert Roberts reminds us that Christian confession happens “inside the cradle of grace.”

To confess is to tell the truth, to own up to what is real.

Inside the cradle of grace, find that confession truly is good for the soul.

So we own up, we tell the truth, we confess our sin when we meet together for worship, and in our private time with the Lord, and when we have conversation with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Cornelius Plantinga tells us, “Confessing sin is like talking out the garbage. You want to do it regularly because taking out the garbage is an extremely healthy thing to do.”

In other words, confession really is good for the soul. It’s good for us because it opens the door of forgiveness, a gift we receive because God loves us so much.

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Scripture readings and sermon for June 29, 2025, which focused on this line from the Nicene Creed: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Micah 7:18-20 (New International Version)

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.  You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.

Romans 6:1-4 (New International Version)

            What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Galatians 3:26-29 (New International Version)

            So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

One baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

This is what we Christians acknowledge, the Creed is telling us. 

You wonder, though. 

One baptism? Really?

Anyone who pays attention knows that we Christians have been disagreeing about baptism for five hundred years or more, with no end in sight.

Every group that calls itself Christian baptizes people.

But we have different notions of what baptism is, and what it does.

We have different opinions on who should be baptized, and when, and where.

Even if we agree that water is part of it, we don’t all use the same amount of water.

There have been huge controversies in the past over who can officiate, and what to do if there is something objectionable about the person in charge or the words that are used.

So it’s no wonder that we hear people to talk about being baptized into this or that church by this or that pastor, which gives us the sense that there is not one baptism, but a whole lot of different baptisms.

That word one in the Nicene Creed, then, is a challenge to a lot of our impressions and opinions about baptism.

But if we do acknowledge that there really is one baptism, we’re in good company.

Very good company!

Paul the apostle made a big point of this very thing, that there is but one baptism.

Writing to the Galatians, he uses the word one, as in you are all one in Christ.

He then spells out some specific matters that are still present but are no longer decisive on who is or is not part of the family.  

Thus, he says, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female.

If there is really one baptism, we will not dismiss other Christians as second-class. 

We will have respect for all Christians, whether they do things the way that we do them or not.

If we are taught by the Creed, we will affirm that there is one baptism.

Luke Timothy Johnson writes, “One baptism” creates a radical equality among all the faithful. 

That’s a powerful reminder, a big step toward good relationships within and among Christian congregations, even radical equality among all the faithful, but let’s not stop here.

Let’s pay attention to the rest of what the Creed includes in this line about baptism, for the forgiveness of sins.

Here, we are invited to affirm that the one baptism that we acknowledge testifies to something we are all desperate to find, the forgiveness of sins.

Human beings long for the promise that we find in the prophecy of Micah to be real.

We’re tired of our sins circling back to trap us again and again.

We would love for them to be thrown into the depths of the sea, but we don’t have the arm strength.

Wherever we come down on all of those contested questions surrounding the practice of baptism, we all can affirm that baptism is a sign of what God alone can accomplish, the forgiveness of sins.

We’re going deep here because, while we are talking about baptism in water, we’re also focusing on something that God does within the human heart.

As important as being baptized in water is in getting us going in Christian life, in and of itself, it doesn’t do everything that needs to be done.

We are in bondage, and we need an act of God to be set free from the bondage of sin.

The great thing about the one baptism is that it is a sign and seal of what God alone can accomplish. 

The one baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, our sins.

The church, then, is a gathering of people who have received this greatest of all gifts.

Susan Wood, in her reflection on the Creed, tells us what this means in practice: The church is a community of those for whom Jesus Christ died, whose sins are forgiven. … By taking the name Christian in baptism and being incorporated into Christ’s body, the baptized assume the responsibility to offer forgiveness to one another in imitation of the one into whom they are baptized.

Forgiven people can forgive one another.

What good news this is in a world where it’s so common for us to get even, to retaliate against our enemies. 

We who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord are summoned to a new way of life.

What people in our world are longing for, a community in which we are welcomed, where we forgive and are forgiven, is the church of Jesus Christ.

So this is a welcome reminder that comes from the Nicene Creed: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

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June 8, 2025 Scripture and sermon (fifth in a series on the Nicene Creed)

Colossians 3:1-4 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

On the third day he rose again

 in accordance with the Scriptures;

 he ascended into heaven

 and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

 He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

 and his kingdom will have no end.

It looked bad. A massive defeat. Hope was lost. The would-be Savior was dead and buried. Then … a complete reversal! Defeat gives way to a great victory. The One who was dead is now alive. 

The Nicene Creed celebrates Jesus’ victory. Jesus is fully God and fully human. He entered this world for us and for our salvation, even suffering death on the cross for our sake. He has moved toward us, the full distance. Picture it as a downward movement, coming all the way to where we are, into our need and misery. So great is his compassion for lost human beings.

Then comes a turning point, a change of direction, from downward to upward, from humiliation to exaltation. This turnaround is the resurrection of the Lord. It is a great turning point, the decisive turning point in human history. It is the beginning of his triumph over all enemies, even death itself, our last enemy.

Today’s sermon is a reminder of what is always true.

We need reminders because we are forgetful. 

Really important matters can gradually slide to the back burner of our minds. 

We need reminders lest we forget. 

The Nicene Creed reminds us, lest we forget, that the same Lord Jesus Christ who entered our world as a human being, for us and for our salvation, is now the reigning Lord of all. In the midst of daily life, we just might forget the Lord’s victory. The creed is a powerful reminder. It speaks of Christ’s victory in three tenses, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do in the future. 

Jesus is a historic figure. We appreciate what he did long ago, how he conducted himself, how he taught, how he showed compassion, how he confronted his opponents. But the creed shows us that Jesus is more than a figure from the past. It reminds us that he is now seated at the Father’s right hand, the place of authority over the whole creation. And in the future he will come again in glory. On that day, he will arrive as the victorious Lord of all and the Judge who will put all things right.

We need to be reminded of all these things. The reason is that we still struggle. There are always ups and downs. We have good days and bad days. Though the cause of Christ is thriving in some parts of the world, it is not so in other parts. We easily grow discouraged. We even forget Christ’s victory. 

This part of the Nicene Creed speaks of the victory of Jesus Christ in several stages. He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. 

Everything else follows from that event. 

In the resurrection, God was being faithful to the promises made in the Scriptures. 

Christ then ascended into heaven. It was a return to where he had been, God’s own realm, but with this difference. He ascended as one of us, a human being who now represents other human beings, continuously pleading our case as our great high priest. 

Jesus, however, is not only a priest, he is also King. He is the actively reigning Lord over all that is. 

As for the future, he will come again. He will appear as the rightful Judge over everyone, both living and dead. And his kingdom will have no end. That is the future that we can count on because the Lord has been raised. 

But not everyone knows these things. Some have never heard. Some have heard the good news but dismiss it as nothing more than wishful thinking. Some have heard it and believed it, but in the midst of struggle and strife, have forgotten. It’s possible for us to live our lives without recognizing that Jesus is Lord. In that case, his victory does not have an impact on our lives. It’s hard for us because we don’t see him clearly at the present time. But it will be different when he returns. At that time he will come in glory as the rightful King, the one before whom all people, living and dead alike, are accountable.

The apostle Paul writes about Jesus Christ. He wants the victory of Christ in all three tenses—past, present, and future—to transform our lives. This includes our thinking. Set your minds on things that are above. Remember the truth about yourself. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Be clear about your future. You also will be revealed with him in glory. The Nicene Creed affirms that his kingdom will have no end. We are part of an eternal kingdom. 

Today’s sermon is merely a reminder, a reminder that Jesus Christ has won the battle. It’s the greatest victory ever, and it includes us.

But it’s risky to speak about victory. The risk is that we might turn to gloating, like the football player who scores a touchdown and then taunts his opponent. We’re turned off by such displays of arrogance. Sometimes Christians have been arrogant, as though we have won the victory ourselves, as if we’re superior to other people. But it would be a mistake to overreact by avoiding the topic of victory altogether. We need the reminder that Christ has won a great victory. We benefit from what he has done for us. We will share in his victory, but let’s remember that it’s always his victory. Christ alone is seated at the right hand of God. Christ alone is our life. Christ alone will return in glory. For this reason, we live in Christ, not with cockiness but with confidence, victors in the midst of strife.

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May 18, 2025 sermon (second sermon in series on the Nicene Creed)

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

For 1700 years now, Christians have been repeating these words from the Nicene Creed.

To one of the great questions that thoughtful people wrestle with, where we have come from and how we got here, we claim that we have been created by God, the only God there is.

Not only ourselves, but everything without exception, what you can see and what you cannot see, is here because it has been created by God.

There is, we say in the Creed, one God.

How we answer this great question of where we’ve come from matters greatly.

There was a time when God’s people, Israel, were in deep trouble. 

They were exiled in Babylon.

For them, everything was up for grabs.

The very people who had such a rich history, were saying, My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. (Isaiah 40:27)

So far as they were concerned, life is nothing more than dog eat dog, survival of the fittest.

If there is no Creator, or if whatever divine entity there may be is unreachable, life is pointless.

Is the world created, or not?

How we respond to this great question matters greatly.

Centuries later, the Kingdom of God has a foothold in the least likely place, the great city of Corinth.

The people there were not atheists.

Quite the contrary. 

This was the land of many gods and many lords.

It’s a vast spiritual marketplace.

Everything you can imagine is for sale.

Buy the deity that grabs you.

Or if you like, mix and match. 

With such a long buffet line, no single object of worship can call for exclusive loyalty.

One slogan that is often used today sounds like Corinth in the days of Roman dominance: spiritual but not religious.

We love to mix and match, believing that there are many gods and many lords.

Take your pick.

The trouble, though, with do-it-yourself spirituality is exactly the plight of the people portrayed in the book of Isaiah.

You have idols of wood that are crafted by human artists, but they don’t do much.

They have nothing to say.

They can’t deliver you when you’re in trouble. 

But the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, gives us good news.

The good news is that there is an alternative, one God.

To us, living in a world with unending choices, this may sound narrow and exclusive.

However, if there is one God who is not one among many, but the Creator of the ends of the earth (Isaiah 40:28), the God from whom are all things and for whom we exist, all bets are off!

It so happens that when we discover that there is one God, a single Creator, life makes sense.

In fact, we flourish when we know where we have come from and how we got here, when we welcome the good news that the world is created by one God.

This is good news that shapes our thinking and our living.

As the book of Isaiah says, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

The reason that such a good life is possible is that God the Creator is good and generous.

Thus, Paul tells the people who are living among all those gods and lords in Corinth that the one God not only exists, but is our Father. 

The Creator of the ends of the earth knows us and cares for us. 

For Christians who gladly speak the words of the Nicene Creed, saying that we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen, this is more than our answer to a philosophical question.

This is good news that shapes our lives powerfully.

None of us is an accident.

We are all created by the one God who loves us.

We have value.

We have purpose.

Let’s be glad that it’s true, that one God, the Father, the Almighty, is the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

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May 11, 2025 sermon, first in a series on the Nicene Creed

Mark 2:1-5 (New International Version)

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

We believe!

So begins the oldest and most widely accepted statement of Christian essentials there is, the Nicene Creed.

We believe!

This Creed goes all the way back to the council that met in Nicaea, in present day Turkey, back in the year 325, exactly 1700 years ago.

We believe!

Yes, we Christians do believe. 

We can point out, though, that we are not alone.

Everyone believes something. 

Even the most strident atheist who says that there is no god, that the universe is all there is, is actually saying, We believe that there is no higher power, there is no one minding the store. 

Everyone believes something.

For some, We believe declares their belief that the world is ruled by chance. 

For them, it’s all one gigantic roulette wheel.

We Christians have always declared clearly what we believe. 

We have a knack for saying, We believe, and then spelling it out.

We are affirming certain ideas, or better, we’re identifying who we believe.

In saying, We believe, we are at the same time saying what we do not believe

We are distancing ourselves from what many other people believe.

When we say, We believe, we mean, for instance, that we do not believe that the universe is one big roulette wheel.

To believe one thing is to deny another.

So far, I’ve been speaking about what we believe, or who we believe, which makes Christians distinct. 

But there is something else that makes us distinct, and that is how we believe. 

We believe in a certain way.

Here is a picture of Christian believing, one that you won’t ever forget.

It is the picture of believing that we see in four amazing friends who lower another friend through the roof.

Imagine the scene. The room is packed. You hear this noise. Where is it coming from? 

Is it a mouse? 

Then there is a little bit of light shining through, and it grows larger and larger. 

Finally something quite large appears. It’s a full-grown man being lowered from the roof to the crowd below. Can you picture this in your mind? 

Keep looking. You can spot four men, one at each corner of the opening in the roof, lowering a rope a little bit at a time.

What do you see? That depends on your perspective.

What if it were your house with a big hole in the roof? 

You see an act of vandalism. 

You see four mischief-makers who have no regard for private property! 

Or do you see something else? It depends on your perspective. 

If you’re the man being lowered, you see the greatest act of friendship ever.

What does Jesus see? Mark tells us that Jesus saw their faith. 

Jesus perceives something that others missed. What these four are doing is an act of faith. 

If Jesus is right, that this really is faith in action, then it shows us a lot about what it means for us to believe. 

In this story, we see that our believing is active.

Our believing is also observable. 

Our believing is daring. 

Our believing is corporate. Jesus saw their faith. Believing is something we do together. Our believing is strengthened by other people who believe. These four friends are the church in miniature.

The man who was lowered from the roof and healed by Jesus came to believe.

But it looks like his four friends believed before he did. They believed on his behalf. So it is for us. When we are having trouble believing, other people can take up our cause. 

Christians are people who believe. Sometimes we’ll speak of one another as our fellow believers. That is true. But it’s also true that everyone, Christian or not, believes something. Anybody could make a sign that says We believe! and hold it up proudly.

We aren’t the only people who believe. Christians, though, are distinct because we believe that certain things are true and certain other things are false.

We also believe in a certain way, along the lines of what we see in those four friends whose faith Jesus commends.

With all of this in mind, we can appreciate the way that the Nicene Creed works.

The creed is something like the sign that the devoted sports fan holds up.

Our believing is expressed when we join together to confess what we believe, or rather who we believe.

We believe.

Like the friends of the man who was lowered from the roof, when we say what we believe, we do this together. 

Our individual believing has good days and bad days. 

When we take up the creed and speak it out, we help each other.

There are a lot of things people believe that don’t really make much of a difference.

I can even imagine someone at the game holding up a big sign that says, We believe! then going through life untouched. 

People believe things that don’t really matter to them. 

In our case, though, nothing is more important than what we believe and how we believe.  

Believing is something we do together as a community, a very large community extending through time and space. 

Yet each one of us is summoned to join in, to make the Creed our own.

We can say with all our hearts, We believe!

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May 4, 2025 sermon

 Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

(John 21:15-17)

What’s the matter with Simon Peter?

The Lord is risen! And there is a whole world to reach, a whole world that needs to hear the good news.

Plus, Jesus has told them, As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

It sure sounds like there is a great mission to accomplish.

Time to get going!

But fishing? Doesn’t that seem like a step backwards?

What’s the matter with Simon Peter?

Earl Palmer observes that the victory of Jesus Christ has not yet become his, Simon Peter’s, victory.

It hasn’t been all that long since Simon Peter failed the Lord dramatically, denying him three times.

So great is his defeat that even knowing that the Lord is risen can’t get him going.

All he can do now is return to something familiar, something he’s good at, fishing.

There’s always fishing.

John includes this story as an epilogue for his gospel to show us how Jesus met Simon Peter in the depths, and how he continues to meet his disciples in the same way today.

In this story, there is first a probing question, and second a critical task to undertake.

First, the probing question.

Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?

This is a probing question if there ever was one!

We ask this question of each other. 

Do you love me?

There are so many different kinds and degrees of love.

In some realms of life, you can love many things at the same time, perhaps some more than others.

You can love hamburgers and pizza.

You can love your children and your cousins.

But Jesus seems to be pressing Simon Peter to go deeper.

Do you love me more than these?

That puzzling addition, more than these, is important.

Loving him more is what Jesus is calling for.

The reason is that Jesus is Lord. 

He is the Lord.

He wants Simon Peter to declare his love, a singular love for a singular Lord.

Love for Jesus Christ comes first for disciples, then and now.

Our love for the Lord is the foundation for everything else in Christian life.

It’s not merely our warm feelings for the Lord, but our willingness to do his bidding.

Jesus’ bidding for his disciples comes clear in what he did with Simon Peter.

So we shift now from the first thing, the probing question, do you love me?, to the second thing, a critical task.

Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

Notice that Jesus says My, my, my.

Three times Jesus makes it plain that these are people who belong to him.

They belong to Jesus. They are his own.

For his part, Jesus is committed to those who are with him now and those will be with him in the future. 

He calls them my sheep!

These sheep of his get hungry.

They will need care and they will need food.

Jesus could, if he wanted, rain down food from heaven, just like the manna that was given to Israel in the wilderness.

He could take care of them without intermediaries.

However, he chooses to work through people, imperfect people like Simon Peter who have a history of failure, redeemed sinners like ourselves, to feed his hungry sheep. 

Dale Bruner puts it beautifully: Jesus means, in modern English, quite simply, “Please take real good care of my dear people. … What you feed them means a lot to me because they mean a lot to me. They are ‘my’ sheep, and I am entrusting them to you.”

So it is that we find in this story of what Jesus did to restore Simon Peter a probing question and a critical task.

John tells this story at the very end of his Gospel to help us understand how Simon Peter got back on his feet to be a leader in the Christian movement, but also to show us how the risen Lord restores and commissions disciples like ourselves.

While there is only one Simon Peter, there are a lot of disciples who also need to be restored.

Though the first group of Jesus’ disciples played a unique role in furthering God’s mission to reach the world, what Jesus did on the beach that day, asking that probing question and assigning a critical task, is a pattern that continues.

If we love the Lord, we’ll also love the Lord’s people and we will do what we can to care for them.

What a privilege it is for us to be invited to love the Lord with our whole selves and to serve him by caring for his other sheep. 

March 30, 2025

Matthew 7:7-12 (New International Version)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Ask and it will be given to you.

We do ask because asking is part of life. 

For instance, before we had cell phones with map programs, people would stop to ask a local person for directions.

That’s asking.

Today, when we get a bill in the mail that is puzzling, we call the company to ask them what is going on.

That’s asking too.

We ask for help all the tine, but we all have our limits.

Asking, when it doesn’t go well, can turn into demanding.

Talking calmly can give way to yelling.

But if all goes well, we ask and what we need is given to us. 

Ask and it will be given.

Asking is a constant part of life.

Everyone is an asker.

Adults ask for help. 

Children especially ask their parents for all sorts of things.

It’s part of growing up.

Asking, and receiving, is simple but it can get complicated.

It’s complicated if you don’t fully trust the other person.

The person on the phone doesn’t seem to care or doesn’t strike you as being competent. 

Trust evaporates, which can even prompt you to hang up on them.

So there is the complication of trustworthiness, or the lack of it.

Another complication is more internal.

We don’t want to be chronic complainers.

We’ve seen people who are so demanding that they are a source of trouble for everyone, and we don’t want to go down that road.

Asking is part of life.

Complications like these are also part of life.

Complications like these can be especially troublesome if we bring them into our relationship to God.

Sometimes, we don’t ask God for the help we need.

Perhaps we’re not sure about the character of God.

Can God be trusted?

Or perhaps we don’t want to be a nuisance.

We don’t want to be whiners. 

We’ve seen how some people don’t only ask for help, they complain and complain and then complain some more. 

We don’t want to be treating God that way. 

We don’t want to turn God into a vending machine!

You will occasionally hear someone make the point that God has bigger things to be concerned with than my little problem.

God is concerned with nations and weather patterns and other matters that are beyond us. So, to be polite, we hesitate to ask God for anything. 

The big question is what God is really like. 

If God is limited, and has to focus on global matters only, then it makes perfect sense to hold back from adding to God’s long list of concerns.

So, in practice we don’t always do what Jesus tells us to do.

Jesus, though, is very clear in his teaching.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 

This is the life that Jesus has in mind for us.


To encourage us to do what he says, Jesus observes that mothers and fathers are in the habit of giving good gifts to their children.

If that is so, how much more will our Father in heaven give his children good gifts.

These words how much more tell us the most important truth, that God is good.

This is still hard for us because we don’t like to be dependent, and Jesus is telling us that we never stop being dependent on the goodness of God.

We ask people for things all the time. 

In some cases, we are obliged to keep asking.

We’ll call the customer service number two or three times if we have to! 

Persistence has its place 

You’ve heard the saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease?

With God, though, it’s a different story. 

We persist, not to get God to take us seriously, but to remind ourselves that God is good.

So, keep on asking! 

But don’t stop there. 

Jesus is wanting