I have been taught to never begin a sermon or a speech with an apology. But I need to apologize in advance for my pronunciation of the name of the person for whom this book is named. I have learned that according to current guidelines, his name is to be pronounced Phuleemun. But I learned to pronounce it as Pheyeleemun. That supposedly improper pronunciation may have come from my having studied in Massachusetts where they once had a famous clothing store whose name was pronounced Feyeleens. So I apologize this morning if I revert to my old and improper pronunciation of phuleemon’s name. Old habits die hard.
Anyway, this letter was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison (probably in Rome) to a resident of Colosse named Philemon about a fellow named Onesimus who was a slave who belonged to Philemon.
Since the letter does not give any background material about the problem between Philemon and his slave, Bible Scholars have had to intuit or guess at the problem that this letter is an attempt to solve. Since Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon, it seems that they had somehow been parted under less than ideal circumstances. Since Onesimus was a slave, it seems likely that he had run away from his master and somehow come into contact with his master’s friend and mentor, Paul. Due to his association with Paul, Onesimus had become a Christian or returned to Christ and had then served Paul while Paul was imprisoned. Paul wanted to keep Onesimus with him, but he sent him back to Philemon because their relationship needed to be restored and changed.
Paul was sending Onesimus back to Philemon not only as a returning run-away slave who had possibly taken something from Philemon when he left, he was also sending him back as a Christian Brother. Now the slave and master were brothers in Christ.
Paul was also playing the role of God-father here. He told Philemon that any debt that Onesimus owed him was to be credited to Paul’s account. Then he reminded Philemon how much he owed to Paul for introducing him to Christ and eternal Salvation.
He said to Philemon “Whatever Onesimus owes you, I will pay, Just remember how much you owe me.”
I got to thinking about Onesimus and Philemon as I was wondering what I would preach about on Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day is interesting in the light of our current economy. Labor day was declared a national holiday at the behest of the labor unions back in the days when most of the goods sold in America were made in America. In fact, for a while, a lot of the goods sold throughout the world were made in America. But not now. Most everything we buy is labeled as being made somewhere else. Even those of us who insist on buying cars made in America know that a considerable percentage of the parts in those cars were made in other nations.
And in some of the places where the stuff we buy were made, the workers are not treated much better than slaves. And some of them are our Brothers and Sisters.
I own a shirt that I think adequately illustrates what I would call the oxymoronic state of the goods sold in America. It is a tropical or Hawaiian shirt. It has two labels inside. One identifies it as a product of Pierre Cardin, an Italian born French fashion designer. The other label says Made in Korea. So it is a French-designed-Hawaiian-Shirt that was made in Korea. Now, the Korea which the US trades with has a high percentage of Christians living there. So, there might have been a Christian brother or sister involved in the manufacture of this shirt.
A lot of the items many of us buy were made in China. Again, there is a growing percentage of Christians in China. Some of them probably worked in less than ideal environments to make those goods. We need to remember that and be grateful to them when we hear about conditions of our brothers and sisters in China. We are connected to them in two ways, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ and they make some of the stuff we buy and use. We need to think of them and be grateful to them and be willing to help them in any way we can, which is should first of all be in our prayers.
I am hoping that Labor Day will be a time when we can be grateful to and pray for our unknown brothers and sisters who have made items that we have purchased and used.
And I hope it will be day when we will pray for and think about some of our Brothers and Sisters who live in this country and have been unable to find jobs in the current world economy.
And now as we prepare to participate in the Lord’s supper, I want to direct you to those words of the Apostle in verse 19, “I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.” Paul established some of the first churches in the world and wrote letters to them that have instructed all Christians since them. We are partners in his achievements and his sufferings. We are also the beneficiaries of many Christian pastors and scholars and Sunday School teachers and neighbors and family members. The lessons about Christ and Christ-likeness have come to us from many people. We need to be grateful to many, some we don’t even know. And most of all we need to be grateful to our Good Shepherd Jesus. He lived for us, Died for us and Rose from the dead for us. Our lives now belong to Him, even on Holidays.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

It is now almost the very end of August. Many of us have finished vacations and have put off the lightened work loads of Summer. We have returned to our ordinary daily lives. For some of us that means increased work schedules. For others it means a return to certain social schedules and activities. But as we embark once again on what we consider our normal lives, I want us to take just a few minutes to make certain that our Normal Lives are Christian lives.
I assume that all of us here have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We all believe that He is the Son of God and that His Death and Resurrection paid for our sins and gave us eternal life. We believe that our Faith in Him is the channel through which his forgiveness and that eternal life has come to us. So as we stand or sit in this place of Worship, we are certain of our salvation into the next life, the eternal life.
But we are still living this life, right here in the bustling suburbs of West Lafayette. How should the assurance of God’s forgiveness and the promise of Eternal life change and affect our current lives? What would we describe as the or a Christian life? What qualities should it have? What should we be doing in and with this life for God as we wait for the days of our deaths and resurrections?
These are not a difficult things for a reader of the Bible to discover. God has written in his word several descriptions of what the Christian life should be like. Some of these dwell on specific characteristics, like the parable about greed that we find in our first lesson. Others contain lists of qualities or duties as does our second lesson from the 13th chapter of Hebrews. Now before we begin to look at this list, I want you to understand that there are other lists of qualities of the Christian life that give aspects not listed here, so this list is not all-inclusive.
Having established that, let’s take a look at what is listed here.
The first thing that is listed here is a little difficult to understand in our New Revised Standard Version. In it we read “Let mutual love continue”. That sounds a little bit romantic. But before we go into the mutuality of being in love and the anguish of unrequited love, let’s see what another translation says. The NIV translation of verse 1 reads “Keep on loving each other as brothers”. That is a much better translation, not only because it gets us out of that romantic mutuality, but because it much more accurately reflects the Greek words that form the original verse.
There is a member of this congregation who gets upset when I say uncomplimentary things about the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So today I am going to say something complimentary about that great city. It has a beautiful name. Not only is it a beautiful name “Philadelphia”, it is a biblical name. There was in the days of the Apostles a city named Philadelphia in what is now Turkey. But the word Philadelphia is more than just the name of a city in the Bible. It was used to describe one of he qualities of the Christian life. The Greek word Philadelphia means Brotherly Love. The Quaker William Penn gave that name to the first city in his commonwealth because he wanted that Quaker and Christian Characteristic to be practiced there and to be a trademark of that city. And I must say, that at times it has been.
The Greek word Philadelphia is used in this first verse. According to the Greek wording the verse should be translated “Let brotherly love continue”. Philadelphia or brotherly love refers to the honor and dignity and respect and caring that all people, especially Christians should have for each other.
And contrary to the NRSV wording, Brotherly love does not have to be mutual. It should be, but the fact that my brother does not love me does not lessen my responsibility to love him. I am to respect him, and care for and about him.
Christians are to be those who are known to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They are to care for and about other Christians. In the time and place in which this letter was written, welcoming visiting Christians into the homes of other Christians was important because commercial Inns were often places of doubtful repute.
Verse two is also not translated as well as it could be. In the Greek copies of the Epistle, there is a connection in the wording of verses 1 and 2. As I have already mentioned, verse 1 contains the word Philadelphia which means love for a brother. In verse 2 where the NRSV has the words Hospitality to strangers, the Greek has the word Philaxenia. You might be able to figure out the meaning of this word if I tell you that the word xenia occurs in our anglicized word xenophobia, which means fear of strangers or fear of people who are not like oneself.
So in the first verse the author exhorts Christians to love their Christian brothers and sisters and in the second verse he tells them to not neglect loving strangers. It seems that as the word Philaxenia became more commonly used, it often specified hosting and welcoming strangers. But I think that the intention of the verse is that we are to love, care for, welcome, and open our homes to our Christian Brothers and sisters as well as to those who are strangers to us.
Verse 3 adds others whom for whom Christians are to care. Those who are in prison and those who are being tortured. These categories obviously refer foremost to Christians who in those days and in our own time have been imprisoned because of their faith. My dear brother Leonard periodically sends me e-mails that inform about certain Christian pastors and other Christian leaders in China who have been arrested and tortured because they are Christian leaders. Other sources inform me of Christians in Muslim nations who are abducted, imprisoned, tortured, or worse. We need to keep those people in our hearts and minds and pray for them and speak out for them and do whatever we can to help them.
But in the light of what Jesus said about his coming to free those in prison, I do not think that the care for prisoners by Christians is limited to prisoners who are Christians or Christian leaders. We are to be concerned about and minister to prisoners of all types. Many have been won to Christ while they were in prison. There are 4 people I know of connected to this congregation who regularly visit prisons and prisoners. If you have the opportunity to visit or help a person in prison, remember the verses in the bible that instruct Christians to care for prisoners.
In verse 4 Christians are encouraged to honor marriage and to keep the marriage bed undefiled. This is a hot topic in our time because lifting up the biblical pattern of marriage would not include extending the title of marriage to same sex couples. Neither would it include the casual view of divorce that many in our time have. Christians are to value opposite sex marriages and to urge people to refrain from sexual behaviors that are only to be exercised within the bounds of marriage.
Verses 5&6 deal with the topic addressed by Jesus in our first lesson; Greed and the dependence on Material goods. We are not to be in love with money or possessions and we are to be generally content with what we have. We are to depend on God to help us and to provide for us.
There is a progression in verses 7,8&9. Christians are to remember those who spoke to them about Jesus. They are to imitate their lifestyles and continue to follow the doctrines they taught. Neither Christ nor proper doctrines change. New and strange teachings about Christ and or His Church are to be rejected. There are many of these in our time including the offshoot of inclusiveness that states that all religions are avenues to reach God. Jesus himself declared that He was the only way to the Father. Anyone who teaches otherwise is a deceiver.
In the time in which this letter was written, regulations and rituals involving food were substituted for or added to the proper doctrines of salvation. In our time the additions to and replacements for proper Christian doctrines are other things and ideas, but they are still not needed nor to be desired.
So, as we get back to our normal daily routines and lives, what should be a part of them? Love for Christian brothers and sisters. Love and welcome for strangers. A desire to help those who are imprisoned and tortured. A reverence for Marriage and a concern for proper sexual conduct, especially within ourselves. A dependence on God and a lack infatuation with money and possessions. And a reverence for our Christian leaders and the doctrines they taught us. All of these are to be a part of our daily lives as Christians.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

It is probably good that Jeremiah was a prophet sent to minister in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC. If he had been sent to our community in our time he would have had an issue with his name. The name Jeremiah means God Hurls. Probably not a good name to have near a University where hurl often does not mean to throw but to throw-up. We are not told that God specifically ordered Jeremiah’s parents to give him that name, but God must have had something to do with the selection of that name because it was to be Jeremiah’s mission to inform the people of Judea and Jerusalem that God was going to hurl or throw them out of their land because of their and their forefathers repeated unfaithfulness.
Some have referred to this passage as the calling of Jeremiah by God to be a prophet. I guess if you look at it from Jeremiah’s point of view it is. But if you look at it from God’s point of view, it is not. In verse 5 we read that God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” From God’s point of view, this passage does not tell us of Jeremiah being called to be a prophet. That determination or calling had been made by God long before Jeremiah was born. It was made even before God formed Jeremiah in his mother’s womb.
This and the passage from Psalms we read as our responsive reading has been quoted by people who have identified themselves as Pro-life to back their point of view. Now it must be admitted that in their original contexts neither of these passages have the subject of abortions in mind. But still, in these passages we have God identifying himself as the agent who creates or knits together babies in their mother’s wombs and intimately knows them before they are born. I think that should at least make us approach the subject of abortions with great caution and seriousness, a caution and seriousness that have not always been observed in the political and judicial decisions about this issue. Unfortunately they have not always been observed in the decisions of some church and denominational declarations on this subject.
But this sermon is not really about abortions, it is about the major subject of God’s speech to Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah that he had known him since before he was conceived and that he had in that long ago time appointed him to be and consecrated him to be a prophet.
You may have noticed that God in Jesus made a similar declaration to Nathanael. He greatly impressed Nathanael by telling him that he had seen him sitting under a specific tree before Phillip even told him about Jesus. Nathanael was so impressed that he declared Jesus to be the Son of God and the King of Israel.
Oddly enough, Jeremiah did not seem all that impressed when he was informed that God had known him before he was conceived and had way back then appointed him to be a prophet. His immediate response was to state that he could not do the job because he was only a boy and could not speak well. Jeremiah was more than a boy, he was a young man and perhaps he had not shown any talent for public speaking but I think there were other reasons for Jeremiah making excuses and attempting to refuse God’s orders.
We are told that Jeremiah was the son of a priest. He was probably also one or in training to be one. If you were the son of a priest, your vocation was set, you would be one too. And the prophets and the priests were often at odds, particularly during Jeremiah’s early days. In those days the priests were kind of running the temple and the religion on their own. The Book of the Jewish laws had been lost. So there was a lot going on in the temple and in the way the religion was practiced that was wrong. The prophets were often critical of the way the priests were running things, and so for Jeremiah the son of a priest to become a prophet felt like he was abandoning his family and his heritage and joining the opposing camp.
It is interesting to note that Jeremiah pleads his youth and inexperience as reasons why he should not become a prophet. We are told that the king who reigned in Jerusalem when God had this conversation was Josiah, who was then in the 13th year of his reign. Josiah was the boy king. He ascended the throne when he was 8 years old. In the 13th year of his reign he would have only been 21, not much more than a boy himself.
There were other possible reasons why Jeremiah would not want to be a prophet. But regardless of how many reasons Jeremiah had to refuse God’s appointment, God wasn’t buying it. God said “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.”
Then God touched Jeremiah;s mouth and said, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah had said that because of his youth he did not know how to speak. So God put God’s words in his mouth.
I think I may have told you that the best preacher I know personally has a stuttering problem. He rarely stutters when he preaches but he occasionally does in other settings. But when he has God’s words in his mouth, he speaks clearly and with power.
I believe that it may be said of Christians living in our time that we have God’s word. We have it printed in books that most of us have in our homes. And as we read and even memorize the Bible, as we study it and learn it, it can also be said that we have it in our mouths. We are able to quote it and to tell people what it says.
Jeremiah’s duties related to the word of God he was given seem to be two fold. He is to have some authority over nations and regarding them, he is to Pluck up, and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Much of Jeremiah’s work would involve dire forcasts regarding Judea’ immediate future. He many times would predict the judgment of God against Judah and Jerusalem. But he would also predict the destruction of the destroying nations, the return of the exiles to Jerusalem and the rebuilding and rehabilitation of Judea and Jerusalem.
Most of us who have read and studied the bible are also aware that as we know it and look at and know our world, there is a two-fold application of the Word of God to our world and ourselves. The first would be judgment. You cannot read the bible and look at our world and even our lives and not realize that God will judge us and our nations and our world for much that goes on. There are entire industries that violate the moral rules of God involving the proper use of sexual relations. There are governments and organizations that pervert justice. The rich and powerful still abuse and exploit the poor and miserable. And perhaps the greatest sin of our time is that the truth of God and the truths about God are hidden and obscured in our common everyday lives.
These things needed to be torn down in Jeremiah’s day and they still need to be torn down in our time. People still need to know that there is a God and that He is not pleased with much of the behaviors and attitudes of the people of this world. We need to speak of God’s displeasure and much deserved judgments.
But we also need to speak of his promises. The possibility of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life need to be proclaimed to the people of our time. There are many and there is much that needs to be built up by Godly people presenting the promises and love of God as they are revealed to us through His Scriptures.
So in a general and less specific way, Jeremiah’s calling from God has become a calling from God to each of us who proclaim to follow Christ.
God has known you before you were conceived. You were created to be a follower of Jesus. He has given you His words in the Bible. Our world and its people need to know of the judgments and the grace and love that are revealed there. Will you allow those judgments and that Grace to rule your life? Will you tell others of God’s judgments and grace and love and forgiveness? God knows you and he Knows that you can do it. Will you?

Pastor Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

This past Wednesday, a deacon and an elder were looking at the first draft of the bulletin for this Sunday. They were checking the Scripture passages that were printed in the bulletin, and I heard one say “Oh Yeah, Pastor is back and we are printing half of the New Testament is the second lesson.” I know some of the passages I select for our Worship Services are somewhat lengthy but I do try to keep them from being too long.
Actually, for the sake of brevity I did not print or read the entire passage I want us to look at this morning. The subject of this passage is people who demonstrated great faith. The passage begins with the rather well-known statements of the first 2 verses of chapter 11 of the Epistle to the Hebrews. There Paul writes “Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.”
The rest of chapter 11 is devoted to reminders of various folks who demonstrated great faith in God. Those referred to are Abel, the murdered son of Adam, Enoch who walked with God without passing through death, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the parents of Moses and Moses himself. As our second reading began in verse 29 of chapter 11 we read about more people of great faith. Some are mentioned by name, others by the defining events of their lives.
Here we find a reference to the Israelites who came out of Egypt with Moses and crossed the Red Sea or sea of reeds on dry land. Next we find their children and grandchildren who 40 years later witnessed the falling of the walls of Jericho. In connection with the fall of Jericho we find the name of Rahab, previously a citizen of Jericho who sheltered Israel’s spies and embraced the God of Israel.
Then we find more people mentioned by name: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel.
The first 4 of these were Judges who ruled portions of Israel before the Kings, These were men of great faith whom God used to deliver parts of Israel from their enemies. When you read the stories of their lives, you will see that they also had their weak moments. They had occasions when their behaviors did not please God.
David was the greatest of the kings of Israel. He built Israel into a mighty nation by his acts of faith in God, but he also had his great failings.
Samuel is mentioned because he was a great prophet, appointing the first two kings of Israel but he is also mentioned as being one of the many prophets of Israel. Some of the deeds of faith accomplished by some of the prophets are mentioned here. The one who shut the mouths of Lions was Daniel. The ones who quenched raging fire were Daniel’s three companions, Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego.
The women who received their dead by resurrection were The widow of Zerepath and the woman of Shunem. The son of the former was raised by Elijah and the son of the latter was raised by Elisha. In the generation just before the author of this epistle, other women had had their loved ones raised from the dead by Jesus. One of those accounts was our first reading this morning.
Some of you might be familiar with some of the successful TV preachers of our day and previous years. I find fault with a lot of them not because I compete with them, but because some of them preach a false or truncated gospel. Many of them preach some form of the prosperity gospel, the gospel of Success, whose primary thrust is that God loves us and wants us all to be materially prosperous and successful in our careers. This passage would up to this point seem to agree with those preachers because all of the aforementioned were blessed by God materially for their faithfulness.
But then in the middle of verse 35 our author begins to open other categories of believers. Let me read what our author says about them. “Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Other suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in the skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”
These folks are singled out for commendation as having great faith because they would not give up their faith in God to escape torture and persecution and poverty. The word that is used for torture here implies being stretched out on a rack and beaten to death. This happened to many Jews who suffered during the Maccabees’ rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanes about 200 BC. These exploits are not mentioned in our bible, but they are a part of the History of the Jews described in the books of the Maccabees. In II Macabees the tortures and deaths of a woman and her seven sons is described. They refused to abandon their God and their Hebrew ways, so they were killed.
Our author tells us that they refused to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection. A resurrection better than and of a different kind than that of those who were brought back to life and given to their mothers. They were striving for an eternal resurrection.
It is interesting that one of the signs of faith given earlier was that the faithful escaped from the edge of the sword, now we find that one of the signs of the faithful is that they killed by the sword. Both can be a sign of godliness.
We who are prosperous and do not suffer for our faith need to be careful lest be look down on those fine Christians who are in our own time facing poverty and persecution because of their faith. We need to pray for them and support them in every way we can.
It is interesting to note how the blessing and sufferings worked out in the lives of those who have been alluded to in this passage. Jeremiah escaped the death sentence of King Jehoiakim, while his contemporary, the faithful prophet Uriah was killed by Jehoiakim. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was later stoned to death by Jews in Egypt. In the New Testament, we see James the Apostle killed by Herod, and Peter being delivered from the same fate by an angel. According to Jewish Tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw.
Several of the prophets wore animal skins; Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel, and in the New Testament, John the Baptist.
Then after holding up all these people who did great things because of their faith, our author wrote “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.”
Now remember, he had already stated that some of those who suffered torture refused to be released because they were seeking a better resurrection than just being brought back to this life. The means to that resurrection was not achieved until Jesus died and rose from the dead. Those great people of faith who lived before Jesus did not receive all that they were hoping for until Jesus came. They will receive their resurrections with those of us who believe in and will be raised from death by the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But the author of this epistle has gone through the entire 11th chapter giving his readers descriptions of great people of faith to make his point in the beginning of chapter 12. It is easy to spot because it begins with a Therefore. He wrote “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,”
I think he is referring to the people of great faith as witnesses in two senses. First of all they have witnessed or demonstrated to us what can be done if one has great faith. They have shown us what we can do if we act on our faith.
They are also witnesses in the sense that they are observing us. Now I do not think that this passage teaches that dead Christians observe what is going on down here. But I think we are to imagine them looking down, encouraging us to live as they lived, rooting us on in our race.
Ah, Yes, the race. What race? The race that we live with our lives before God. Our author likens the Christian life to a race because in order to compete in a race you must get rid of extra weight. In our case that is not physical weight, it is the sins that hold us back. We need to get rid of them and live our lives to please God.
The reason I am preaching on this passage today is that many of us are about to start a new lap in this race of our lives. School is starting soon. Some of us will be starting a new school year as teachers and professors and school nurses. Some of us will be starting to teach Sunday School for another year. Some of us will soon be starting college as students. Some of us will be going back to school as students.
Some of us are in other laps of the race of our lives; the recently retired and long retired laps. These bring their own challenges and pains and limitations.
Whatever lap you are in or soon to begin in the race of your life, run it well, taking as examples the great people of faith who lived lives honoring God. But don’t look to them or focus on them. Look to Jesus, the one who has given us our salvation and who does watch us from his throne in heaven. Do all to please Him in your work and in your rest and in your retirement, getting rid of things that keep you from doing your best, and striving to please Him in all things.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

As we look at the communion table, we all know what is under the cover. Bread and Wine. And we all know what they represent. The body and blood of Jesus the Christ or the Death of Jesus. When we participate in this sacrament we are remembering and honoring the death of Jesus. We are also remembering and proclaiming that his death was for us. He died for our sins.
It is easy to think of his death in the way that theologians describe as the substitutionary atonement. In other words, that the death of Jesus paid the price or cancelled the punishment due us for our sins. For nearly 2,000 years those who call themselves Christians have understood that this was the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the effects of the death of Jesus.
But there is another aspect of the teaching of Paul about the effects of the death of Jesus that has unfortunately not been so clearly understood by Christians from his day to ours. That teaching is that not only are the punishments of our sins done away with by the death of Jesus, but so are the sins themselves.
In the first 3 verses of the third chapter of Colossians, Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God, wrote two things about those who have believed in Jesus that might seem strange to us if we really read or hear them and think about them.
In the first verse he wrote “So, if you have been raised with Christ,…”. And in the third verse he wrote, “…for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
According to Paul, it is not only the punishment for our sins that has been done away with, but also the sins themselves. It was not only Christ who died on the cross, but also the sinful lives of all who would believe in Him. Our old selves, our old sinful lives and lifestyles also perished on the cross.
We were raised as new beings with Christ as he rose from the dead. Our new life is with and in Christ and we are to set our minds and our life practices on the things that are important in the presence of God, where Jesus now is. In short, since we have been born again, we are to live the kind of life that will be lived by the saints in heaven. We are to treat people as we will treat others there and as we will be treated there. We are to direct our thoughts toward heavenly ways of thinking and behaving: loving others and forgiving others.
We should be living our lives here on earth trying to increase God’s kingdom, not our own.
It is at this point that we would probably be at a loss as to how to proceed. How does one live the redeemed, post-resurrection life, the life of heaven in this world that is still full of sin and sinners? I would not be able to tell you if Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God, had not given the Colossians and us some directions.
In verses 5-11 he tells us what we need to get rid of in our lives. Fornication (sexual sins and temptations) impurity, passion, (being driven by human, earthly passions) evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language, the telling of lies, and, racial, gender, and class prejudices.
Most of those are plainly addressed in our English translations and require no elaboration or explanation. But I would like to spend a few moments explaining the issue of racial and other prejudices.
Paul wrote that we are to clothe ourselves “with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
In the context of the Greco-Roman world in the first century, this was an amazing statement. Jews thought they were the only ones who were chosen by God and who truly mattered to God. The Greek cultured Romans thought they were the enlightened ones and looked down upon those who were not Greeks or Romans or who did not speak Greek. Those were called by them Barbarians. They were considered to be uncultured.
The Scythians were at the bottom level of the so-called barbarians. No one thought they were worth anything. In an interesting twist of historic fate, some 400 years later, many individuals of Scythian descent became quite numerous on the police force in Rome. Even then they were disrespected and parodied by the people. Kind of like the way the Philadelphia police force was ridiculed by Mack Sennett as the Keystone Cops in the teens and twentys.
All of these folks considered those on the other side of the divide to be less human than they were. Slaves were legally considered to be non-persons. They were given the status of a tool.
But for Christians all humans are to be considered to be fully human, equally created in God’s image.
Then, having instructed Christians as to what behaviors they needed to get rid of or to put to death, in verses 12-17 he enumerated for them some of the qualities of the new life they were to be living. This is the life of heaven to be lived as a sample on earth. The things that are to be a part of this new life include: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. And over all we are to experience and be guided by the peace of Christ. It is to be the “Umpire” of our hearts, And we are to be Thankful to God in all things, singing Psalms, hymns and Spiritual songs to God.
Then Paul finished this section by writing in verse 17, And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” For the Christian, everything is to be done in the name of Jesus. In other words, if some action or word cannot bring honor to Jesus, if it is inconsistent with the words and ministry of Jesus, then it should not be said or done.
When you receive the bread and wine this morning, remember that they are symbols of the death Jesus the Christ died for you. And you should also think about how much of your old life you have put away or died for Him. Are you in all things living for Jesus? Or is there still plenty of death left in your life?

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

This weekend the congregation of Faith Church is worshipping in two groups and at two different times. This is the weekend of the Faith Church camping trip. Those who like to camp are worshipping on Saturday evening. Those who do not like camping or who find that life in the woods is a little too demanding for their current age and physical status are worshipping on Sunday morning. Those who worship on Sunday will be worshiping in our air conditioned sanctuary. Those who worship on Saturday will be worshipping outside in the weather which God will give them.
But both groups will be worshipping the same triune God and both will be hearing a sermon based on this same passage, Deuteronomy 8:1 – 9:3. Some of you may recognize this passage as the first lesson from our outdoor service on July 4th. I selected it for that day because it reminds us not to forget God when our pursuits for freedom and wealth and security have born fruit. It reminds us that God is responsible for our success and is to be thanked and worshipped in all circumstances,
I chose this longer version of this passage as our second lesson on this weekend because it addresses some of the truths we might discover as we live out doors or think about those who are living outdoors.
As Moses spoke these words to Israel they were at the end of their time with him. They were at the end of their time in the wilderness. Only a few of them were older than 60. They had spent the last 40 years on a camping trip of great proportions. They had been living in tents. They had moved from place to place, sometimes remaining in a place for several months and maybe more than a year.
But now their time in the wilderness was coming to an end. Their time in tents was about over. Now you have to remember that many of them had spent there entire lives in the wilderness and the rest of them save two or three had spent 2/3 or more of their lives tenting in the wilderness.
So in his final sermon to them, Moses prepared them for their much different future by reminding them of what they should have learned in the wilderness.
For them it was in some ways not too much different than camping is for us. In the wilderness they learned to do without. In Egypt they had been fed a regular diet that included meat on a regular basis. In the wilderness they learned to do without meat on a regular basis. They learned to do their cooking outdoors in temporary firepits instead of the permanent facilities they had in Egypt.
In Egypt they had depended on their masters to feed them as they worked for them. In the wilderness, they had learned to depend on God. God had, for 40 years been feeding them their daily bread in the form of Manna. They received it for 6 days and were to gather in a double portion on the sixth day for the seventh or Sabbath day.
This taught them 2 things. First of all, it taught them to depend on God for their lives. By depending on God each day for their food for that day, they were reminded that God was in charge of their lives each day.
It also taught them that God wanted one day in seven to be different, to be dedicated to worship and rest.
Now it was never God’s intent to keep them literally dependant on him for each day’s portion of their food, but he did want them to remember that they really were dependant on God for the growth of their crops and the survival of their flocks.
Being in the wilderness had been a community building experience for the Israelites. For 40 years they had been in close contact with all the other Jews and their 12 tribes. Once they crossed the Jordan and began to live in the land, they would reside in different territories, and never see each other again, except for their annual pilgrimages to the Tabernacle. But their time together in the wilderness had made them aware that they were one nation, one people of God regardless of their tribal connections.
The Israelites in the wilderness also learned about God’s wrath. Moses is sometimes considered to be the first Prophet, but in one way he differed greatly from the rest of the prophets. He and they both announced God’s coming punishment for the transgressions of the Israelites. But for most of the prophets, the punishment would come in a few years or perhaps in many years and upon some future generations. But in Moses’ time and ministry, the judgments he announced took place in a few hours or immediately. Many were killed the night after they worshipped the golden calf. Many died while they were eating the quails God gave them after they had complained about not having meat to eat.
In the wilderness, God’s punishments were not delayed, they were swift so the people would learn to obey God. As we camp, we can be closer to God because we are much more dependant on his weather and his storms can affect us rather quickly. As some of us camped this weekend we were sitting outside and talking. We heard thunder. Three of us took out cell phones to check their weather channels to see if we would be getting a storm. If we had been indoors we probably would not have been so concerned about a storm
God has provided for us comfortable homes to return to after we camp or even if we never camp. But we need to be careful lest we use our homes to insulate us from God and his world and those people God wants us to be close to.
God warned them against this isolation and where it would lead the People of Israel. Moses instructed the Israelites not to forget God when they came to live the good life, when they were eating good food and living in comfortable homes. They were not to think that their crops and flocks and homes were the result of their hard work and wise planning. They were to remember that even and perhaps especially in their wealth and comfort they were dependant on God and they were therefore bound to continue to obey him. He also warned them that if in their wealth and comfort they did not continue to obey God, they would be removed from their land and their homes.
It is very easy to allow our comfort to enable us to slip from God. When Diane and I arrived at our camp site on Friday afternoon we noticed that it was not really level. We pitched our tent so as we slept our heads would be slightly uphill. I had a very comfortable air mattress. But it was made of a slippery plastic. The outer shell of the sleeping bag was made of an equally slippery nylon. My mattress kept me comfortable, but I kept slipping off of it. Sometimes our success at being comfortable insulates us from God and his people and it is easy for us to slip away from Him and them.
I hope you noticed that in our first lesson this morning Jesus quoted the last part of the third verse of Deuteronomy 8: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus understood that it was more important to obey God than to eat. That was what the Israelites were to have learned on their great camping trip. That is what we are to know from our Scriptures, but sometimes a close encounter with God’s natural world and the harsh realities in it will help us remember.
Some of the members of Faith Church are camping this weekend, some of us are not. I hope that those who are will be reminded by our natural world and the other Christians who are present that God the creator is our master and that the best way to enjoy all that he has given us is to obey Him.
For those who are not camping, I would remind you that this summer season gives most of us the opportunities to get out and observe God’s world. When you observe the beauty and severity of God’s creation, remember that you belong to Him just as much in your living rooms as you do when you are outside. Obeying God is more important for your survival and prosperity than eating.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day! It is the day when all citizens of the USA celebrate our independence and our freedoms. But as we celebrate and Worship almighty God, I would like to look at some of the people in this passage and see if they were free, and if not, if they were OK anyway.
The first person we meet in this Scripture Passage is a servant girl. She was possessed by an evil spirit which caused her to make odd utterances which were taken as portents of the future. Luke tells us that her owners used her abilities as a fortune teller to make money. She was a valuable source of income for them.
From our point of view she was to be pitied on two accounts. First of all, for those of us who love the Freedoms we have by living in the USA, this girl was to be pitied because she was not free. She was owned by others. They took all the income she was able to get.
And for those of us who place a great value on Mental health and the abilities of our minds, this girl was to be pitied because she was not able to control her own thoughts. Even her mind was possessed by another, an evil spirit.
This unfortunate girl seems to have attached herself to Paul. She seems to have first met him when he was on his way to the place of Prayer. (Philippi did not have many Jews so instead of having a synagogue, there was a place of prayer where Jews would gather. This place of prayer would be outside the city walls near a river or stream).
Because of the evil spirit within her this servant girl readily identified Paul and his companions as servants of God and she proclaimed long and loud who they were and that they would tell people a way of Salvation. She seems to have kept this up for several days, and Paul decided that her proclamations were detrimental to his ministry. Or maybe he just got sick and tired of her shouting. He drove out the evil spirit and she stopped shouting and telling the future.
I do not think that this story casts the apostle Paul in a very flattering light. He does not seem to have realized right away that this girl was possessed by an evil spirit. Or he did not care until she became a nuisance. But what I want you to notice, is that this girl had no freedom and she did not even posess her own mind. Paul did not have the power to make her free, but he did help her with her mind, he cast out the evil spirit.
A few years ago, our then president encouraged us to think of our nation as an exporter of freedom and democracy. That quest does not seem to have been as successful as we might have hoped. Many of us realize that the political servitudes of many in this world are beyond our abilities to help. But like the girl whom Paul helped, they may have other problems we can help with. We can pray for their salvation, for their health and for their release from persecution and oppression. We can also speak out for them in the world. When we hear of people being mistreated in other countries we can ask our elected national leaders to speak out on their behalf on the world stage.
And we can send to them messengers of the good news about Jesus. Some of those messengers can also be people who have skills to heal their bodies and their minds. We used to call such messengers Missionaries. Certain political realities do not always allow them to have that title any more, but they must still be sent and we must still help to send them.
Paul got into trouble for casting the demon out of the servant girl. Her owners could no longer make money from her fortune telling abilities. They were angry and brought Paul and Silas before the town magistrates and made interesting accusations against them.
First of all, they accused them of being Jews, which reveals them as racists. They obviously found something objectionable about being Jewish. In fact, of the 4 people we know to have been in Paul’s Missionary group, only he and Silas were obviously Jews, wearing the Jewish-style robes and tassels. Timothy was half Jewish and probably dressed more like a gentile. Luke was not Jewish at all. Only the Jewish looking missionaries were brought before the magistrates.
Other than being Jews, they were also accused of “disturbing the city” and “advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or observe.” Mighty high sounding accusations, but Luke told the real reason the accusers were upset. They had lost a valuable asset when the fortune telling spirit was driven out of their servant girl. I am reminded of an old saying “When someone says ‘Its not the money, it’s the principle of the thing’ it’s usually the money.”
The magistrates ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten and jailed overnight. The Jailor took them after they were beaten and put them in the inner jail and fastened their feet in stocks (see colonial Williamsburg for “stocks”.)
At midnight, Paul and Silas were singing and praying. On this 4th of July, we might have expected then to bemoan their loss of freedom, but they didn’t. They were rejoicing in their salvation and their ability to serve the Lord. They were not free, but they had something much more important than freedom. They had the knowledge that God had saved them and the assurance that God was pleased about how they were serving Him.
While they were singing and praying in the dark, an earthquake occurred. The chains fell from their anchor places in the walls. The doors opened. But before anyone could escape, the jailor ran into the vestibule of the inner jail and saw that the doors were open and the chains were no longer anchored to the walls. He assumed the worst, that the prisoners had escaped. He was about to commit suicide over his failure to keep his prisoners locked up, when Paul said, “Don’t do that, we are all here.” The jailor rushed into the inner jail and asked how he could be saved. Paul and Silas told him to believe in Jesus. He did, and was baptized.
Now before he met Paul and Silas, that Jailor was free. He was a freeman, a man with an important position, but he still needed something that was way more important than his freedom. He needed to believe in God and experience God’s Salvation.
Today and this weekend as we celebrate the independence of our nation, we need to be thankful for our freedoms. But as we do that we need to remember that there is something more important than freedom.
There are some people in our world like the demon possessed servant girl who will never be free in this life. But we can still help them in some way. We can send missionaries and doctors to help them and tell them about Jesus so that they can be free forever in God’s kingdom.
There are some people in our world like Paul in Silas as they were in that jail. Some have been beaten and tortured. They have lost their freedoms because of the service they have rendered to God. We need to remember them, and to encourage them when we can. We need to pray for their release and that they will be free. But we need to remember that what they have is way more important that what they lack. And we need to thank God for their service of God and for the salvation they have received from God.
As we celebrate our freedoms. we need to remember that there are with us many people like the jailor before he met Paul and Silas. He was free, but he did not know God or God’s salvation. He was doing very well by worldly standards, but he was not saved. We need to pray for many of our fellow citizens who are free but not yet a part of God’s eternal kingdom. We need to remember that no matter how successful they are, no matter how happy they are, what they do not yet have is way more important than all that they do have. Pray for them and ask God how you can help them find what they really need.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

I hope you noticed that our two Scripture Readings are about feasts or banquets. The first is the ill-fated feast Belshazzar gave for 1000 of his nobles. The second is a fictional wedding feast that is described in a parable that Jesus told.
These two passages have something else in common besides being about feasts. The theme of judgment by God is also predominant in both passages.
The judgment is perhaps more obvious in the passage from Daniel. In that passage, Belshazzar, whom Daniel describes as the last king of Babylon, had a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles. At the feast, they drank a lot and decided to drink from the silver and gold cups, pitchers, and bowls that the Babylonian army had taken from the temple in Jerusalem when they destroyed it. These vessels had been dedicated to be used in Worship at the Temple. Belshazzar desecrated them by drinking from them and giving them to his nobles and wives and concubines so they could drink from them. They also used the sacred vessels as they offered toasts to their Gods, whom they believed had given them victory over the God of Israel.
At that point a human-like hand appeared in the hall and wrote on the wall. All present were stunned and afraid. This was a pretty spooky thing, something out of “Ghostbusters”. The hand wrote Babylonian words equivalent to our words Counted, Final Count, Weighed, and Divided.
The Wisemen were sent for so they could make some sense of this and explain it to the king. They eventually called in the evidently retired chief Wiseman Daniel, who had been one of the Jewish captives years before.
He told the King that the hand and the words on the wall were portents that God’s judgments on Babylon were about to be executed. The king and his kingdom were found in the negative balance in God’s ledger and God was about to remove the king and make the Babylonians subjects of the Medo-Persians.
King Belshazzar’s feast had become a feast of judgment for God.
It is not difficult to determine why this story is still a part of Jewish Literature. It fits in with the general theme of the deliverance stories in the OT. As one of the Jewish-American comedians used to say “All the Jewish holidays have the same theme ‘They tried to kill us, we won, let’s celebrate!’”. It is often pleasant to recognize God’s judgments of someone else. It is not so pleasant to be visited by God’s judgments against ourselves.
That is part of the reason why Jesus told parables. Some of the parables describe God’s coming judgments against the Pharisees and the residents of Judea. These judgments were spoken of in parables so some of the people might let their guard down and not reject the judgments out of hand. I had a professor in Seminary who said that some of Jesus’ parables are like a little, unthreatening dog who approaches with a wagging tale, likes you to pet him on the head, then goes around behind you and bites you. The parable of the Wedding Banquet was one of those parables.
The opening theme of the parable was familiar to the Jews of Jesus’ day. They all expected that when the Messiah came and started his Kingdom, there would be a great banquet, a wedding banquet where the Messiah would become the husband of Israel. At this expected banquet the Jews would be seated with their Messiah, and the Gentiles and unreligious Jews would be excluded.
So when Jesus started a story about a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son, they understood he would be talking about God and his people, the Jews. But the story took a weird turn really fast.
It was the custom in those days to set a date for a feast or a banquet without a time specified. Early on that day, messengers were sent to those who had already agreed to come reminding them that this was the day. When all was ready, messengers were sent again to tell them that it was now time to come.
In our parable, the first invitation had been given days before and the intended guests had consented to attend the banquet on the stated day. But now the day had come and as the King sent the messengers out with the second notice, that today was the day, the intended guests evidently let it be known that they would not be coming.
This was unheard of, and the host would not know how to respond, so the third invitation was sent telling them that the time had come for them to go to the palace. They still did not come. Some went to their farms, others to their businesses, while others showed their open contempt for the king by mistreating some of his messengers, even going so far as to kill some of them.
The king then responded in two ways. First, he sent troops to kill those who had killed his messengers and to burn their city.
But the wedding feast was still prepared and the hall was empty. So the second response of the king was to invite others, people they came across in the streets and in general “everyone”.
So those who hated the king were destroyed, others who were invited but did not come were excluded, and the hall was filled with guests for the wedding.
Some of the people who heard this parable that day may have understood what Jesus was predicting. He was the Son of the great King, Almighty God. The Jewish people had been invited to come into his eternal kingdom, into the palace of God. But for one reason or another many of them refused to heed the call to be with Jesus.
The messengers who were first sent on the day of the banquet probably represent John the Baptist, the 12, and the 70 who were sent out by Jesus while he was alive. The time when the banquet was ready probably represents the time after the resurrection of Jesus when the plan of salvation was accomplished. The messengers sent out after that probably represent the Apostles, the first Missionaries and the first Christians. Some of them were killed, the first two martyrs were James the brother of John and Stephen the Deacon.
This parable and the one very much like it in the gospel of Luke became very important to the early Christians, especially Gentile Christians. It was a reminder to them that they were not the first ones invited to join God’s Kingdom. The Jews had been invited first, and many of them had refused to come into the Kingdom through Jesus.
But as I said earlier, it is a human trait to revel in righteous judgments against others, so some Christians have found satisfaction in God’s justice in the rejection of the Jews and even in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD that was predicted in this parable.
But we need to be careful. It seems as if the Lord was aware of our perversities as we regard the justice meted our to others, because the parable continues.
The king came into the banquet hall and saw that there was a person there who was not wearing proper wedding guest attire. The king asked him how he got in without the proper attire. It seems possible that wedding garments were provided at the door for all those last minute guests. There is a historic precedent of a middle eastern king who provided wedding robes for his guests at his Son’s wedding.
Now remember, the people who were attending the wedding just happened to be on the streets when the messengers came to invite them. These were ordinary people, among them were probably some homeless folks. They did not need to be any thing special to get in. But once they were in they were expected to wear the proper garments.
You do not have to be anyone special or behave in any special way to come into Christ’s kingdom, but there are things that God expects of you once you do come into the Kingdom, once you do accept Jesus as your savior. Since God is Truth you are expected to be truthful. Since God is loving you are expected to love others. God loves us and accepted us into his kingdom as we were when we came to Christ. But he loves us too much to let us stay that way. He wants to make us more like Him. IF you claim to be a Christian and are not becoming more Christ-like, something is wrong.
The guest without the wedding robe was judged harshly. He was thrown out into the darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. It does not sound like a place where any of us want to be. So we had better be tending to our wedding robes, we had better be making our lives more like Christ’s so when Christ returns we will be ready for his great banquet and His great kingdom.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

As you can tell from the banners that hang in our sanctuary today, Vacation Bible School will start tomorrow. This year we will be teaching the children some of the Parables of Jesus. In honor of that I am preaching on a parable today and another one next Sunday. Today is also Father’s day, so today I am preaching about the Parable of the Father with two sons, or as it is often called, the parable of the prodigal son, found in the 15th chapter of Luke.
The 15th chapter of Luke could be called the chapter of the lost. It contains 3 parables that tell about items that are lost. The first parable is about a man who had 100 sheep and lost one. The second parable is about a woman who had ten coins and lost one. The third parable is about a man who had two sons and lost one. You may have noticed that there is a sort of reverse progression in these parables. The lost sheep is 1 of 100, the lost coin is one of 10 and the lost son is one of 2.
All of these parables share the same outline, to a point. In each the lost item is searched for and when found or returned there is a party to celebrate the lost being found. That is where the first two parables end, but there is a second part to the third parable, the one about the father of the two sons.
In the first 3 verses, Luke reveals why Jesus told these parables. Jesus had been receiving some criticism from the scribes and Pharisees about his welcoming of and eating with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees and Scribes believed that sinfulness was contagious and that those who attempted to be holy and pleasing to God should not have contact with sinners. Since all contact with sinners and tax collectors could not be avoided, they were to wash after being with them, and they were never to eat with sinners, tax collectors, or gentiles.
We know from the gospels that Jesus did not live that way. He proclaimed to be holy and to be able to show others the way to holiness, but he did welcome all who would come to him, regardless of who they were or what they had done.
In order to justify his behavior in this matter, He told these 3 parables. In these parables, he tried to get his critics to see those they considered sinners from a slightly different angle. Sinners and tax collectors did not have to be permanently cut off from God. They might someday be found and restored to God. And when that would happen, God would celebrate and have a party to rejoice over their return to Him.
Jesus also wanted them to consider that the sinners who were now associating with Jesus may have already returned to God by coming to Jesus. If that was the case, they should not be criticizing him, but they should be rejoicing in the return of these sinners to God.
Jesus made this point particularly noticeable in the third parable, the one about the man with two sons. We of course know this parable as the parable of the prodigal son. I prefer to think of it as the parable of the father of two sons.
This parable is one of the most detailed and fully developed of all of Jesus’ parables. But many of the details are missed by those of us who have never lived in the middle east. So this morning, having studied some writings of those who have a much better understanding of Middle-Eastern culture than I, I will attempt to shine a little light on this wonderful story.
There was a man who had two sons. They were obviously Palestinian Jews. The father was also evidently well to do. He had possessions and fields and day laborers and servants. He would therefore have been a well respected man in his neighborhood.
But his youngest son wanted his share of the estate before his father died. Under the Old Testament statutes governing estates, the share of the youngest son was already set. Under Jewish Law, the estate would be divided into one share for each son and an extra share for the firstborn son. So in this instance, the estate would be divided into thirds and the youngest son would receive one third of the wealth and property of the father. Except that in this case the father was not dead. There was no provision for estates to be divided before the death of the father. It was occasionally done at the request of the Father, but for a son to make this request would have been a tremendous insult in a culture where insults to one’s parents could be punished by death.
Nevertheless, the youngest son was bold enough to make the request. This was tantamount to saying “All I want from you is my share of your estate.” I don’t care if you live or die.”
The Father granted the son’s request and divided his estate between his two sons. The older son was also given his double share but the father was still allowed to live in the house and run the older son’s share of the estate. All of the neighborhood would have known that the estate was being divided and why. They would lose respect for the father who could not better control his sons.
The youngest son went away. He did not want to be in the vicinity of his father or brother. He went to a foreign land and wasted all his money in what the bible tactfully refers to as Dissolute living.
It seems that the young son had the same goals as the late relief pitcher for the Phillies, Tug Mcgraw. Tug was asked what he would do with his millions and supposedly responded, “I’ll spend most of it on women and whiskey, the rest I’ll probably waste.”
The young son’s money ran out and a famine came and he found himself working for a Gentile tending his pigs and he was not allowed to eat any of the pigs food. So the swine were better off than he was.
For a Jewish man, this was as low as he could go. So, as Jesus said, “He came to himself” The Greek word Luke uses here is a medical term denoting one waking up after passing out. The young man came to his senses and realized that his father’s day-laborers were treated better than he so he decided to go back and work as a day-laborer for his father.
He even rehearsed a speech to give to his father acknowledging the error of his ways and asking to be a day laborer. But he never got to make the speech.
The father saw him coming and ran to him. You have probably never seen an older middle-eastern man run. The reason is they don’t. They wear robes and it is not dignified to run in a robe. Dignity is of the utmost importance to a middle eastern man. But this man surrendered his dignity to run to his son. It may be that the neighbors might insult the ingrate son who now tried to return to the Father. So the father ran to his side to welcome him and walk him the rest of the way home.
And he threw a party. At the party, the meat that was served came from a grain fed calf, one that had been raised and fed for a previously unspecified special occasion.
The son was given a ring and sandals, those were signs of a free man and a son.
But not all were happy. The older brother was out in his fields working. When he got near the house he heard the party. He asked one of his servants what was going on. When informed of His brother’s return and the celebration in his honor, he was furious. He refused to go in to his own house as long as there was a party there for his brother.
The father went out and begged him to come in. The son complained that he had never been treated so lavishly and yet he had never left.
Did you notice that this parable has no proper ending? It closes without telling us whether the older son went into the party and greeted his brother or whether he continued in his anger and threw both the brother and their father out of his house.
That is because on the day that Jesus delivered the parable, the ending had not yet been revealed. Remember, this parable was told because people had criticized Jesus for welcoming and eating with sinners.
On that day, the younger brother who was lost and then found represented the tax collectors and sinners who were coming to Jesus. Notice that in the way Jesus addresses the insulting behavior and debauchery of the younger brother he does not try to apologize for it or explain it away. The younger son had insulted the father and wasted his inheritance on a sinful lifestyle. The tax collectors and sinners had also insulted God by not obeying Him and had wasted their spiritual heritage as Jews by living sinful lifestyles and betraying their nation.
In coming to Jesus and in being welcomed by him, they were on their way back to God, or had already come back. Through Jesus, God was extending his forgiveness to them.
The older brother represented the Pharisees and Scribes and others who did not want Jesus to associate with sinners. They thought that whatever value the sinners had had at one time had been forever destroyed by their sinfulness and rebellion against God. Jesus informed them that God still loved the Sinners and that God rejoiced when one of them repented of their sins and returned to God.
I think the man in the parable had two lost sons. One was openly rebellious and sinful. The other was just as lost to the father but his lost-ness was less obvious because he stayed home and did not openly rebel against the father. But he did not really love the father. He served the father as if he were a slave. He served and honored the father without Joy and without displaying the forgiveness that was characteristic of the father.
Most of us have at some time been one and then the other of these sons. We have insulted God and wasted or used for evil what he has given us. And most of us have been resentful at the forgiveness God extends to those who have angered and hurt us. And most of us have been angry and resentful of God at one time or another.
We have all been lost to God at one time or another and perhaps some of us still are. We need to thank God for his forgiveness of ourselves and others and welcome others as brothers and sisters in Christ once they have returned to God through Jesus.
And on this father’s day we need to understand that in this parable, God is setting an example for earthly fathers. All fathers and mothers need to put aside our own pride and the need to justify our opinions and forgive our children when they insult and harm us and themselves. We need to be forgiving and waiting for their return. And we all need to pray for earthly fathers and mothers that they will follow God’s examples of forgiveness as they raise their children.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Elijah was one of the greatest if not the greatest of the Jewish Prophets. For some reason, his prophecies were not written down in a book with his name on it. The exploits and prophecies of Elijah are recorded in 6 chapters of I and II Kings.
It might appear odd at first that Elijah was sent to minister to a kingdom that was and would continue to be lost to God. His prophecies started with the one we just read about. At that time, the 10 Northern tribes of Israel had already broken off from the Southern Tribes. This Northern Kingdom of Israel established its own form of worshipping God and often also worshipped False Gods. It would eventually be conquered by Assyria in 722 BC. But that would be about 150 to 120 years after Elijah
So Elijah was sent to a nation that would never completely return to God and would ultimately be destroyed.
But it is even worse than that. Elijah was sent to this apostate nation during the reign of the worst King of Israel. His name was Ahab. Personally he seems to have been mostly weak and willing to rule as others wished him to. The thing that made him so bad was his choice of a queen. He was married to Jezebel. As we can all tell from your response, her name is still infamous because of her behavior. She was a Sidonian Princess and a devout follower of the false god Baal. She tried to make Baal the official God of Israel and she imported or ordained in Israel 450 Prophets to Baal.
It was to this nation of Israel under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, that God sent Elijah.
And this first prophecy of Elijah was one seemingly formulated to bring hardship and persecution onto Elijah. God directed him to tell the king that it would not rain for 3 years unless Elijah said so.
After Elijah delivered his message, God told him to get out of town; to go hide. God directed him to hide first of all to the East of Israel in the valley of a wadi that flowed into the Jordan River. (A wadi is a ravine or gulch that fills with water during the wet season and dries our during the dry season.) There would be water there for a while and God directed Ravens to bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening each day.
After a while, the brook dried up as the drought became more severe. Then God did another strange thing. He sent Elijah to the Northwest to the Sidonian village of Zarepath on the Meditaranean coast. Now Sidon was where Jezebel had come from, and the official god of all of Sidon, including Zarepath was Baal. So God sent Elijah to hide out among Jezebel’s people in the midst of Baal Worshippers.
And the woman he was to seek lodging with was on the edge of starvation. When Elijah arrived, she had only a handful of ground corn or grain and a little bit of oil to cook it with. Her plan was to prepare it for her son and herself and then slowly starve to death.
But Elijah promised her that if she prepared a little of the meal for him first, she would not run out of meal or oil for the duration of the drought. God gave just a little more each day in those jars for the provisions for that day.
Throughout the bible, God exhorts his people to depend on Him for their needs, and not to hoard food and wealth for the future. But most of us have been influenced by our wealthy, overabundance-hoarding culture to depend on our abundance, not on God.
We need to remember that in the Prayer of our Lord, he said, “Give us this day our daily bread”
We are called to depend on God in every area of our lives. We are not to sit back and let God do everything, we are to seek jobs, repair our homes, etc, but we are not to depend on ourselves.
And maybe that is why God has led us to receive communion as we do. It has puzzled some folks that we refer to this sacrament as the Lord’s supper and a holy meal, then in many churches offer only a small cube of bread and a very small cup of wine or juice.
It is true that early on in the Christian era, Christians had carry-in meals in connection with the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. There were problems that developed with that practice, so it seems to have been decided that for sacramental purposes, the re-enactments of the Lord’s supper only needed to offer a little bread and wine to be a reminder of that last great Passover meal.
But what about the grace of God that we are told comes to us as we partake of this meal. Is it smaller or greater depending on the size of the piece of bread or the cup of wine? No, the grace of God that comes to us as we partake of this sacrament is given as we have need and willingness to receive it. It is like the flour and the oil that the widow of Zarepath shared with her son and the prophet Elijah. It miraculously grew to accommodate their need for food each day.
The grace of God that is for you here in this sacrament is just enough for you. And there is enough to share with others by stretching your patience and your generosity and your compassion and your time for others. But you can only increase this grace of God for you by being willing to receive and use more of it.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Today we are in a bit of a conflict. Our nation is on a long weekend that honors those who died in the process of obtaining and securing the freedoms that we have in this nation, or in attempts to offer the freedoms we enjoy to others.
But our church has declared that this is a day for recognizing the fact that our God is a trinity of persons. Now by our church, I mean most organized churches and denominations. The PCUSA planning calendar has this date listed as Trinity Sunday. Trinity Sunday does not always fall on Memorial Day weekend. It is always on the Sunday after Pentecost, which is itself the 7th Sunday after Easter.
Last Sunday, which was Pentecost, we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit onto and into the church. Today we look at all of the persons of God which are in and proceed from our God.
The doctrine of the trinity is uniquely Christian. No other religion presents a God who is more than one person. And that is why the people of other religions do not understand all that we believe about God. Muslims and Jews are scandalized by this doctrine. Both of those religions are fiercely monotheistic, which means that they only worship one God. We Christians also claim to be monotheistic but in our doctrine of the Trinity Muslims and Jews find reasons to accuse us of being more polytheistic than monotheistic. A polytheist is one who worships more than one God. So, are we Christians truly monotheistic or are we poly-theistic? Do we worship one God or Three?
As we begin to explore this issue we need to acknowledge that the word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures. It is a word that church people invented to describe what they found taught in Scripture. And I ought at this point to add, that passages that are consistent with the doctrine of the trinity are found in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.
One of the best examples of this is in the first chapter of Genesis in the verses Grieke read as our first lesson. There are two interesting verses in this chapter. Verse 2 of Genesis 1 reads “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the water”. What is interesting is that the Hebrew word here translated “Wind” is also translated “Breath” or “Spirit”. And if you look in your pew bibles or some of your bibles at home you will find that in this verse, there is a footnote that says “OR while the Spirit of God or while a mighty wind”. This could well be the first reference to the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.
And the 26th verse reads “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness”. God speaks of himself in the plural. Some have passed it off as the royal we that monarchs and others have used, but this is way before queen Elizabeth.
Then there is the Hebrew word that occurs throughout the Old Testament that is translated “God” in all English translations. The Word is Elohim and in all other instances the IM ending is plural.
So while the Old Testament Scriptures are insistent that there is only one God, the word used for that God is plural and would ordinarily be translated “Gods”. This idea that there is only one Gods is grammatically impossible but coincides with the doctrine of the trinity.
Now let me be clear here, it cannot be said that the Scriptures of the Old Testament teach the doctrine of the Trinity, but it can be said that some passages are not inconsistent with the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity is supported much more by the New Testament, especially the teachings of Jesus. Today our second lesson is one of these passages. You may have noticed that this passage is just prior to the lesson we read last Sunday as we were looking at the Holy Spirit. In this passage, before Jesus talked much about the Holy Spirit he talked about the other two persons of God, the Father and the Son. In the first 7 verses of John 14, Jesus had been talking about his Father, His Fathers House, and himself.
In the 8th verse, as our lesson begins, Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus responded by saying “Have I been with you all this time, Phillip, and you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
In these verses we learn some interesting things about the Father and the Son. In other Scripture verses, while Jesus was on earth, He described the Father as being in heaven. In other words, in those passages we think that the Father and the Son were spatially separated. But here Jesus describes himself and the father as being indistinguishable and joined, so that the words and deeds of Jesus are really the words and deeds of the Father. Everything that Jesus did was really done through him by the Father. During the life of Jesus, the Father and the Son were clearly distinct because only Jesus the Son was visible and audible, but Jesus during that time clearly stressed their unity.
In the later verses of this passage, Jesus clearly stressed the unity of himself with the soon-coming Holy Spirit. In verses 16-17 we read that Jesus said “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Last week I dealt with the Greek word that is here translated Advocate. You will remember that the general meaning is “one who is called to the side of.” In this passage Jesus tells them that they will recognize the Spirit of Truth or the one who will be called to their side because was abiding with them. Now Jesus was the one who was presently abiding with them. He was the one who had been called to their side and taught them for the last 3 years. The Holy Spirit was to come onto them at Pentecost.
Jesus was saying that they would recognize the Holy Spirit because the Spirit would be Jesus. They would be familiar with and recognize the Spirit because they had known the Son. We on the other hand, know Jesus because we know the Spirit.
It has been the tendency of Protestant Pastors and Theologians to stress the individual persons and works of each of the persons of the trinity. This has sometimes caused us to almost forget the unity of God and think of Jesus and the Father and the Spirit as three independent entities.
This past week Our Administrative Assistant Stephanie Cardwell and I spent a few minutes selecting the graphic that adorns your bulletin cover. Some of the graphics we looked at seemed to almost teach that God was comprised of three independent beings that were somehow joined together. I chose this one because it clearly illustrates that God has a three-ness about him, but that he is one in being and nature. The lines flow from one part into another part and in a way that it is all clearly one entity.
We Christians believe that God’s three persons have co-existed forever and will continue to do so. We believe that they can all perform their functions at the same time. But we also believe that they are one God, one Being.
The Doctrine of the trinity was formulated to help us understand what the Scriptures reveal to us about the nature and works of God. And although some brilliant minds have added to the formulations, they describe something that is a mystery and will not be totally revealed until the end of earthly time, if then.
We Christians affirm with Jews and Muslims that there is only one God, but was also affirm that he is revealed to us through his three persons. This Three-ness does not distract from or in any way negate his One-ness.
Now, Please join me in affirming the One-ness and Three-ness of God by saying with me the Apostle’s Creed. You will find it printed in the bulletin.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

On the 7th Sunday after the Resurrection of Jesus, 10 days after He ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles during the Jewish festival of Pentecost. This coming of the Spirit was not just to and for the Apostles but to and for all Christians. As Christians we all have the Holy Spirit in and with us, but it is easy for us to take the work of the Spirit in us for granted because He is always present with us. So it is good for us to think about the Holy Spirit and the things He does in us and for us.
On the night of Jesus’ Last Supper with his Apostles, Jesus talked some about the Holy Spirit and the sorts of things the Spirit would accomplish for them and in them. This scripture passage contains words of Jesus that were spoken to His Apostles that evening.
As Jesus spoke these words, he knew that he would be dead within 24 hours. So He told them that he would not be leaving them without help. He said He would not leave them as orphans or parentless children.
The lives of children left parentless has always been of great concern to God. He instituted special laws in the Old Testament to protect them and see that they were cared for. The Christian Church has reflected this concern of God by building orphanages and founding adoption agencies around the world. When I was a teenager I met a lady who had been a missionary to India. During her years of service she had adopted 8 abandoned baby girls and raised them to adulthood. Last evening as I met with the Blyths I discovered that they are continuing this part of the ministry of Christians by adopting a Nigerian child and serving as foster-parents to many others.
But in this saying of Jesus, he spoke to the apostles comparing them to children and he promised to leave them in the care of someone else at his soon coming departure.
In the first paragraph of our second Scripture lesson, Jesus was referring to 2 different periods after his death. The first was that short 40 day period when Jesus would be physically with them after his resurrection. Hence the words “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” We have no record of Jesus appearing after his resurrection to any one who was not a believer.
But then Jesus went on and said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Here and throughout the scriptures, Love is spoken of in terms of how we behave. We love God, not by feeling good about Him and desiring to abide with Him forever, nor by speaking well of him and defending him, but by obeying God and keeping the Word or commandments of Jesus.
When we obey God’s commandments, God lives with us and in us. The Father and the Son live in us and with us through the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit who helps us obey the Words of Jesus. The Holy Spirit keeps our Father God with us and in us through his presence so we are not orphans.
The Spirit also helps us to understand and obey God’s commands. The Spirit makes us more able to obey God and please Him.
In verse 26 Jesus names the presence of God which will be with them and in them. It is the Holy Spirit, who has the role of Advocate. The Greek word translated Advocate is Paraclete which originally meant One who is called to the side of. It came to apply to a counselor or an attorney. As our Advocate, the Holy Spirit is the one who advises us, teaches us, counsels us and defends us. He is also God’s advocate to us, helping us to understand and obey God.
In verse 26 Jesus said the Holy Spirit would remind them of and help them understand the things that Jesus had said while he was alive.
Having spoken of the Holy Spirit as the Presence of God with them and as their advocate he then in verse 27 said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”
Peace is a very important word in the Middle East. In the Jewish and Arab world, Peace is the word spoken as Hello and Goodbye. When you greet or say farewell to someone you wish them to have peace. The Hebrew word for Peace = Shalom. It is much more than the absence of war, strife or contention. It is a blessed state of well-being. It is like saying “may everything in your life bring you blessedness and happiness”.
Unfortunately in their greetings and farewells as they wished for peace for each other, it was just a word. But Jesus was saying that as he would be leaving them and saying “Peace” it would not be just a word and a wish, he would be leaving them with a real sense of peace. That peace is also the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings the joy and security of God into our lives and we have peace even in the most difficult and tumultuous times.
The Holy Spirit is with those of us who believe. He is with us living in us as the Father and the Son. He is with us helping us to hear and obey God. He is with us as our advocate, counseling us, advising us, standing along side us. And He brings to us and in us the Peace that can only come from beyond this world from the dwelling place of God.
Let us now celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit within us by participating once again in the Lord’s Supper, remembering that at this meal, Jesus promised to send the Spirit to us.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

I like to think of Mark’s Gospel as the quick gospel. Mark seems to be in a great hurry to relate the important events and words of Jesus life. There are no birth narratives or genealogies in Mark. As his gospel begins, Jesus is already almost 30 years old and John the Baptist is preaching and baptizing and announcing the coming of the Messiah.
The KJV or the Authorized Version picks up on this quickness of Mark’s gospel, translating certain Greek words with the word Immediately. The word Immediately occurs 43 times in the KJ translation of the Gospel of Mark.
With all this quickness then we should not be surprised that events recorded in the third chapter of Mark’s occurred after Jesus was well established as a popular Rabbi. He was perhaps at the height of his popularity. Crowds followed him everywhere he went and the San Hedrin in Jerusalem had heard about him and sent spies to listen to what he was saying to ascertain if his teachings were orthodox.
All of this happened so quickly that Jesus’ family was not ready for Jesus to be so popular. The passage we are looking at this morning takes us to a time when Jesus had just returned to Capernaum from preaching and healing in other villages. He had become so popular that crowds from the surrounding villages immediately arrived, or followed him back home, and gathered around him to the point that he couldn’t get any rest or take a break to eat properly.
His family, about 20 miles away heard about this and thought that they needed to rescue Jesus. The reports they heard were that Jesus was “out of his mind”, that he had gone over the edge, that he was working way too hard and needed some rest.
Now if they had been successful in “rescuing” their brother and son, they would have impeded the ministry of Jesus and done damage to the plan of God. But since none of us have the son of God in our families, there are sometimes occasions when we do need to help members of our families find some balance in their lives. Some of us need to rescue loved ones from overwork or too much stress, or intervene in their addictions. The fact that Jesus’ family were wrong in this case does not mean that all families are wrong in trying to rescue their loved ones from themselves or from situations they have gotten themselves into.
While the family of Jesus was on their way to Capernaum to take him home by force if necessary, the popularity of Jesus was bringing him some opposition. Scribes or authorities of the Hebrew Scriptures had been sent from Jerusalem to check Him out or to stop Him. They accused him of having a high level evil spirit. They stated that it was by the power of this demon that he was able to do miracles, including the driving out of other evil spirits or demons.
Jesus attacked this accusation on the basis of logic. For one of Satan’s demons to drive out other of Satan’s demons means that Satan’s kingdom was self-destructing. Like us, all they had to do was look around at their society to perceive that Satan’s hold on this world was not decreasing.
In this context, Jesus used the proverb “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand and a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
In 1858, as he was receiving his party’s nomination to run for the United States senate, Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus in his famous “house divided” speech. At that time, the issue dividing the nation was slavery. Some states and territories allowed slavery and some did not. That was causing some problems and Lincoln argued that this division if allowed to continue would bring down the nation. It took a war to eliminate that division, but every day our news media reminds us that over several issues we are a divided nation. In my own experience I have discovered that the church, including and especially the PCUSA is divided over several important issues. We must pray for unity in our nation and in our denomination and be willing to work toward unity.
Jesus then said something else about his power to drive out Satan’s demons or evil spirits. He said “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then his house can be plundered.”
As I said earlier, It doesn’t take a Christian long to look around in our time and see that Satan has a lot of power in our world. Evil is so prevalent that lesser evils are often taken as good. When we find ourselves in those circumstances it is good for us to remember this saying of Jesus. In this context, The strong man is Satan. And the one who has tied him up so his house can be plundered is Jesus. Ever since Jesus came, Satan is still powerful, but we are the followers of the one who has bound him and we are supposed to be plundering his house, we are supposed to be defeating evil and freeing people from the fetters of unbelief and delivering them to the freedom of faith in Christ.
But in accusing Jesus of having an evil spirit, his opponents had started to go down a very bad road. So Jesus had to warn them. He said that they were in danger of committing the unforgivable sin. As long as they believed Jesus was powered by Satan, they could not accept him as Lord and God. As long as they perceived him to be powered by evil spirits, they could not perceive his works and his words as the works and words of God’s Holy Spirit. And as long as they could not see or even consider that it was the Spirit of God working in Jesus, they could not be saved or forgiven.
Now, since all Christians have allowed the Holy Spirit to reveal to us that Christ is the Son of God and Savior, it is not possible for us to commit the unforgivable Sin. But we can get into a lot of trouble when we do not see the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our world. Ask God to open your eyes so you can see the works of the Holy Spirit in your life and in this otherwise dark and evil world.
But today is Mother’s day, and Mary the Mother of Jesus is in this passage. She and her sons finally arrived at the crowded house where Jesus was staying. If they witnessed the conversation Jesus had with his enemies they were probably doubly certain that Jesus needed to be rescued, not only from himself but also from his enemies.
It is interesting to note that Jesus enemies thought he was demon possessed, and his family thought he was crazy. There is not always a lot of difference between those two. Jesus family was not a lot more helpful than his enemies. Now to be fair, the family was really looking out for Jesus good. They just did not understand what was best for Jesus. He needed to be with people and get his message out. He only had a couple of years left. But still, we need to try to be of more help to Jesus than his enemies are
To be fair to Mary we must acknowledge that she was His mother. She still wanted to take care of her son. Mom’s are so connected to their children that it is sometimes difficult to let them go. But in this case, God needed Jesus to do what he was doing and in her love for Jesus and in her desire to protect and save Jesus she was in God’s way.
When Jesus was told that his mothers and brothers and sisters were outside the house waiting to talk to him, he looked at those seated around him and said “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Now I think that there is some chastisement for his mom and siblings in what Jesus said. They were not doing the will of God in trying to take him home and get him some rest. But in a way His words also leave them in their high positions. In using their relationships to Jesus as status to which he elevates all who do God’s will, He acknowledged that being His sibling or His mom was a high and holy status.
Today we ought to thank God for our Mothers, especially those who were Christians. We should also show our appreciation for those fine Christian ladies who are raising their children in our Church. We need to pray for them. It is not always easy being a mom.
But was also need to thank God for raising up all Christians who seek to do God’s will in their lives to being siblings and Mothers of Jesus. What a great privilege he has given us and our Christian mothers.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Patmos is an Island in the Agean Sea off the coast of Turkey. It is today a part of the nation of Greece. It is best known among Christians as the location where John the Apostle received a vision from God. John wrote down what he heard and saw in that vision and his account is the book of Revelation in our Bible.
John was on Patmos because of his apostolic activities. He was known as John the Evangelist and he had evidently been so effective at building up the church and converting people to Christ that some court of the Roman Government exiled him to the Island. While he was there and not allowed to leave from there, the Spirit of God came to him and gave him The Revelation. This Revelation contains some of the History and the important parts of the future of the world. The problem is that these bits of future and history are presented in symbols that are sometimes difficult to understand.
In the beginning of the book John informed his readers that it was on a Sunday that he received the Revelation. He heard a voice behind him and saw someone walking in the midst of 7 lampstands. This person was the glorified Jesus. In the first part of the Revelation Jesus dictated to John letters to the seven churches in the province of Asia who were symbolized by the 7 lampstands.
After those 7 letters were dictated, John saw a door in heaven and was invited to go up and observe what was beyond the door. When he passed through the door he found himself in God’s throne-room. God was seated on his throne and before and around the throne were two types of beings. There were 4 whom John referred to as the 4 living creatures and there were 24 Elders each sitting on a throne. The four creatures are said to represent all creation and the twenty-four elders are said to represent the Church.
The 4 creatures led worship in God’s presence by singing “Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” Then the 24 elders threw their crowns before God’s throne and sang “You are worthy, Our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your power they existed and were created.”
Then John saw that in the right hand of God there was a scroll “written on the inside and on the back, sealed with 7 seals.” It was customary to write only on the front of a scroll. That this one was written on both sides conveys the fullness of what was written.
Then John heard a mighty angel proclaim “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” No one came forward to open it. John began to weep because he seems to have understood that he had been transported there to see or hear the contents of that scroll. And now no one could open it.
At that point one of the 24 elders said to John “Do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals”. Then John saw “a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes,…”.
This lamb is a symbolic representation of the murdered, resurrected and glorified Jesus. As John observed, this lamb took the scroll from the right hand of God with the obvious intent of opening it. At that point the 24 elders began to sing a new song. They sang “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God and they will reign on earth.”
Then Millions of angels began to sing “Worthy is the lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
As the rest of the book of Revelation proceeds, John is proved to have been correct in his assumption that he had been taken into God’s throne room to view the contents of that scroll. The rest of the book of Revelation contains depictions of what was written on that scroll. It turns out to have contained the future of the word, the future of the Church, and the future of all those who believe in Christ.
Only Jesus was worthy to open the future. We might think his worthiness would come from his being the divine Son of God. But the elders and the angels said that His worthiness came from his being slaughtered. He was worthy to open the scroll containing the future because by his death and resurrection he had brought that future into being. He had guaranteed that glorious future, full of severe judgments to be sure but also containing victory for us on earth and a glorious eternal life for us in an eternal kingdom.
In a few minutes we are going to be participating in a reenactment of the memorial meal that Jesus instituted on the night before his death. In this meal the slaughter of the Lamb of God is remembered.
As you take the bread and then the wine in this humble place to the accompaniment of restrained organ music, I want you to remember that in heaven angels and elders are singing “Worthy is the lamb to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
In Him, because of his Death and Resurrection, our glorious future is guaranteed. Praise be To God and to His Lamb Forever and ever, Amen!

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Today is the third Sunday of Easter or Eastertide of the year 2010. This will be our last look at the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus for a while. Next Sunday will be youth Sunday, and the Seniors in our Youth Group will be selecting Scriptures and presenting brief homilies on them. The following Sunday will be a communion Sunday and we will not be looking at a post resurrection appearance of Jesus.
Anyway, today we are looking at the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to seven of his apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee. John always liked to refer to this body of water by its Roman name, the Sea of Tiberius, but it is the sea of Galilee just the same.
As the narrative begins, we find Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others gathered on the shore of the sea of Galilee. They had returned to Galilee to meet the resurrected Jesus there as they had been directed. John informs us that this would be the third time Jesus had appeared to his Apostles after his resurrection. He had written about two appearances to them in Jerusalem: the first afternoon of the day of his resurrection and the second in that same room one week later. But we also know that Peter had met the resurrected Jesus one other time before he appeared to the rest of the apostels. Thomas had met the resurrected Jesus only once before this time.
On this occasion, we don’t know if they were waiting for Jesus at the shore of the Sea of Galilee but it seems likely. As evening came on and Jesus did not arrive, Peter decided to go fishing. He and two of the others had been professional fishermen before they became full time followers of Jesus. A boat was nearby, so Peter and the others used it and its nets and other equipment to fish all night.
See, ladies, it is biblical that when men are near water and have nothing else to do, they fish.
But in this instance I think we have more going on than the propensity of men near water to fish. I think Peter and maybe some of the others were beginning to think about what life would be like for them from then on. Peter, Andrew, James and John had been fishermen until Jesus had called them to follow him full time. The rest of the men in that boat had been involved in other full time professions before they followed Jesus for about three years.
But now Jesus was not with them full-time. During those 40 days before his ascension Jesus just visited them occasionally. So what were they to do now? For three years they had been supported by the money well to do women had given to Jesus. With no full-time Jesus, how would they live? Peter’s idea to go fishing may have been a part of a larger but as yet indefinite plan to resume his fishing career.
So they went fishing and as sometimes happens, they caught nothing. As the sun came up, there was an unidentifiable person on the shore, about a hundred yards off, and he yelled to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They responded in the negative and the person on the shore shouted “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” They did, and they did. The net was so full of large fish that they could not haul it into the boat, they would have to row or sail the boat to shore and drag the net from the water onto the shore.
But before they did that I think John remembered a similar event. About 3 years before, he and Peter had been fishing all night on this same lake and had caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus had come along and climbed into the boat and preached to the crowed that had followed him. Then he had told them to let down the nets, and they caught so many fish that they almost sunk the boats. I think John remembered that event and compared it with what had just happened. If John had been Yogi Berra he would have said “its déjà vu all over again!” but instead he said “That is the Lord!”
Peter obviously agreed because he left the fish and the boat and jumped in the lake and swam and waded to Jesus. Jesus had a fire with some bread and fish on it and he asked them to add some of their fish to them. Jesus served them breakfast. By now, they all knew that the stranger on the shore was Jesus.
In repeating the miracle of the great catch of fish Jesus was recalling them to serve him. He was about to make that very clear to Peter, but before I talk about that, I want you to notice that in both cases of the miraculous catches of fish, they had fished all night and caught nothing. Sometimes frustrating and fruitless labors are preludes to a miracle or something great. Sometimes the long dry spell leads to an oasis or a delightful rain. Thomas Edison made many inventions because of his stubbornness and his optimism. After trying a few hundred things that failed he felt he was closing in on the answer. After all, he knew hundreds of things that didn’t work, he only need to find the one thing that did.
When you labor on for nothing, remember, in similar circumstances that was the prelude for a wonderful work of Jesus.
After breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, in front of the other 6, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? This question is not specific in the English or the Greek.
Who or what are the “these” Jesus is referring to? The fish and the boats and the lake? Was Jesus asking Peter if he loved his old way of life more than he loved Jesus? That is a good thing to ask ourselves as we go through life acquiring skills and wealth and property and experiences. Do we love Jesus more than we love these things?
Or were the “these” the other apostles who were gathered there. I think that is more likely, but if so, was he asking Peter if Peter loved Him more than Peter loved those six men?
You know, it is a really special thing to be a part of a church in which the members love and care for each other. But sometimes when that happens, it is a little too easy to be closer to our friends in church than we are to God. If you notice that tensions with or emotional distance from other church members affects your relationship with God, maybe you are closer to those friends and church members than you are to God. Your relationship with God should come first.
I think Jesus may have been asking these two questions of Jesus but I think his main concern was to ask Peter if Peter loved Jesus more than he thought the other apostles loved Jesus. Because on the night before Jesus was killed that was what Peter thought. He had told Jesus that even if all others would abandon Jesus, he would not. So I think Jesus was asking Peter if he still thought he loved Jesus more than others did.
Peter answered a part of the question. He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He did not answer the part of the question about the “more than these”.
Jesus replied “Feed my lambs”, meaning, “If you love me, your task is to feed my lambs”. Jesus asked the same question two more times. In the Greek there are two different words used for love in this passage, but scholars are not sure if in this case it makes any substantial difference, especially since this conversation originally took place in Aramaic, not Greek.
The second and third times Jesus asked the question he left off the “more than these” He just asked if Peter loved him. The second time Peter affirmed his love for Jesus, Jesus responded with “Tend my sheep”. The third time Peter was hurt because Jesus kept asking. And the third time, Jesus responded by saying. Feed my sheep.
Then Jesus said to Peter “Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” John then added an editorial comment “He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.”
Now what is this all about, the three-fold question and the reference to Peter’s death? Let’s think about that for a few minutes. When Jesus asked these questions on that morning, Jesus and Peter were standing near a fire. A few weeks before, on the night before Jesus was killed, in the small hours of the morning, Peter had stood warming himself by a fire and had denied three times that he knew Jesus. He had disgraced himself and his faith in Jesus. Now by a fire on a morning, Jesus asked Peter to proclaim his love for Jesus 3 times. Peter was being recalled.
We know a lot about recalls. They happen when some automobile or other product is found to be faulty. The automobile manufacturer has been in the news with a major recall lately. Some news reporters have informed us that many other items are recalled and the list grows weekly. That made me feel much better!
But the products we buy are not the only things that need to be recalled. Sometimes we are found to be faulty. Sometimes we betray or abandon our faith and our savior. Sometimes we need to reaffirm our faith in Jesus. But please notice that what Jesus asked was not if Peter believed in Jesus. He asked if Peter loved him. Do you love Jesus, or is he just your ticket out of hell?
Do you really love the son of God who died to give you eternal life. If so, in this passage you are told what to do. Feed or tend those who are Jesus’ sheep and lambs. Care for those whom Jesus loves. Watch out for them. See that they get all that they need in the way of spirtual help and material help. Pray for them. Help them. Comfort them. Encourage them.
After Jesus recalled Peter he reassured him that he would eventually live up to his promise to die for Jesus.
But when he was recalled, Jesus asked Peter to tend or feed his sheep or lambs. Those of us who proclaim to love Jesus have been given the same command. If we love Him, we are to care for those who are His.
This morning, after Worship, we are having our Mission Fair. Representatives of the Missions we support will be here or have sent materials describing their work. So after Worship this morning you will be able to see how our missionaries and we by our support of their work have been taking care of Christ’s sheep and lambs.

Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906