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A Whole Jesus for a Whole Persons, or How to Tell a Fraud. I John 4:1-12

A WHOLE JESUS FOR A WHOLE PERSONS, or

HOW TO TELL A FRAUD

1 John 4.1-12

May 31, 2015 

Is the Islamic State a legitimate form of Islam or not?  Certain statements by our government would give the impression that the Islamic State is un-Islamic.  This is suggested, so it is argued, in order to avoid the impression that the West is engaged in a holy war directly with Islam.

While the suggestion that the Islamic State is un-Islamic may be understandable from a tactical standpoint, it has been criticized from a strategic perspective as being wrongheaded.  In fact, this suggestion is dangerously unhelpful to containing and ultimately stopping the violence in the Middle East.[1]  The Islamic State does represent a form of Islam that has a history and can be supported from texts found in the Qur’an.

Therefore to call the Islamic State un-Islamic insults large swaths of Muslims who believe to their deaths that the Qur’an is verbally inerrant Scripture.  More believers are primed to become terrorists to martyr themselves for the defense of their faith.  It creates the perfect incentive for acts of barbarism against Western targets and Arab Christians which are videotaped and used with tremendous propaganda effects.Read More »A Whole Jesus for a Whole Persons, or How to Tell a Fraud. I John 4:1-12

How Fear Can Blind

As anyone who knows and loves horses can tell you, our modern horse owes its beginnings to a group of 24 ponies brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in the late 15th century. These ancestors were a cross be-tween standard Spanish stock and the fabled Ara-bian horses brought into Spain by those who fol-lowed the prophet Mohammed in the 8th century.

While this is common knowledge to many, recent negative reaction to the blessing of the Fort Worth Stock Show by a Muslim cleric shows how quickly we can forget the facts when in the grip of fear mongering. We have the culture of Islam to thank in no small measure for the quality of the horses that entertain us in the rodeo. With tongue in cheek, I would suggest that if there had not been early Muslim horsemen, we might not have a ro-deo.

We need also to remember that cowboys of the West were joined in the mid-nineteenth century by Bedouin camel handlers when the U. S. Army imported 74 camels to be the foundation of its Camel Corp. Bud Kennedy has already reminded us of this in a recent column on this unpleasant and rude behavior at the rodeo. What Bud didn’t men-tion is that one of those camel-boys went by the Arabic name Hadji Ali. After the outfit was dis-banded, he made his home in Arizona under the nickname he got from soldiers, Hi Jolly. The pallet of “cowboys of color” just got richer.Read More »How Fear Can Blind

THE GREAT SEA MONSTERS

THE GREAT SEA MONSTERS

Warner M. Bailey

               Genesis 1:21 states: “So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm.”  I always wondered why the author of the first creation story called out the “great sea monsters” for special mention when describing God’s creating the marine life of the world.  The scholarly explanation is that these creatures symbolized power that could strike fear in the breast of whoever encountered one of them.  The creation story writer was careful to point out that even those animals who make us afraid are God’s creatures.

               But I have another take on these great sea monsters.  Recently my son David took me on a fishing trip off the coast of upper British Columbia.  We were part of a larger party of 12 couples who lived for a week on a converted coastal patrol boat, one of the few remaining wooden tugs still in service.  Every day we would venture out in skiffs to try our luck and skill at catching salmon, halibut, and ling cod.  It was a most congenial make up of guests and a superb crew of captain, cook, hostess, and two guides.  Read More »THE GREAT SEA MONSTERS

HAD THEY COME BACK TO HEAR

HAD THEY COME BACK TO HEAR  Acts 17.26-34 

Warner M. Bailey

                The day Mary and I climbed the hill to the Acropolis we had not yet been in Athens 24 hours.  It was truly overwhelming and surreal.  The awesome proportions of the temples, the beauty of the statuary and carving, the stark white of the stones and the cobalt blue of the sky—not to mention the fact that we were still suffering from jet lag—made the experience distinctly disorienting, awesome. 

               I wonder if the Apostle Paul felt a similar disorientation when he visited Athens in its original splendor and was stunned as he looked up at the Acropolis upon which the Parthenon soared?  The story in the Acts of the Apostles of his stay in that capital city of wisdom, philosophy, and beauty does show us that the Acropolis had an effect on him, too.  He “was provoked” at all the idols he saw, and he argued with Athenians in their market place, the agora as the Athenians called it, a building fronted with Doric columns still standing today at the base of the towering Acropolis.  He preached about the resurrection of Jesus to this audience of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and his preaching got a mixed response which betrayed just how drastically the Christian good news was misunderstood by these Athenian philosophers..  Read More »HAD THEY COME BACK TO HEAR

LOOKING AT THE WORLD WHEN LIFE IS FOR FREE

LOOKING AT THE WORLD WHEN LIFE IS FOR FREE

Micah 6.1-8  

                When God’s Spirit takes the words off the pages of the Bible and burns them into your hearts, you become a different person.  You see things differently.  You act differently.  Listen again to God’s words from the prophet Micah.

O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you?  Answer me!

For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and redeemed you from the house of bondage;

and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O my people, remember…

that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.

 

               O my people, what hardship have I put on you?  O my people, what requirement did you have to fulfill, what test did I require you to pass, in order to be eligible?   How many merits did you have to earn?  Answer me!    And of course, our answer to God is None!  Nothing!  It is all God, God, God. God brings out.  God liberates.  God nurtures and shapes.  A life of freedom begins with a gift of freedom.  And woe betides the person who forgets the gift part of their freedom.  The word from the Bible is that life with God starts with a gift that you could not have gotten by yourself.  Remembering that you live from a gift always must be the place from which you start as you plan on how you are to live.  Micah now talks about the “how” of the living.Read More »LOOKING AT THE WORLD WHEN LIFE IS FOR FREE

HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY? GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY?  GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

 Matthew 18.21-35

Warner M. Bailey

                Just how merciful was the king if he was ready to sell his servant and his estate as partial payment for the debt?  Was it really possible for a king’s servant to run up such a fantastic debt?  Can I really believe that the servant would have been so unmoved by the forgiveness of the sum that he would have tried to gouge his fellow-servant that way?  How forgiving is the king, really, who would imprison a servant and have him tortured forevermore?  What is it, actually, that God will do to every one of us who does not forgive from the heart?  What does it mean to forgive from the heart?  Does it mean to forgive warmly, feelingly, sincerely, genuinely, authentically?  Was it easier for the rich king to forgive than the desperately poor servant?  These questions lead us to the heart of Christian forgiveness.  What does a deeper study of the parable tell us?Read More »HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY? GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

Stuck (Like a Dope) on a Thing Called Hope!

STUCK (LIKE A DOPE) ON A THING CALLED HOPE!

Luke 24.13-35  1 Peter 3.13-22

Warner M. Bailey

 

                The road to Easter travels from ugliness to beauty; from sadness to joy.  The road to Easter travels from loneliness to community; from separateness to family; from being scattered to being gathered together again.   The road to Easter travels from subsisting off of dead traditions to living by Scriptures that flame up in your hearts.  The road to Easter travels from hopes, dashed to the depths, to the heights of hopes unheard of; from the abyss of cynicism toward life in a reborn commitment to live fully because, after all is said and done, it is worth the living.

This is road down which the Easter message traveled when disciples made the trip from Jerusalem to Emmaeus and back again.  Their body language gave away how much they were crushed inside.  When Jesus asked them what was going on, to give an account of themselves, all they could do was to tell him of how their hopes had been ripped out of their hearts.  When Jesus began opening the Scriptures to them in a way they had never heard them explained before, their hearts began to flame up in a strange new way.  When they asked Jesus into their home and gave him hospitality, he helped them in the breaking of the bread to make the final connection that the message of resurrection was indeed true.  Immediately they got up from the dinner table and walked half the night back to Jerusalem to gather again with the disciples in the intensity of that first Easter’s joy.  “We have seen the Lord in the breaking of the bread!”

Our Epistle Lesson today challenges us: “Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you.”  Disciples on the road to Emmaeus were no-count in the category of hope, could give no account of hope.  Only by Jesus making a home with them through Word and Sacrament did their hearts flame with hope and they desire to return to be with God’s people. Read More »Stuck (Like a Dope) on a Thing Called Hope!

OBSERVATIONS ON THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, By Dr. Rev. Warner Bailey

The brave face of youthful pride.  Example, the calling card with the complete name.  The incongruity of this placement.

The abandonment of youthful love.  Jim and Della.  How many of us started out in similar circumstances?

The adoration of Della for Jim and her consuming desire to find a Christmas gift that adequately conveyed her adoration of him.  And by the end of the story we discover that Jim adores Stella just as much and is driven by a similar desire to find a gift which measures up to this adoration.Read More »OBSERVATIONS ON THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, By Dr. Rev. Warner Bailey

DECISION, Sermon by Dr. Rev. Warner Bailey

To Listen to this Sermon, Click Here –>  http://ststphnfw.sermon.tv/9784095

Isaiah 35.1-10   Luke 1.68-79   Matthew 11.2-11   James 5.7-10

December 15, 2013

Following Jesus is not a casual pastime.  You have to plan.  You have to decide.  You have to make an effort.  You have to put your skin in the game.  In the words of Jesus, you have to go out.

Speaking to the crowds about John the Baptist, Jesus put to them the question:  Why did you go out in the wilderness to see him?  What made you take the effort, spend the money, use up your time, and say No to many other options so you could go out to see John the Baptist? Read More »DECISION, Sermon by Dr. Rev. Warner Bailey

The Risk of Prayer

THE RISK OF PRAYER Luke 11.5-13

Rev. Dr. Warner M. Bailey

No one likes to get a telephone call in the middle of the night.  In the parable about the unexpected guest, you are jolted out of bed by a friend who arrives at your door, bleary eyed and starving from 16 hours on the road.  He needs a place to crash and something to eat.  But your cupboard is bare, so while you have him wash up, you dash across the yard to bang on your neighbor’s back door.

Now get the scene.  In the neighbor’s bedroom, the entire family is sleeping on one bed, side-by-side, like sardines, from the youngest to the oldest with mother and father on the two outside edges.  All of a sudden, a sharp knocking at the door would have shattered the stillness of the house and a rough whisper would have jolted you awake. “Friend, wake up.  My friend has just arrived from a journey.  I must feed him, but have no bread.  Lend me three loaves, and I will repay you by sunrise.”Read More »The Risk of Prayer