Sermons by Rev. Joel Lynn

                 Today we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday. And transfiguration is really just another way of saying transformation. It simply means a change in form or appearance. And indeed, Jesus, on the mount of transfiguration, his appearance drastically changed. He suddenly began to shine like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. In Mark’s gospel he notes that his clothes were so white that they couldn’t be bleached. I take it to mean that it’s so white that if you were to bleach it with the whitest bleach on earth, you’d only darken it. The question is: what does this mean? Why does Jesus suddenly appear in this way? I believe that this event is meant to signal nothing less than Jesus’ full divinity. In Daniel 7, Daniel is given a vision of God as one whose clothing was white as snow. Psalm 104 speaks of God as being wrapped in light as a garment. And in Isaiah 60 as Isaiah has a vision of the perfect future, the new he...

              L ast week we started a series on Joseph. We talked about some of the family dysfunction that was going on in Joseph’s family such as Jacob’s favoritism of loving Joseph more than his other sons, and the jealousy that brought up in Joseph’s brothers. And we talked some about how Joseph didn’t do himself any favors in helping the relationship with his brothers with how he pridefully shared dreams in which his brothers were bowing down to him. He even tattled on his brothers when he observed them slacking on their jobs.             Well, we pick the story back up today when Joseph is again instructed by his father to go and check on his brothers and make sure they are doing the job they’re supposed to be doing with shepherding the flocks. It is here when Joseph is approaching them way out in the wilderness that his brothers conspire to kill him out of jealousy and vengeance. They had ...

             Today is the first Sunday in Advent. And the term Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus meaning coming or arrival. Basically, Advent is a period of waiting and preparation for the coming of God. Though nowadays Advent is primarily thought of as waiting in anticipation of Christmas where we celebrate Christ’s first coming into the world as a baby, Advent initially began, historically, as a period of waiting and preparation for the second coming of Christ when Jesus would return as judge and usher in the fullness of his kingdom. Still today in the lectionary selections for Advent, you can see that the first couple of weeks of advent always contain some texts about the second coming of Jesus. Our text for today from 2 Peter 3 is one such advent text that focuses on the second coming of Jesus. And I think that it is fitting indeed to still talk about the second coming of Jesus during Advent, because as we think about what it m...

          Today we continue our sermon series on the book of Jonah. Last time we spoke of the great evil and violence of Nineveh, Jonah’s desire to thus flee far away from having to go and be a prophet there, and the resulting storm that caused Jonah to be thrown overboard and swallowed up by a whale. And now Jonah has been spit up by the whale onto dry land. And Jonah is given a second chance. The word of God comes to Jonah calling him to go to Nineveh a second time, and this time he obeys. But my hunch is that he is still a little halfhearted about this mission to which he has been called. Because look at what message Jonah goes to proclaim to them: he says, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” As far as I can tell Jonah is doing the bare minimum that he can do to still plausibly claim to God that he’s fulfilling his prophetic role in this city. Because I’ve never preached a sermon so short in my life. If I were Jonah I’d be going in...

        Today, we celebrate Reformation Sunday. And one of the focal points of the Reformation, of course, came in the year 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Primarily, Luther sought to contest the practice of the selling of indulgences, this idea that if you donated enough money to the church that you could be granted forgiveness of sins. This practice went against so much biblical truth. Jesus said blessed are the poor, and yet this practice seemed to give the rich extra favors in making it to heaven. The selling of indulgences reminds me of Acts chapter 8 where we encounter Simon the Sorcerer who thinks that he can buy from Peter and John the power of the Holy Spirit. He was of course sharply rebuked. The power of God is not something that can be bought. Neither can salvation be bought. As it says in Psalm 49:7 there is no price that one can give to God as ransom for their lives. Our debt is too big. On...