Sermons by Rev. Joel Lynn

                   The other day I stumbled across the Facebook page of a megachurch from a few states away, and a few things struck me. The first was, “Where are all the old people?” Nearly every picture featured people in their 40s and younger. As I kept scrolling and digging and searching, I was able to see just a couple scattered faces in the pictures there of people who may have been in their 50s or 60s, but it was rare. And I saw none in their 80s or 90s.                 Now, this is a question you don’t hear asked very often. No one is asking, “Where are the old people?” Because, by and large, the church has done a much better job retaining membership and belief among older adults. The question on everyone’s mind is thus, “Where are the young people? How can we get them back in church?” And so, the megachurch, that statistically is likely to have 70% of i...

  In our town’s newspaper this past week an article was published from a member of the ministerial alliance, of which I am a part, that said that if you believe in evolution or that the earth is older than 6000 years, you are disbelieving God’s word and picking and choosing what you want to believe or disbelieve from the Bible. While I have much respect for this person, I disagree theologically. And I want to list a few reasons why, because I am concerned that some might read the article and think, “Well, science on the old age of the earth is pretty convincing to me (between the fossil record, the carbon dating and radiometric dating, and so forth), so I guess I can’t believe the Bible. I guess I have to pick and choose between either accepting the Bible or science.” Basically, I’m concerned the article will be more likely to push people away from thinking they can believe in God than draw any in to think that belief in God could be rational and logical. Can we hold to both bibl...

            Today is Maundy Thursday, a day that commemorates all the events that happened the day before Jesus was crucified. And a lot happened that day: Jesus washed his disciples feet, Jesus taught about the need to be servants and to love one another, Jesus led the disciples in celebrating the last supper together, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was arrested through the betrayal of Judas, Jesus was interrogated by the high priest, and Peter denied Jesus three times; all of this happened on Thursday before morning of the next day when Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate of Rome.             So there are a lot of different events that one could focus on today. But I want to begin by focusing on the betrayal of Jesus that happened this day. And he was betrayed in diverse and varied ways. First, he was betrayed by the religious officials of Israel and J...