Fries Memorial Moravian Church

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Theologically, this text is the first cousin or maybe even the younger brother of John 14:6, wherein Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” John 14:6 is one of the most used text in the New Testament. Pastors use it for sermons on evangelism and people request it for funerals. You hear it from me.  I hear it from you.  We see it on billboards along the highway and on banners at baseball games.

Some people say that texts like John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are exclusive. They serve as handy dividers between the saved and the unsaved, Christians and non-Christians, the sheep and the goats. They say these text excludes everyone from the kingdom of God except believing and baptized Christians.

In the case of  John 14:6 that is certainly not true. The primary purpose of John 14 in its entirety is not to separate the sheep from the goats but to highlight the unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son. As Jesus says in John 14:9  “If you have seen me you have seen my father. Henceforth you have seen him and know him.” Continue reading →

Jeremiah 31:31-34

I have entitled this sermon “They Mystery of Forgiveness.”  I am not using the word mystery like Agatha Christy and other authors of detective fiction would use it.  I am using in in the way that the New Testament uses it.  In the New Testament a mystery is not a puzzle to be solved—but something formerly hidden that has now been fully and wonderfully revealed to us. For instance, in  Romans 16, St. Paul talks about “the revelation of the mystery of Christ.”  He says that God kept “the secret of Christ” for long ages, but it has now been revealed in the Good News that he and the other apostles preach. What Paul and the other apostles preached is found in 1^st Corinthians 15.  Therein Paul writes:

³ For I delivered unto you as of first importance what I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  that he was buried; that he was  raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared….so we preached and so you believed.

“Christ died for our sins.”  That is forgiveness.  “He was raised on the third day.” That is hope.  “He appeared!” That is a certainty.  “So we preached and so you believed.”  That is community. Continue reading →

Updated slightly, but very importantly. Updates in Red.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Continue reading →

This sermon was revised and updated on Wednesday, February 28th. Though it
contains only minor updates, it is the sermon I wish I had preached on
Sunday, February 25th 2024.

In 1904-1905 a German named Max Weber wrote one of the most important and widely read and quoted books of the 20th century. (Foot Note 1) It was entitled, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”* According to Weber the Protestant Ethic is a set of values held in common by most protestant Christians. On the one hand, these values included hard-work, thrift, and a belief in progress. On the other hand, they also included rejection of worldly attitudes, including the worship and pursuit of wealth for the sake of wealth, the ostentatious display of one’s possessions, and attendance at lavish secular entertainments. In other words—in the 19th century, said Weber, a great many leading capitalists were also Christians who attributed their wealth not just to their hard work, but to God’s blessing. Continue reading →

It was Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes who said, “For the simplicity that lies this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the (far) side of complexity, I would give my life.” There are some people who are merely simple. They often think and do the right thing without really knowing “Why?” There are others, like Justice Holmes who, with effort and study, cut through those complexities of life to discover the simplicity which lies on the other side. Leonardo Da Vinci was speaking of the second group, when he said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!”

Jesus is often cited as an example of the ultimate sophistication. More than anyone he was aware of life’s complexities, but he taught his disciples to cut through those complexities to achieve the simplicity that lies beyond. In Matthew 22 Jesus reduced the totality of the Hebrew Bible into the two commandments from which it all grows. He said:

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

Did you get that? “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Continue reading →