Difference between revisions of "Sermon for September 30th, 2012"
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==We Go Forth in God's Name== | ==We Go Forth in God's Name== | ||
| + | After the scripture passages had been selected for this week's sermon, but before I had finished writing the sermon, somewhere in my process of studying, researching, and meditating on the scripture passages, I think the Holy Spirit nudged me in a different direction. It was while I was studying today's Old Testament scripture from Genesis 12, where God calls Abram, and my eyes wandered up the page a few paragraphs to the beginning of Genesis 11. It's a familiar story--the Tower of Babel--but I think it holds an important message for us today as we conclude our sermon series on the Heart of Worship, focusing on Going Forth in God's Name. It's short, so I'll read it in its entirety: | ||
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| + | 11Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. | ||
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| + | The traditional interpretation of this story is that | ||
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| + | -Peeling Back the layers of the Onion: | ||
| + | -God's Word, Jesus, is the Heart of Worship | ||
| + | -What's the heart of Jesus? | ||
Revision as of 10:05, 29 September 2012
Genesis 12:1-4
1Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Matthew 28:16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
We Go Forth in God's Name
After the scripture passages had been selected for this week's sermon, but before I had finished writing the sermon, somewhere in my process of studying, researching, and meditating on the scripture passages, I think the Holy Spirit nudged me in a different direction. It was while I was studying today's Old Testament scripture from Genesis 12, where God calls Abram, and my eyes wandered up the page a few paragraphs to the beginning of Genesis 11. It's a familiar story--the Tower of Babel--but I think it holds an important message for us today as we conclude our sermon series on the Heart of Worship, focusing on Going Forth in God's Name. It's short, so I'll read it in its entirety:
11Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
The traditional interpretation of this story is that
-Peeling Back the layers of the Onion: -God's Word, Jesus, is the Heart of Worship -What's the heart of Jesus?
