The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. With its rugged, rocky terrain, deep gorges, and steep mountain ridges, the island of Maui might reflect some of the same engineering challenges pictured in the words of the prophet Isaiah, in today’s reading. We read about John the Baptist: Luke 3:3–5 “ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”. Minus our luscious green plant life, our Maui landscape gives a pretty good picture of the same challenges of making straight and level roads, filling valleys and gorges,...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. I hope everyone had a blessed celebration of Christmas, and that you remembered to keep “Christ” in Christmas amidst all the distractions and activities. For families with kids, the waiting is over. Presents have been opened, Christmas plays have been acted out, the stashes of cookies and chocolates have been raided. For all Christians who have kept the season of Advent, the waiting is over, Christmas has come and probably most of the hectic preparations are done, and our carols have been sung (but we’re not quite done yet! Remember there are 12 days from Christmas till Epiphany!). The waiting for Christmas may be over, but we’re not quite done with waiting, are we? Human life is filled with waiting—and there always seems to be something new to wait for. For Christians, the wait goes on for Jesus’ final return. We still wait for Jesus to come in His kingdom, power, and glory. But how do we wait, and what do w...

Part 10 of a sermon series based on Romans 6-14, "God's Greater Story".  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. As we enter Romans 12, a quick recap of where we have been so far in the book of Romans is in order. Chapter 12 marks a significant transition in the topic of the book, marked by a “Therefore.” And as we said before, a good rule when reading, is when you see a “therefore”…ask what is it there for ? It connects what follows, with what came before. Starting from Romans 6, we talked about how we’ve been baptized into God’s Greater Story. In chapters 7-8 We heard how that Greater Story unfolds to us through Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In chapters 9-11 we’ve learned about God’s Greater People, the community of His church. And in these final weeks we’ll see God’s Greater Plan for our lives—the way He desires us to be people of mercy in response to His mercy toward us in Christ Jesus. The “therefore” tells us that the Christian ...

The following Lenten series I will be preaching on is taken from Dr. Reed Lessing's series on Jonah the prophet. Dr. Lessing is professor of Old Testament at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO.              Do you ever wonder what it would be like if God called you? I mean directly spoke to you in audible and unmistakable words? How would we respond? How would we treat the call? Would we take our cue from everyday life and “screen the call” or let it go to voicemail? Most of us can relate to avoiding our calls at one point or another. What if we found we were doing the same thing to God?             Welcome to the world of Jonah! Let’s begin at the beginning! When God calls Jonah to go preach in Nineveh, Jonah high-tails it in the opposite direction. The author highlights the irony of this effort to run away in a way that we wouldn’t catch—that in their time, boardin...