University Temple United Methodist Church

Resistance is Victorious

Admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:30:42 +0000

Acts 2:37-47: The text is part of the Pentecost story, the story of the birthday of the Jesus movement, the birthday of the church. The story is this: Jesus the healer and giver of hope had died, but then had appeared to friends in powerful manifestations that emboldened their lives. Jesus’ promise of giving the gift of Holy Spirit — the identical energy and creativity that had animated and sustained his life – had now been poured out into the lives of those…

RELEASE: At What Price?

Admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:30:07 +0000

Acts 16: 16-34: RELEASE: At What Price? Sermon by Tacoma District Superintendent, Rev. Sharon Moe

Wild Dreams

Admin — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:30:16 +0000

Isaiah 55: 1-13: What a rich text of scripture. It is one of my favorites. The prophetic poet Isaiah is writing to a people in exile. He lifts up the hope, a vision of the way the world is suppose to be. He lifts up the dream of recovery. He offers the people a look behind the curtains of political reality and shows the deeper reality of God’s desire. The prophetic poet basically says to his people: “look here! Look…

For The Common Good

Admin — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:30:09 +0000

1 Corinthians 12: 1-11: In Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church he was dealing with multiple conflicts in a spiritually immature new congregation. A “Pentecostal revival” had broken out complete with ecstatic outbursts of enthusiasm and rapture. Folks were speaking in tongues, falling into trance, receiving revelations, and were having powerful personal experiences with transcendent reality. But this led to confl ict. The “Spirituals”, as they were known, thought they were the “chosen elite” of the congregation. As you read through Corinthians you see…

Lux Sit: Let There Be Light (Earth Day)

Admin — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:30:33 +0000

Genesis 1: 1-5: The Priests who wrote these texts of God’s creating activity were living in a time of apocalypse – a time of chaos and terror. They were part of the generation of professionals and the elite who had been taken as refugees from Jerusalem into Babylon. Their Temple (their holy sacred site where God was present) had been utterly destroyed thereby calling into question…

The Presence of the Spirit

Admin — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:30:34 +0000

John 14:15-31: The next time you’re at a party and you get bored here’s a fun little phrase to liven things up: proleptic eschatology. Drop that phrase and folks will immediately think your cranium capacity is immense. — Eschatology is the study of the “last things”; the completion of creation so to speak. The Bible is full of eschatological visions: the wolf will lie down with the lamb as friends, neighborhoods will be so safe that babies can put their hands in snake holes and not be bitten, everyone will thrive and survive because there will be enough for all. These are eschatological visions of the way it ought to be and will be –someday. (We shall overcome someday) Eschatology is all about the goal, meaning, purpose and fulfillment of life.

Christ the Victor

Admin — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 17:30:39 +0000

Colossians 1:15-29: Easter is the celebration of the victory of Jesus over death and sin, over injustice and Empire, over all the principalities and powers that corrupt our life. Easter is the celebration of the victory of Jesus over fear and enforced obedience. It is a victory over pain and sorrow, betrayal, humiliation and ridicule. Easter is the celebration of the victory of Jesus over all that enslaves us, and it is the decisive triumph over being bound by fate or a script or any notion that we have no choice. Easter is a feast of freedom…

Life on the Vine

Admin — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:41:21 +0000

John 15: 1-17: Palm Sunday is a day of great contrasts. On the one hand we gather to celebrate a moment of anticipated joy and victory. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the wave of a popular message of social holiness and renewal. We might think in terms of Gandhi on his Salt March, a symbolic street theater that simply by doing it, the power structures of society were undermined…

Unbound and Set Free

Admin — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:30:10 +0000

John 11: 17-44: Tombs, in the time of Jesus, were carved out of caves with a huge boulder sealing off the entrance to protect against grave robbers and wild beasts. In our spiritual lives we often experience times of great anxiety and worry, we seek God for a sign, for some sort of guidance, some word of hope, but often we hear only silence. Whatever ‘signs’ might come are too ambiguous to discern. Whatever word of hope spoken is too hard to hear, to trust, to imagine…

The Doctrine of Evangelism

Admin — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:30:28 +0000

1 John 1: 1-10: What does it mean to bear witness? Have you ever “witnessed” to others about your faith, your trust in Christ? Does such a thing (witnessing to others) scare you a bit? Are you getting worried that I’m about to launch a new program of evangelism that will ask you to go out and tell somebody about Jesus? —- Well relax, of course I’m going to do that. I do that every week. I think all of us ought to be bearing witness and telling others through our practice and our proclamation, through our thoughts, words and deeds, about Jesus and the benefits of being a Christian.