Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons

Celebrating Rev. Dean Snyder & Farm Festival

Rev. Dean Snyder

Scripture: Matthew 10:16-31

But Some Doubted

Celebrating Rev. Dean Snyder

Rev. Dean Snyder

Matthew 28:16-20

It is the very end of the Gospel of Matthew. The resurrected Jesus had appeared to some of his women followers and told them to tell the disciples to go back to Galilee where they had been in ministry together. The 11 remaining disciples, without Judas, return to Galillee to the mountain where he had commanded them, where he had given them new commandments, probably the place where Jesus had given the Sermon on the Mount.

 

There Jesus appeared to them and gave them the commission that was to send Christianity into literally every corner of the world. "Go and make disciples of all nations..."

 

In telling the story Matthew that when the 11 disciples gathered at the mountain of the Sermon on the Mount saw or perceived Jesus there, they began to worship him.

 

And then he adds the words: "But some doubted."

 

But some doubted.

 

Some, more than one, not just Thomas. But some doubted, not just a couple. Some doubted.

 

Even among the 11 who had been close to Jesus his entire ministry, some doubted.

 

Then Jèsus came and said to them: "Go and make disciples...."

 

He said it to them ... All 11 ... Not just the ones who didn't doubt. He said to all 11 "Go and make disciples..."

 

I want to repeat one more time something I've tried to say again and again. Let me put it this way ... I believe the basic unit of faith is not the individual but the congregation.

 

I believe that on any given week so e of us will have faith, courage and hope and some of us will not. But it is okay because those on any given Sunday who have faith cover the rest of us who are doubtful and afraid.

 

I don't think we are saved as individuals. I think we are saved as congregations, we are saved as communities.

 

The most important thing we do as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling is to get ourselves into the presence of a congregation of God's people, commune and communicate with one another, and let those whose faith is intact cover those of us who doubt.

 

One of my teachers was the Lutheran preacher Ed Steimle. One Saturday during Holy Week Ed's wife said in the morning that she wasn't feeling well. By the end of the day she had died.

 

As he had every day of his life he went to Easter Sunday worship the next morning. He said as he stood there during the opening hymn, the Allelulias stuck in his throat. He could not sing them.

 

Then suddenly he realized he didn't need to. Others, he said, could sing the Allelulias for him that Easter.

 

Many Sundays I don't come to worship because I have a strong conviction that particular day that God is alive and active in our world. In fact here are weeks I doubt it. I come because I know that others will have faith for me.      

 

Many Sundays I don't come to church because I am full of love for others and myself. In fact there are weeks when I feel as though love my love is drained away. But I know there are others here who will have enough love to cover me.

 

Same with hope. Same with courage.

 

So my encouragement to you is to stay close to the congregation. Keep your rear end in the pew. Say hello to your pew neighbor even when you don't feel like chatting. There are those here who will have faith for you when you doubt, love when you run out of love, hope for you when your hope runs low. There are those her who will sing Allelulias when the Alleluias stick in your throat.

 

Jesus send all of us into the world ... Some who believed and some who doubted.

Let There Be Light - Confirmation Sunday

Confirmation at 11:00 AM service:
Dinah Benaka
Maya Bravo
Audrey Dahlkemper
Eliza Dahlkemper
Michael Delery Gervase
Cyrus Johnson
Nathan Kattapuram
Ewan Marquis
Connor McCormick
Charlie Nichols
Madison Smith

 

Rev. Dean Snyder

Sermon: Let There Be Light

Scripture:  Isaiah 40:8

I want to say a word of thanks for everyone's prayers this past week. I spent last week in the hospital with what doctors call a pulmonary embolism. The doctors tell me that if I take my medicine and take it easy for a few weeks, I will be totally back to normal. I am on a somewhat restricted schedule. I want to say how grateful I am to our staff for picking up everything that has needed to be done, and I am especially grateful to Dawn Hand who is a great leader.

 

Today is Pentecost and Confirmation Sunday, and our confirmands have selected our scripture. Let me read two verses.

 

A voice says "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass; their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of The Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

 

I have three ideas I want to share based on this Scripture selected by our Confirmation Class.

 

Life is short. I know it doesn't feel like it now. I can remember being young and wondering to myself what it must be like to be 20 or 40 or, God help me, 60. And feeling as though it would take forever to get there. So let me tell it, it doesn't. Time flies.

 

We are given only a few years on this planet. And the question in the Scripture we heard today is the question: What are you going to stand for? What is going to be at the core of your life? What is your identity going to be?

 

It is a hard question and it is a persistent question. As long as we live it is a question we are going to need to ask over and over again.

 

The temptation is to try to please or impress others. Our families. Our teachers. Our pastors. Our friends. Or sometimes the temptation is to show them, as in I'll show you.

 

Either way it is a reactive attitude. We react to others either to please  them or to defy them.

 

Isaiah says this is a sorry way to live our lives. Because all of this is temporary. It passes away.

The one thing that does not pass away is the word of our God, the Scripture says.

 

In other words, beneath the passing trends and interests and passions of our particular time, there is a deeper word, a deeper truth, a deeper reality that is not merely transitory, that is not fading away.

 

Anybody have a favorite TV show? It will bore you 10 years from now, maybe five years, maybe two. Anybody have a favorite song? You'll have a new favorite song 10 years from now, maybe even next week. . Anybody have a favorite food? You'll have a new favorite food 10 years from now?

 

Your political beliefs may change. Your religious ideas may change. Your social views may change.

 

But underneath all this there is a word that stands forever. It is the word that God speaks.

 

I can't tell you exactly what that word is. Hearing that word is the work of a lifetime. The word is what God is doing in the world that persists from generation to generation, from century to century.

 

Searching for that word is why we study the Bible. What is it that God wants? What truly stands forever? What is the capital T truth beneath all the other truths we learn?

 

And the real question is what is worth standing for in my life? What is worth my giving my life for?

 

Pleasing others is not worth it.  Showing others is not worth a lifetime. Standing for the truth of God that will not pass away is. May each of us hear the word of our God and stand in it.

Times of Trial

Rev. Dawn M. Hand

Luke 11:1-4    

Sins and Debts

Rev. Dawn M. Hand

Luke 11: 1-4