Sermon Summary: Don’t give me talent; give me character
John points out the hypocrisy of “Christians” who say they have fellowship with God but still walk in darkness.
Our driving trip from North Carolina to Minnesota has been great and memorable. We’re about halfway through now. But the length of time on the road also has meant missing three weeks of church — and three weeks of sermons. Fortunately I have a backlog to publish here.
We were going to attend church with our son Joe and his family yesterday, but things got complicated with various family commitments, and the last straw came when their church emailed members to say childcare wouldn’t be available on Sunday. Corralling a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old in the pew would have been tough.
But Anne and I did get to worship in a different way Sunday night when we went to a church in Minneapolis to see Christian poet-musician Andy Squyres play. He is a favorite of mine, and it was a wonderful experience. I’ll write about it soon. “Cherry Blossoms” is my favorite song of his.
Meanwhile, here is another Sermon Summary. As a reminder, here is why I started writing these summaries. All the summaries were originally written to one of my college roommates, Greg, so they read like a letter.
This sermon was given by Bishop Thad Barnum at Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Cornelius, North Carolina, on July 7, 2024.
Hey, Greg:
Another good sermon today. Since moving to North Carolina 10 years ago, 90% of the sermons I have heard have been good, very good or great. I think the ratio was just the opposite during my last 10 years at an Episcopal church in Minnesota.
Today’s focus was on 1 John 1:1-10.
The pastor had two main messages:
INTEGRITY
There is an increasing number of false shepherds in the American church, causing people to lose trust in the church and Christianity.
“We need Godly character on the inside … things like integrity, nobility, truth, honesty,” Thad said.
He pointed to 1 John 1:6, where John notes the hypocrisy of “Christians” who say they have fellowship with God but still walk in darkness.
We are searching for a new pastor, so our pastor today (one of our bishops who is filling in temporarily), pushed on the Search Committee: “Don’t give me talent; give me character.” (Anne is on the Search Committee, FYI).
LIGHT
Thad focused on 1 John 1:5 … “…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
Then he did a great comparison to three other verses, showing that Jesus is the Light of the world.
• Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” … That light was Jesus the SON shining in God’s new creation … as the Earth’s SUN wasn’t created until Day 4.
• John 8:12: Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
• John 1:4-9: Jesus is the “true light.”
I hope you had a great Fourth of July and a good weekend. And I hope you don’t mind my weekly sermon summaries. This is a good exercise for me … and I thought you might enjoy them.