Living As The People of God 2_
Pentecost-The New Wind of the Holy Spirit
The 10 Commandments as a the Way to Freedom
Joshua- Be Strong and Courageous
It Really Is All About Following Jesus
http://www.gracehb.info/bryanburton/ (Video Link to Reformation Sunday Sermon Preached at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, California pastored by my friend and colleague Rev. Chris Tweitmann who introduces me at the beginning of the video).
You may also listen to sermons I have preached at West Side Presbyterian Church in West Seattle where I am currently serving as a parish associate (go to sermons at http://www.wspc.org).
I offer these for my blog readers who have requested it. I will continue to post more in the near future. As one who loves preaching, I am humbled and honored everytime the invitation to preach comes to me. I have been blessed to preach to many great congregations through the years and I look forward to what lies ahead in the future.
For me, Karl Barth spoke profoundly to the call of Christian preaching when he wrote:
But, some might say, how can we theologians come to speak God’s Word in our words? Or, some congregation might say, how can we come to hear God’s Word in the words of this or that pastor who has nothing to offer us, or in the words of all pastors, none of whom we trust? … If we expected to hear God's Word more, we would hear it more even in the weak and perverted sermons. The statement that there was nothing in it for me should often read that I was not ready to let anything be said to me. What is needed here is repentance by both pastors and congregations…. This does not mean that congregations must say Yea and Amen to all the words of their reverend pastors. Pastors are sinners. They are unprofitable servants with all their words even though they do all that they are under obligation to do (cf. Luke 17:10). Nevertheless, they are servants of the Most High (cf. Dan. 3:26). They speak in his name. They carry out his commission, which is a reality even today. No matter how well or how badly they do it, this in the presupposition of listening to them…. They know fear and trembling whenever they mount the pulpit. They are crushed by the feeling of being poor human beings who are probably more unworthy than all those who sit before them. Nevertheless, precisely then it is still a matter of God’s Word. The Word of God that they have to proclaim is what judges them, but this does not alter the fact – indeed, it means – that they have to proclaim it. This is the presupposition of their proclaiming it.”
Karl Barth, The Göttingen Dogmatics, Vol. 1, 33-35.
"Luther loved his canine companion Tölpel very much, and did not believe that so faithful a friend could be excluded from heaven. Asked whether he expected to find dogs in heaven, Luther replied, "Certainly, for there the earth will not be without form and void. Peter said that the last day would be the restitution of all things. God will create a new heaven and a new earth and new Tölpels with hide of gold and fur of silver. God will be all in all; and snakes, now poisonous because of original sin, will then be so harmless that we shall be able to play with them." (Table Talk of Martin Luther, DCCXCVII)"
Posted by: Ely the Lab | March 07, 2010 at 09:14 PM