Our title is all too familiar in this day and age. We’ve all seen the scandalous headlines, a preacher caught with a prostitute! Simon was troubled, possibly disgusted by the intrusion of the sinner woman. This woman had a reputation in the town and she wasn’t called “sinner” for nothing.

I imagine that her behavior was a bit distracting. Sobbing loudly, massaging Jesus’ feet with some perfumed ointment, drying them with her hair and generally making quite a scene. She didn’t seem to know her place or the rules of etiquette for this crowd. Simon wanted to get rid of her as quickly as possible. Her behavior was too embarrassing.

To the shock of everyone, Jesus not only accepted her affections, but used her as an example to Simon of what he was lacking. Those who don’t need forgiveness, have little love, little gratefulness. Those who don’t need forgiveness become arrogant and convinced of their own goodness. It is easy for any of us to convince ourselves that we are good people and therefore we stop growing in faith.

On the other hand, people like this woman, who are accepted as a pure act of grace, are besides themselves with gratitude and love. She was so overwhelmed with gratitude that she throws herself at Jesus’ feet, doing a public foot massage which doesn’t seem like too much in return. This woman had never been treated with dignity and respect by anyone before Jesus. The preacher Jesus declares that the prostitute is accepted by God and her sins forgiven. Unbelievable!

Ministry Depot staff

Sermon seeds for Trinity Sunday.

The Trinity is one of the most important doctrines of the Church.

Now, there are a lot of people today who don’t have much time for doctrine. Such people are often into spirituality. They like phrases such as “I am a spiritual person. I have a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus and that is enough for me. I don’t need doctrines.”

Such attitudes of spirituality without doctrine are not wise. For example, every car has a chassis. What is a car without a chassis? You have to have a chassis to on which to put the fenders, the engine and wheels. You need to have something which holds the whole car together and that is the chassis.

Or, what is my body without a skeleton? Without a skeleton, the knees would be flopping around along with the legs and arms. You need to have a skeleton within the human body for that human body to stand up on its own two feet and legs.

Or, what is a fish without a backbone? We all know what it is. It is a jellyfish. A jellyfish has no backbone. That is what a lot of Christians are: they are spiritual jellyfish. They are “a blob of spirituality, a blob of me and Jesus, a blob of inner spirituality. I am a spiritual person and that doctrine stuff is not very important to me.”

I believe that doctrine is like a chassis which holds the car together. I believe that doctrine is like the skeleton within the human body that holds the body together and allows us to stand up. I believe that doctrine is like the backbone of a fish and that inner backbone gives the fish strength. So it is with doctrine. Doctrine gives our Christian faith an inner strength and holds the different parts of our beliefs together.

Or using the argument and language of Tertullian from 220 CE, he said that there are three persona to the presence of God. Let me apply this analogy to myself. I have several different persona or roles. That is, you know me primarily as Ed Markquart, the pastor. There is a certain persona to that. You know me as a person who preaches, teaches, cares for you, counsels you, am a friend to you, a leader of this congregation. Essentially, when you know me, you know me as Ed Markquart, the pastor.

There is several other dimensions to me that you don’t know about. I am a husband to my wife Jan and we have been happily married for a long, long time. We have an emotional and physical intimacy that you may think you know about, but you really don’t. Our relationship is between the two of us, and you are not part of the core of our feelings towards each other. You can observe our relationship, but the intimacies of that relationship are known only to the two of us. My wife and I share an intimacy that none of you are a part of. We have a knowledge of each other and you do not share in that knowledge. I am a husband to my wife.

A third part of me that you really don’t know is “little Eddie Markquart from Jackson, Minnesota.” Now, I tell all kinds of apocryphal legends about Jackson, Minnesota. Some of those legends are true and some of them aren’t. I don’t know where fact and fiction begin and end with some of those stories. I have told those stories so often that I actually begin to believe some of the legendary aspects of them. You know the legends but you don’t know the stories as my mother and father, brother and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins know those stories. These people know Eddie Markquart from Jackson, Minnesota, but you don’t. There is a child inside of me that you will never know. All in all, there is a wonderful complexity to me as a human being, and to you also. There is the persona of a pastor. There is the persona of a husband. There is a persona of a child. To know me in all my complexity and fullness is to know me in all my personas. Three in one.

Edited from a sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart

“Same Genetic Code” is a sermon interpretation of John 14: 23-29.  Parents and children share the same genetics. 

I have this strange sensation that overcomes me occasionally. Perhaps you have had similar experiences. I think you have. Sometimes, I will be using my hands. I will be using my hands and fingers to hold a newspaper, type on the computer, work with the calculator, and as I look at my hands and fingers, my hands and fingers move in such a way that they are my father’s hands. They are no longer my hands but my father’s hands. The hairs on my hands, the fingernails, the ways my hands and fingers move, these hands and fingers are identical to my father’s and sometimes I have that strange sensation that these hands and fingers are not my own but my father’s from years ago.  We share the same genetics.

Another thing about my father. My father cried very easily and tears welled up in him at almost nothing. I remember that I used to read about Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, the old senator from Minnesota, that he was lachrymose. I never knew what the word, lachrymose, meant, and I had to look it up in the dictionary. Hubert Humphrey was labeled, lachrymose, according to the newspaper, so I used the dictionary to find out what that word meant. Lachrymose means “teary,” “weepy,” or “easily prone to tears.” That was my father; that is me. I inherited that same quality from my father, and I cry very, very easily. It is as if my father’s tears are living inside of me.

And so I am suggesting to you this morning that my father lives inside of me. I have his hands, his fingers, his fingernails, his wrists, his sneezes, his belly, his shoulders, his legs. I have his mannerisms. I have his attitudes, his tears, his feelings. I am very simply, my father. Edward F. Markquart, Sr. lives in Edward F. Markquart, Jr.. We not only have the same names by the same identities. We also have the same birth date. If you knew my father, you would know me. If you know me, you know a lot about my father.   We share the same genetics.

How did this come to be? Why am I so much like my father? Well, I don’t exactly know, other than to know that we are related. I have his genes and chromosomes. Also, we spent a great deal of time working at the gas station together as I was growing up. We spent a lot of time walking and talking and working together in our family gas station. Just by daily being together in all these circumstances, he transmitted his qualities to me. He didn’t try. It just happened by working together in the gas station.

Many of you are the same way. You are a spitting image of your parent, parents, or grandparents. In our parish, I look at Jeremy McGinnis and he is the spitting image of his grandfather, Jerry Larson. The same is true of Matt Beer and his grandfather.

It is with these images that we approach the gospel lesson for today. When Jesus says, “My father lives in me,” I understand that. I understand that perfectly well because Ed Markquart Sr. lives in Ed Markquart, Jr. I understand it perfectly well when Jesus says, “I live in my father and my father lives in me.” All the same mannerisms of God the Father live in his Son. The Father’s gentle love, the Father’s patient forgiveness, the Father’s compassion for every one around him, the Father’s willingness to die. Same genetic code. All these qualities that Jesus had in him, these are the same qualities that Jesus got from his parent.

When did it happen? When did Jesus get to be like God? The Bible tells us that they were the same nature; they had the same genetic pool. The Bible tells us that long before the world began, Jesus, the Son and God, the Father, were living together up in heaven. The way I see it, the Father and Son were working together in a filling station, a gas station, up there in heaven long before the world began. God and Jesus were working together: pumping gases into the universe, filling the universe up with gas. I think the “big bang” of the universe happened when the Kid united the gases. At any rate, they were talking together, walking together, being together in the heavenly gas station in the sky. Jesus, the Son, saw God the Father up real close. Jesus saw God’s love, God’s forgiveness, God’s compassion. Gradually, Jesus became just like his old man. And besides, they were of the same stuff, the same substance, the same genetic code or whatever God’s mind is made of. … And then, eventually, after some billions of years, when Jesus came down to earth, Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father because I am a perfect imitation of my father. I am a perfect replica of my old man.” We can understand that because we, too, may be like our parents and they are like us.

Then the Bible says, “We will come and live in you.” Just as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father, so we will come and live in you. We, God; We, the Spirit; We, the Holy Spirit; we will come and live in you. The same love, the same compassion, the same forgiveness, the same gentleness, the same kindness that was and is in God, now this same shining glorious presence of God is going to come and live in you…and me. Same genetic code.

Well, how does this come to be? How do these divine qualities get into our lives? By walking with God, by talking with God, by working with God, by being around God, by hanging out with God. These qualities than gradually seep into our lives. And we can understand that. Because Ed Markquart Sr. live in Ed Markquart Jr. The father lives in the son. The mother lives in the daughter. The father live in the daughter. The mother lives in the son. We can understand that because people closest to us live in us. Their love, their compassion, their mannerisms, their values, their beliefs: they seep into our lives and we don’t even know it is happening. And God’s Spirit seeps into our lives and we don’t even know it is happening. Why? Because we hang out together; we walk together; we talk together; we work together.

To live with Christ, is to become like Christ, to have a similar genetic code.

Sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart

“See the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be God’s peoples, and God will be with them; God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

Use this image to illustrate the truth of “no more suffering, sorrow or pain.”

Sermons are much more effective when illustrated with an appropriate image.  See Ministry Depot’s Image Gallery

“True Identity” is a sermon interpretation of John 10: 1-30.
Today is better known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It has been Good Shepherd Sunday for centuries. Today, I would like to focus on three characteristics that we human beings share with sheep.

          
The first is this: we human beings are vulnerable to the wolves of life. We know that our lives are essentially and intrinsically vulnerable to death, disease, and injury. We know that. We know that life is infinitely fragile and easily broken and hurt. Our lives are like beautiful dainty glass sculptures.

While on vacation one time, I was watching a glass blower. He was blowing this glass and started to make a glass plate. No, not a solid glass plate but he was making a glass plate that looked like a lacey spider web. He took a piece of molten glass; it was like a dot. He then took a fine instrument and started to pull the glass out of the dot and he wove it like a spider web.

It was the most intricate thing that I had ever seen being made in my life. It seemed if you blew on it, it would disintegrate or shatter. As I watched him making this spidered glass plate, my mind flashed back years ago when I had been in Ireland, and there I had seen a beautiful glass plate, baleek China, Irish baleek. It was the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. I impulsively decided that I needed to buy it for my mother. I bought it for my mother and I mailed it back to Minnesota, and what arrived in the mail were a thousand beads of little glass.

And that is the way life is: infinitely, delicately fragile. Life is easily shattered and you know that. Suddenly, it is a car accident. Suddenly, it is cancer or another debilitating disease that strikes a person living in our home, suddenly the heart attack, the infection, the birth defect. Everything was going so well last week, and this week it has all changed. Yesterday was glorious and today is tragic. You and I know that. We are vulnerable to disease, accidents, and all kinds of disasters, enormous disasters, tragedies that suddenly shatter our lives with almost no warning.

We are not only vulnerable to the diseases and accidents but also to the vicissitudes of history, to the insanities of history. Before September 11^th, all those people and families were living in relative peace. Suddenly, there was a terrorist attack and life was changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Who would have guessed about the insanity of history?

One time, I was visiting Weimar in Germany, Weimar the city of the German intellectual Faust, Weimar, the capital of the Weimer Republic before Germany. And above the hills behind Weimar, were the gas chambers of the German concentration camp named Buchenwald. We were at Buchenwalk and saw the gas chambers, the stacks of shoes, the piles of skulls, the baskets of teeth, from the Jews who were gassed in those insane moments of history. Elie Weisel wrote the book NIGHT. Elie Weisel had been taken from his home to Auschwitz and then to Treblinka, concentration camps, and he survived them both. The book, NIGHT, is about that night that his family was taken from their home. That night when he was taken to Auschwitz. That night when he was walking along in a men’s camp when he saw his little, blonde, six year old sister being and mother led into the gas chambers. That night when he gave up his belief in God. That night when he realized that life was even more fragile and vulnerable than he had thought. Not only to disease, but to the absolute insanity of history.

Or I think of the Gulag Archipelago, and Solzeneitzen, who chronicles the same story in the Soviet Union, in the 1930s, where millions upon millions of Slavic people, perhaps 200 million, were being led like little lambs to the Gulag, being led to and burnt in the slaughtering houses of life. Yes, life is vulnerable. It is absolutely vulnerable to the insanities of history.

Today, in the insanities of our economic and social systems, millions upon millions of children are dying, like starving little lambs. Today itself, 40,000 children will die of starvation. 40,000 during the course of this day. And the past president of UNICEF said, “It is absolutely unconscionable that we allow 40,000 children to starve to death a day, when we have the means of preventing it.” Children being led to the slaughter.

We know that life is that way. Today, if you think that you are a fat lamb, and a fat sheep, and things are going well for you, you better knock on wood because tomorrow you may be slaughtered, along with your family and your own life. And if you don’t think it is possible, I don’t think I would let God know what you are thinking.

Life is nasty. On the edges and at the inner core. You too can be quickly led to that slaughtering house before you can blink your eye. So we know that. It is obvious. We are like sheep. We are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life and human history itself.

The first point of the sermon is that we are like sheep. We are vulnerable and life is very, very fragile, like the spider webbed glass china plate that I sent to my mother years ago, a china plates shattered into a million pieces of glass.

The second point is that sheep are rather dumb animals. Now, sheep are not dumb because they are so unintelligent, but sheep are dumb because they have such a strong herd instinct that becomes stronger than their reasoning and intelligence. Human beings are compared to sheep.

It is true that sheep are dumb animals and dumb due to their strong herd instincts. If one sheep goes over a cliff, the whole herd will go over the cliff as well. Do you know that is literally true? Or do you know that if we took a pot of feed right here, and if the lead sheep did not eat from that pot of food, all the other sheep would die of starvation. I mean, sheep are dumb animals, but not because they are unintelligent, but because the herd instinct is so strong they follow the lead sheep and follow the flock. Their herd instinct is stronger than their intelligence. Likewise, we as human beings, often suffer when our herd instinct becomes stronger than our intelligence. We too follow the leader. We, too, follow the leader and follow the crowd. We think back only to Nazi Germany and how many intelligent people blindly followed the lead sheep and the pack of sheep. It has happened so often in human history.

I would like to play a game with you. You can play the same game and it is kind of fun. It is to think of illustrations in ourselves as human beings where our herd instinct overrules our intelligence. Some examples: early in the morning, driving to work, you often pass the school buses during the cold mornings of January and standing on the corner, waiting for the school bus, will be a group of older children, half of whom are wearing skimpy t-shirts, even though it is cold outside. Right? The herd instinct dominates over intelligence. Or, how about those women who wear pointy shoes and four inch spikes and can barely walk. Dumb? Right. Or, how about those young men who wear spikes in their tongues and need to talk around the diamond in their mouth? Dumb? Wait until they look at pictures of themselves twenty years in the future, and as they look back at their old pictures and see the diamond stud in their mouth, they will say, dumb. Right. What I am suggesting is that sometimes the herd instinct is so strong in us as human beings that it overrules our intelligence and we do rather dumb things. Don’t even get me started about tattoos…

We do the same thing with our values. Follow the logic. Today, in America, we have more abortions than live births. I wonder why? Today, in America, young women who get pregnant keep their babies, adoption agencies have closed down or are much smaller, and even if it would be better for the baby to be adopted and for even the mother, if the baby was adopted, she will keep the child. Why? That is what culture dictates right now. You love your baby only if you keep the child.

We all know that cancer causes smoking but our government which mean us still financial subsidizes the tobacco industry. We all know that our prisons have the highest population rate in our history and that the United States has more prisoners incarcerated than any other nation except South Africa, yet we still accept a high degree of violence on our television sets, this TV violence contributing to a violent society. We all know that illicit sexuality is rampant in our society but we condone glamorization of sexual infidelity in our media. The fundamental principle is true: we human beings are like sheep. The herd instinct is so strong that it often overrules intelligence and rationality.

A third characteristic of sheep is that they wander away from their shepherd and likewise with human beings, we wander away from God and do not fully realize what we are doing. I know very few human beings who have said: I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in Christ. I renounce God and Christianity and therefore I am a new direction with my life. That type of behavior rarely happens. Instead, human beings drift away from God, drift away from Christ, ever so slowly, losing the closeness and deep faith that they once had. And someday, after months or years, they wake up and say, “Where is God? Where is Christ? What happened to the faith that I once had so many years ago?” What I am suggesting is that we human beings are like sheep and we wander away from God.

A four characteristic of sheep is not only are we vulnerable to the wolves of life and not only are we herd animals who follow the crowd, but we human beings do not have strong homing instincts. When sheep get lost, they do not find their way home. Now, if you are a dog living in Montana, you can place a dog twenty or thirty miles from his home in Montana and that dog will find its way home. A dog has a very strong homing instinct. A sheep has absolutely none. A sheep when it is lost, does not find its way back home. So somebody has to go out and find that sheep and bring them back.

And so it is with the church. When people, like sheep, get lost, we need to go and find those people who are lost. That is why in the church we are called, “one, holy, catholic, and APOSTOLIC church.” And you underline the word, apostolic because the word, apostolic, means sent. We are sent out into the world to find all those sheep out there who are lost, who are being eaten up by the wolves and coyotes of life. These lost sheep are not going to find their way back. We Christians are a sent people. We are a shepherd people.

And one of the great deceptions of life and one of the great pretenses of life, is that we are not sheep. I am a strong, self reliant male man, a strong self reliant woman. I can control my life and destiny. I am not a sheep. One of the great illusions of life is not to acknowledge our true identity.

So…knowing that we human beings are like sheep without a shepherd, what does God do? For sake of the argument, agree with me momentarily that we human beings are like sheep. Then, if we are like sheep, what do we need more than anything else in the world? Water? Food? Protection? No, we need a good shepherd who will provide for us water, food and protection. We, as sheep, won’t find our own food, water and protection. If we are sheep, the greatest need for us is to have a shepherd.

God provided a shepherd for us in the person of Jesus Christ. We human beings are sheep and what we need most is a shepherd and that shepherd is Jesus Christ.

A personal relationship is formed between the good shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd knows the name of the sheep and Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, knows your name. Christ knows you personally, your name and the sound of your voice.

We often hear that we Christians are to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and sometimes, that begins to sound like a cliché. But there is a truth to the metaphor, to the description that Jesus is the shepherd and we are the sheep, and that there is a personal relationship between us. God wants us to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our good shepherd.

Sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ My guess is that Jesus was referring all of these things that were there on the shore: boats, nets, fish, food, family and friends. Why did Peter deny Jesus three times in the first place? Wasn’t it to protect his skin, to protect his own life? Wasn’t it because he instinctively did not want to die? Why didn’t Peter want to die? I think it was because he, like all of us, loved life and the things of this life such as family, friends, fish, boats, nets, etc. Peter loved this life and he didn’t want to die. It is simple as that. That is why I think Peter denied Jesus in the first place. He loved the things of life way more than the possibility of his premature death.

Jesus also asks us that same basic question: Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than your family, your friends, your occupation? This is a personal question for each one of us. We, too, like Peter, will come to that time and place in our lives when Jesus will ask us that fundamental question: Do you love me more than these things and people?

He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Good. Peter has it right.

Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Peter becomes the good shepherd who is to feed and care for the Christian flock. That is what the faithful church of Christ always does: feeds and cares for the flock. If you love Jesus, you feed the flock. The flock of Jesus are like little lambs and need to be fed the Word, Jesus, the Bread of life.

A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ We can hear the persistent sound of Jesus’ voice. Do you love me? This is the issue. Jesus wants to be assured that Peter loves him. Jesus is not sure about the reliability of Peter’s love and so Jesus asks Peter a second time, “Do you love me?”

He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus wants to be assured that he is loved, just as we often want assurance. There are times in our lives and in our spouse’s lives where we want assurance that we are truly loved more than any one else. That is what is going on in this text. Jesus wants the assurance that Peter loves him more than anything else. Jesus wants assurance from us that we love Jesus more than anything else.

Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ If you love me, take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep. Take care of the flock that is entrusted to you.

He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ The story is classic. Jesus is persistent.

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’

And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Yes, it has proven to be true. Jesus, our Lord, does know everything.

Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. That is what shepherds do. Feed the sheep. And that is what pastors also do. The word, “pastor” is a Latin word, and the word “pastor” simply means shepherd. The shepherd is to feed and care for the flock.

What does it mean for us to care for and feed the flock. That is what Jesus wants from us. We are to care for those around us in need. We are to spiritually feed each other with the Bread and wine, with the Presence of Jesus, with the Bread of life. Parents not only provide food for their children’s bellies but food for their children’s souls.

Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. When you were young, you Peter could dress yourself, and were free to go about as you wanted, but now, Peter, you are getting older …

But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) Bingo. This is the point of the story. We finally got to the core. To the kernel. Jesus knows everything…including the death by which Peter was going to die, by Roman crucifixion, being lifted up onto the cross. Jesus knew that eventually, in his old age, that Simon Peter was going to die by crucifixion. It did come true. Simon Peter died a martyr’s death, on a cross, in Rome. Peter who had denied Jesus three times at the home of Caiaphus would be faithful to Jesus onto death. Jesus knew the future and prophesied about Peter’s future faithfulness and death.

After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ That is what the Resurrected Christ wants from Peter and from you and me.

Excerpt from a sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart

“Recovering Skeptic” is a sermon interpretation of John 20: 19-31. 

Thomas was the type of person who had lots of questions.  Doubts, questions and skepticism often lead to deeper faith and larger faith.

    
Let me give you some illustrations of this. As you know, we pastors teach confirmation to your kids and some of your kids can be at a phase in their lives that they “bug” us and this is normal. Some kids bug us because they chatter too much and need their lips sewn up. Other kids bug us because they are a little more snarly and rebellious and refuse to do their homework. And still other kids bug us because they have thousand and one questions about God, Jesus, the Bible and every aspect of the Christian faith. One of the worst kids in my memory was a kid named Duane who had thousands of questions about God, the Bible, Christ, etc. That was some twenty years ago now and I feel that there is justice that he is preaching in a church this morning as a pastor of a congregation in Spokane, Washington. The thousands of questions and doubts that he had as a youth were leading him to a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. And that is what doubts and questions often do: they lead us to a deeper and larger faith.

Centuries ago, Copernicus doubted that the earth was the center of the universe and Christians round him were using the Bible and quoting the Bible to prove that the earth was the center of the universe. His doubt of their reading of the Bible lead him to a larger and deeper understanding of the Christian faith.

Centuries ago, during the time of Columbus, certain Christians were using the Bible and quoting the Bible that the earth was flat and had edges and if you sailed too far, your boat would fall over the edge off the earth. Columbus doubted the Christianity he had been taught, and his doubts led to a deeper and larger faith.

I personally believe it is important for many but not all Christians to outgrow their Sunday school theology. Not their faith in Jesus that they learned before they ever went to Sunday school. But some Christians still have a theology and thought pattern about God and the Bible that reflects the wooden literalism of Sunday school years. Such Christian people occasionally try to force their Sunday school theology, not only on their children but on me. In my life, I am grateful that I have had other Christian teachers who have led me to a theology that, from my point of view, is deeper and wider than the theology I learned in the basement of the church in Jackson, Minnesota, so many years ago. The childlike faith in Christ that I learned before Sunday school is still the most important thing I know in life.

II would like to share an autobiographical sketch for a moment. I have been taught not to do this, but I will. I was born into a Christian family, was baptized as an infant, and grew up in the faith. My mother and father were sporadic church members. In ninth grade, my parents were having troubles with the family business and each other; and at Bible camp, I experienced a conversion. My doubts went away for three years, but my doubts fully blossomed and flowered when I was in college. I took several courses in Comparative Religion, Anthropology and Psychology. I became a walking question mark about God. No matter what it was about God, Christ, the Bible and the Christian faith, I questioned it. The essential question was this: did God create man or did man create God? I basically answered that question with “man created God.” With Sigmund Freud and his book, THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION, I concluded that man created God so that we humans would feel more secure with our mortality in our time here on earth.

As I finished college, I was still a walking question mark, but thought that I still wanted to be a pastor. Yes, I know that was weird, but I wanted to be a religious social worker or a religious psychologist. I was required to write a paper for the seminary and tell them my beliefs. I did. I told them I had lots of questions about God and Jesus, didn’t really believe in them but as symbols, but I wanted to come to the seminary and explore these questions. The seminary turned me down and sent me a rejection slip. I was surprised that the seminary had some standards and so I wrote the paper again, using the right buzz words that would get me into the seminary. It worked. I got into the seminary and studied hard the knotty questions of my life: God, Jesus, the Bible, the miracles, virgin birth, the resurrection, evolution, and every other question that was bugging me. I don’t know how it happened but over time, the Holy Spirit got into me in such a way that my questions and doubts were addressed if not answered and my doubts and questions began to fade into the woodwork, like a scar in a tree fades over time. I believe that my questions and doubts and skepticism led me into a deeper and wider faith.

In other words, today I am standing before you as a pastor who is a recovered skeptic. That is important. Not all Christians are recovered skeptics. Their faith was wonderfully simple and pure throughout most of their lives. Not me. I am a recovered skeptic and this is important. By analogy, if you are having troubles with alcohol, it is important to be in conversation with a recovered alcoholic. A recovered alcoholic knows the nuances and subtleties of argument of an alcoholic. He knows their thought patterns and habits and weak points. So also with a recovered skeptic. I believe that I can deal with many people in our society who are skeptical about God, Christ, the Bible and the Christian faith. I sense I know their arguments, their logic, their reasoning, and I can be helpful in that situation.

That is also true of Thomas. Thomas, too, was a recovered skeptic. Thomas was enormously skeptical of the news he heard about the resurrected Christ and he voiced his skepticism. At the close of the story, Thomas falls on his knees and says, “Christ, you are my Lord and God.” I believe that the story of Thomas is a story of a recovered skeptic.

Jesus and the Bible says: Thomas, stop doubting and believe. There is a time in all of our lives where God says to us, “It is time to stop your doubting. It is time to move past your doubting. It is time to believe and experience the power of belief.”

In the Book of Job, Job went on doubting, complaining and questioning God for thirty eight chapters and God finally got tired of Job’s doubting and said, “Be quiet Job. I am tired of your wailing and doubting. Be quiet and believe.”

As a recovered skeptic, I have discovered that there comes a time in life where we begin to doubt our doubts, question our questions, and become skeptical of our skepticisms. We start to understand that our doubts, questions and skepticisms are a phase of our life and that we actually become fixated with our questions, doubts and skepticisms. That was true of me. I had become fixated on my doubts and questions for about ten years, and I called that reason, but it wasn’t reason but only a phase in my life where I was a walking question mark. I discovered that Christians can become fixated on their Sunday school theology and not move beyond it; and I also discovered that a person can become fixated on their doubts and not move beyond them. I gradually discovered that my doubts and questions were becoming a waste of time and waste of life and waste of intellectual and spiritual energy. These questions and doubts were beginning to fade like a knife carving made into the bark of a tree. They weren’t so important to me anymore.

At the same time, I became aware that there is power to believing as Jesus wanted to believe. That there is a power to believing that is not weighed down and slowed down by doubts and questions. Jesus said to many people, “Great is your faith.” He said that a hundred times in the Bible. He never once said, “I commend you for your great questioning.” There is power to faith, power to move mountains and carry momentous burdens. Jesus said that: ‘If you have the power of faith and do not doubt, you will be able to move mountains, do great works of love and move mountainous burdens.”

Yes, there is great power in a life that believes in Christ, loves in Christ, walks in Christ.

Thomas, after all that questioning and doubting and skepticism, came to the time when he fell on his knees and he said. My Lord and My God. Those are the words of a recovered skeptic! 

Sermon by Edward Markquart

This was posted on Craigs List in Oklahoma City, author and Reverend Rod unknown in Mustang, OK.  I wonder if this is for real?

“Reverend Rod is your minister for wedding"s if you have a redneck fantasy wedding or just want to get married at the lake on a pontoon boat i am a flexible Reverend can also provide whole roast pig complete with apple in mouth or luau style and smoked turkey cakes desserts just ask catering photography flowers reception bartenders reception halls and service you let me know what needs are… I can bring and put on my boots and as always prayers and miracles are absolutely free please no wedding ceremonies jumping out of plane but most everything else can be arranged well OK jumping out of planes too what am I going to die and go to heaven i can show you how to go also but anyway i hope you two happiness to both of you with however you choose to get married GOD bless .”

Theme: this image reinforces the spiritual theme that death has lost its power, lost its sting (empty tomb background with stingerless bee).
       

Easter holds wonderful promise! It is the day in which God is convincing us of the resurrection and on that same day is challenging the skeptic that lives in the corner of every one of our hearts.

Death does not have the final word. Easter proclaims that death has lost its power. Life triumphs over death. We no longer have to be quite so afraid. Death loses some of its power and sting.

A father and his seven-year old daughter were riding around in the car. It was a hot summer day, and one of those great big yellow bees flew into their car. The little seven- year old daughter was very much afraid, and so was the father, and so he said: let’s get that bee out of here. But they couldn’t. It went ZZZZZZZZ, scaring them both.

They couldn’t get it out of the car, the bee flying up to the front window and then to the back window, buzzing past their heads. And now the little girl was starting to get hysterical and the father was shouting at her not to be afraid, and about that time, that great big yellow bee lit right here on the father’s neck and stung the father! And now the little girl became absolutely petrified and hysterical and began to cry and cry and cry. The father tried to calm her down and finally said to her: “Honey, you don’t need to be afraid anymore. The bee has lost its sting; its stinger is right here in my neck; the bee has lost its sting.” ….

And Jesus said: O grave where is your victory; o, death where is your sting. On Easter, the sting of death has been removed. The stinger is located in the neck of Jesus of Nazareth. We ride in our cars throughout life, still afraid, still afraid of death, like a little child is still afraid of a stingless bee. The message of Easter is so clear: there is no need to be afraid of death. It looks and sounds ferocious, but it is harmless. It has lost its sting!

Story from Rev. Edward Markquart

“Exalted or Humbled” is a sermon interpretation of Philippians 2:5-11.  The theme image plays on the common misunderstanding that Jesus came to be a political king, a Jewish ruler.  It seeks to raise the question about what kind of “King” is Jesus really?

As we hear those familiar words from Philippians, I have to ask myself, “why did God exalt Jesus Christ to be King?”

Why is it that at the name of Jesus, we and all heavenly angels are to fall on our knees? At the name of Jesus, we are to lift up our hands and say, “Jesus Christ is king.” Why? What did Jesus do that was so utterly important? What did Jesus do that placed him in such high esteem before all angels and all people?

Was it because of the quality of his miracles? Was it because he was so magical? Because he was the Happy Houdini of the Holy Land? He walked on water. He turned the water into wine. He raised Lazarus from the dead. Because Jesus was the best miracle worker who ever lived, God has exalted Jesus and made his name greater than all other names. Is that the reason why God exalted Jesus?

Is it because Jesus was raised from the dead? Never in the history of the world have we ever seen a person raised from the dead by the victorious powers of God, who came back from the dead, who came back to life in a resurrected form. Because God used his power and raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, therefore God has exalted him above all others. Isn’t that right?

Is it because Jesus had some divine connection? Jesus is the divine kid. God had this special Son, and because the Son was so special, being of the same nature and substance of the Father, therefore God exalted him above all others. Is that why God has so exalted Jesus?

The Biblical passage for today is very clear. The Bible says, “Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but Christ humbled himself, taking the form of a servant and was perfectly obedient unto death. THEREFORE, God has exalted him above all others and has bestowed on him a name higher than any other name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

NOT because Jesus was some miracle worker, a happy Houdini from the Holy Land. NOT because he was raised from the dead by the powers of God and appeared in a resurrection body. NOT because of some divine connection that Jesus was the Son of an Omnipotent God. Why was and is Jesus exalted above all people? Why? Why? Because Jesus was the most humble person who ever lived. He took the form of a servant, walking the path of humility and obedience. THEREFORE, God has exalted him above all names on earth.

It seems to me that there is a saying of Jesus that occurs more than any other saying. Repeatedly, Jesus said, “He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This teaching about humility is used some five or six times in the Bible. If Jesus’ teaching about humility is mentioned in the Bible some five or six times, don’t you think that the teaching is very important? I do. Another teaching of Jesus is this: “If anyone would be my disciple, let him pick up his cross and follow me” That teaching occurs some six or seven times, and therefore it too is very important.

But there is still another teaching of Jesus that is repeated even more often: “The person who would be first will be last; and the last will be first.” That saying is found all over the New Testament. The person who is at the foot of the table will be moved up to the head of the table. He who humbles himself will be exalted; the person who exalts himself in this life will be humbled in the next. … What I am suggesting to you is that Jesus’ important teaching about humility is repeatedly laced throughout the whole New Testament.

It was on Holy Thursday and Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. As he washed the disciples’ feet, Jesus said that the greatest person in the Kingdom of God is the humble servant. Jesus took the towel of a servant girl and washed the disciples’ feet. The big disciple, Peter, said, “No, no, no. It is not right for you, our master, to wash my feet.” Jesus said to Peter, “If I cannot wash your feet, you cannot be my disciple.” Peter said, “Wash all of me. My feet, my legs, my heart. Wash all of me that I may be your humble disciple and do what you are doing.” And what was Jesus doing? Doing the job of a servant girl. On his knees, washing and wiping his disciples’ feet. Who had ever heard of such a thing from a master? Who had ever heard of such a thing from a king? Washing his disciples feet. What an absurdity.

So I ask you the question again: Why is it that Jesus is exalted above all others? Why? At the mention of his name, every knee on earth and in heaven shall bow. Why? Because of his miracles? No. Because he was the Son of God? No. Because of his divine connections? No. But because he humbled himself and walked a life of humility and obedience.

God wants us to have that same quality as well, to have this same inner attitude that he does. It is not only Jesus, but we ourselves are invited to possess this same quality. Humility is the highest virtue in the mind of God.

Today’s passage from Philippians comes from a larger section in the Bible. Listen to the Bible verses immediately prior to the appointed reading for this morning: “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit. But in humility, count others better than yourselves. Look not to your own interests but look to the interest of others. Have this attitude among yourselves that we find in Christ Jesus. … For Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but Christ walked the path of humility and obedience therefore God has highly exalted him.”

You can see from this Bible passage that a virtue that pleases God immensely is humility and humble obedience. According to God, the most important quality in Jesus was humility. According to Jesus, the most important virtue to be found in us is humility. Do nothing from conceit. Count others better than yourselves. Look not to your own self-fulfillment but the interest of others. Live a life of humility.

Humility doesn’t have many buyers today. Humility doesn’t have many takers at all. We live in our American culture that says, “We’re number one. I’m number one. We have the number one basketball team; the number one baseball team; the number one musician; the number one choir; the number one artist.” Our American culture infests and infects our hearts, saying that we have to be number one. The best actor. The best athlete. The best whatever. “Get the gold in the Olympics. Who remembers who came in second?”

It is not only being American that puts pressure to be number one. It is also part of our human nature. You and I struggle with trying to elevate ourselves above the next person. We take our brains, our intelligence, our gifts that God has given to us and we often use these gifts to be better than other people around us. There is a human tendency to elevate ourselves above others, and we use God’s given gifts to do this.

And so within our American culture and within our human disposition, humility does not have a lot of buyers today.

I ask you to use your imaginations again. Who is a person that you know who is really humble? Who is that person who comes to your mind? A person who does not elevate himself or herself above others? Who is such a person in your mind?

Abraham Lincoln is often selected as being the greatest giant of our presidential past. When people make a list of the greatest American presidents who ever lived, Abraham Lincoln is most often on the top of the list. Why is that? Because of his legislative accomplishments? No. Because he had the longest term of office? No. Because he was assassinated? No. Because he was opposed to slavery? No. I believe that Americans are attracted to a special quality of personality in Abraham Lincoln; there was an unusual quality of humility to him. Humble Abe. Modest Abe. One historian said about him: He stood tall, but he didn’t stand above other people. You need to hear that line again: he stood tall but not above people. That is what we are called to do. There is something very attractive to this quality of humility in Abraham Lincoln, and it is this quality of humility that has raised his name above all other names of American presidents.

Another person who “stands tall but not above others” is Nelson Mandela of South Africa. We admire that Mandela stood up against apartheid. We admire his twenty-seven years in prison. We admire the quality of forgiveness he has demonstrated for his torturers. But it is when you hear him speak, with that softness and gentleness of voice, that you become captivated by him. The gentleness of Mandela’s personality is one of the most attractive in the whole world. You see, there is this quality of humility that is very attractive to the human spirit, and his name is mentioned above all others presidents in the world today because of this humble gentleness of spirit. He stands very tall, but he is very common and humble.

Cliff Lunde was my bishop. I really appreciated Bishop Cliff Lunde and so did many other pastors. All of us loved his gentle spirit. He could have used his office as bishop to pretend that he was bigger and more powerful and more important than the rest of us, but he never did. He was one of the most unassuming, humble spirits I ever met. He never lorded it over another person. I remember him coming into our sanctuary one midweek afternoon, and several of us were working on a play. He was driving past our church and just felt like stopping in, to see what was happening. No advice. No power plays. No pomposity. No big shot feelings. Just another human being, a fine Christian, a fine as Christian as you would ever find. The word most universally used to describe him was humility. He died much too young, of a massive heart attack, while bishop. I always feel that if you have one fine bishop in your lifetime, you are lucky; and my life was most fortunate to know and appreciate the life of Cliff Lunde. You see, on the deepest level, humility is enormously attractive. Like the historian said, he stood tall but not above others.

I thought of many people in our congregation. In fact, I went through our pictorial directory, and so many faces and names jumped out at me. I hesitate to mention any names because these people would be embarrassed. There are so many in our parish who possess this inner quality, the highest virtue of God.

None of us are attacked to people who are conceited and full of themselves. In your imagination, would you think of a person or persons who are conceited, who puff themselves up and think they are better than other human beings? It is often more difficult to come up with such faces in our minds, but we do. When we think of a person who is conceited and puffed up and putting themselves above others, they are not usually likeable people. In fact, they are often insecure people, with deeper feelings of inferiority that they are over compensating for by projecting an image of superiority. I doubt that any of us are attracted to conceited people.

None of us are attacked to people who are essentially selfish, who think about themselves first on almost all occasions, who worry about what they are going to get out of it, who want you and everyone else to spend time and energy on their lives. The Bible lesson for today says that we are to do nothing from selfishness or conceit. I am suggesting to you that selfish people are not enormously attractive to us. They may have more charm, more intelligence, more personality, but if the emotional glue that holds their personality together is an essential selfishness, we don’t want to be like that person. On the other hand,  Mother Teresa was recognized the world over because of her selflessness. Her name was exalted above all other names on earth because she embodied the opposite of selfishness. She was totally selfless in her giving to others, and in some small measure, we want to be like her.

And so on this glorious Palm Sunday morning, we sing the hymn with gusto and feel the words to the song: All hail the power of Jesus’ name, let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadems and crown him, Lord of all.” Jesus said, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever is humble, will be exalted.” It is one of those strange paradoxes about life that a person gradually learns is true.

Rev. Edward Markquart, edited by Ministry Depot