Rev. Brent L. White

Scripture: Matthew 24:36-44

On this First Sunday of Advent, I feel a little like “the Grinch who stole Christmas.” Like the Whos in Whoville, your Christmas decorations are out, your tree is trimmed, you’ve strung your Christmas lights, you’re singing Christmas songs. And if the presents aren’t yet wrapped and put under the tree, you’re at least well on your way… You are in the midst of buying Christmas presents. 

Scripture: Luke 23:33-43

You probably didn’t know this, but today is the “New Year’s Eve.” I know that sounds strange, but the Christian calendar doesn’t exactly match the calendar that we use. So today is the last Sunday of the Christian year—a special Sunday known as “Christ the King.” Next week, the first Sunday of Advent, begins a new year. But on this last Sunday of the year, we traditionally focus on the important truth that Christ is the world’s one and only, true king. And to make that point, churches like ours—and many others of different denominations around the world—are preaching today’s scripture from Luke’s gospel.

Scripture: Luke 21:5-19

A couple of weeks ago I was at my gym, running on a treadmill. And you know how gyms have an array of TV sets in front of you, tuned to various channels. They always have the major cable news networks on. I’ve never in my life tried to listen to the sound of any of these TVs at the gym—don’t even know how to do that… I just listen to music or whatever. But as I was running, I was looking at the TV screens—without the sound—and I was struck by a headline that I saw on one of the news networks. It was something like this: “Asteroid the size of eight football fields heading toward earth. Are we in danger?”

Scripture: Luke 20:27-38

In this All Saints Sunday sermon, I’m going to talk a lot about heaven. And when I say “heaven,” I’m referring to what the Bible describes as a two-stage kind of afterlife: When we die, the Bible says we go to be with the Lord immediately. Remember the criminal on the cross? Jesus tells him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Paul refers to Paradise when he says, “To live is Christ and to die is gain,” that life in Paradise is “better by far” than continuing to live in this world, and when he says that “to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ.” ¹

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

Friends, I think I’m getting a reputation. Not in a bad way. But I think I’m getting a reputation around town as the “skateboarding pastor.” Technically, my skateboard is called a “longboard,” because it’s built for riding, not for jumping and doing stunts… But as far as I can tell I’m the only skateboarder in town, and more than a few people know that I’m also a pastor at Toccoa First Methodist. If it promotes the church around town, I’m all for it. But it’s a scary reminder to me to be on my best behavior when I’m on my skateboard—since people are beginning to associate me with our church… So, for instance, if someone driving a car veers too close to me, or someone runs a stop sign in front of me, or someone pulls out in front of me without giving me ample room to maneuver, causing me to swerve—I need to be careful not to give the driver a dirty look, or yell at them, or gesture at them in a rude way! Not that I would ever do that! 

Scripture: Luke 18:9-17

Have you heard of the phenomenon of humble-bragging? Humble-bragging is when you say something that sounds “humble”—because we all want to sound humble—but you also want—at the same time—to send a signal to others that says, “Look at me! I’m really something special.” That’s humble-bragging. In case you still don’t know what I’m talking about, one website has collected some real-life examples of humble-bragging on Twitter, mostly tweeted by famous people. I won’t identify them. But they authentic tweets.

Scripture: Luke 18: 1-8

I’m excited this morning to talk about a parable that, frankly, I have misunderstood for most of my Christian life: the Parable of the Unjust Judge… or the Parable of the Persistent Widow—depending on which character you choose to emphasize. 

I must caution you from the outset: this parable shares some themes with a parable we looked at over the summer from Luke 11—the Parable of the Friend at Midnight. As in the case of that parable, I need to remind you: just because God is being compared to an evil or unflattering character—in Luke 11 to a grouchy neighbor or in today’s scripture to an unjust judge—doesn’t mean that God is like those people! Not at all! In fact, in both parables, Jesus says, if even these badly flawed human beings will eventually give in and do the right thing, well… you can be sure that God your heavenly Father will always do the right thing!

Scripture: Luke 17: 5-10

Let me start by reminding you of a recent date in history: June 1, 2022. Our Atlanta Braves were behind the New York Mets by 10-and-a-half games in the National League East… a lead that seemed insurmountable, at least to many Mets fans. And some of them were happy to say so, on Twitter, on sports radio, and on cable TV. Take, for instance, one particular sports radio personality from New York, Sal Licata. On May 31, he said the following:

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

When I was a senior in high school, we had the equivalent of a beauty pageant, the “Miss Henderson” Pageant. “Henderson” was the name of my high school in Chamblee, Georgia. It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s now a Middle School, but… Go Cougars, anyway! 

But the Miss Henderson pageant was divided into three parts: beauty, talent, and an interview with the judges… public speaking. And I’ll never forget one of my classmates, named Kim, who competed in this pageant… And of course Kim was sufficiently talented and beautiful in the first two portions of the pageant, and if she could only do well in the interview portion, then she would have a real shot at becoming “Miss Henderson” of 1988. She surely had high hopes… that is, until the judges asked her the following question: “What would you like your legacy to be?” 

Scripture: Luke 16:19-31

An article in the Los Angeles Times last week estimated that the total cost of the queen’s funeral was more than six billion dollars. Of course, that includes literally everything—even, for instance, the cost of all the banks in Britain closing down for a bank holiday, not to mention the cost of all the security for the world leaders who attended the funeral. ¹