"From Fear to Courage"
W. Gregory Pope, preaching

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Eastertide Series: Practice Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10, 16-20

It is the story too good not to be true.
Without it, the world makes no sense to me.

The first day of the week was dawning.
It was the first day of a new creation.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are on their way to see the tomb where Jesus has been laid.
Suddenly there is a great earthquake.
An angel of the Lord comes and rolls back the stone,
and is sitting upon it when the women arrive.
The angel’s appearance is like lightning, clothing white as snow.
The guards, afraid of the angel, experience their own “body-quake” and become like dead men.

Turning toward the women as they arrive
the angel says what angels always seem to say: Be not afraid.
It is God’s most oft repeated word to us in scripture.
Not “be holy” or “be good” or “sin not.” 
But “fear not; do not be afraid.”

"JESUS - A GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL LIFE"
W. Gregory Pope, preaching

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                                                    Matthew 5-7; Philippians 2:5-11

Since the Epiphany of our Lord, three and a half months ago, we have been mining the depths of the Sermon on the Mount.  Today as we enter this most holy of weeks, when the life of Jesus meets its consequence, we will see the ways in which Jesus practiced what he preached.  He taught and embodied his vision for a new world.  His words took on flesh.

"How Much Diversity Can a Church Take?"
W. Gregory Pope, preaching

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                                                               Philippians 2:1-14

Have you ever heard a more unrealistic vision of the church than Paul’s words to the Philippians we read a moment ago? 

THE CALL TO UNITY (1.27, 2:2)

He actually thinks in this self-centered, individualistic world that the church can live together in one spirit in full accord with one mind striving side by side for the sake of the gospel.  How does he expect us to do this?  Did he not know that 2000 years later a church would be gathered in Louisville full of Cats and Cards who find it hard to pull for the other?  Isn’t this unity thing a bit idealistic?  I mean, c’mon Paul, let’s get real! 

"The Sacred Meal"
W. Gregory Pope, preaching

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Luke 22:14-20; 24:28-31

Sara Miles, in her beautiful memoir, Take This Bread, begins with these words:

One early cloudy morning when I was forty-six, I walked into a church, ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine.  A routine Sunday activity for tens of millions of Americans - except that up until that moment I’d led a thoroughly secular life, at best indifferent to religion, more often appalled by its fundamentalist crusades.  This was my first communion.  It changed everything . . .  It [became] the absolute center of my faith.  I ate it up. [And] I kept coming back for more.¹

Judging Others
Jason Crosby, preaching

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Matthew 5

In his book, the The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell explains that most of us suffer from what phychologists call the Fundamental Attribution Error, or FAE.  In simple terms, Fundamental Attribution Error occurs when we judge behavior, “human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of situation and context” (p. 160).  One more time, Fundamental Attribution Error occurs when we “overestimate the importance of a fundamental character trait and underestimate the importance of situation and context.”  For example, in one study that proved FAE, people were asked to judge the basketball abilities of two groups of basketball players with similar skill levels