Rev Chris Roth

Romans 12:1-8 In our reading from Romans, Paul tells us to “not be conformed to this world”. Paul isn’t talking about trees and rocks and rivers. “The world” Paul is talking about is something like human beings organizing themselves apart from God and God’s ways. “The world” is what we are talking about when we think of human movements like Naziism, where an ideology about an ideal of human beings can lead to horrifying results. Or Communism under someone like Stalin, where an ideal of society can lead to the sacrifice of many lives as they seek their imagined utopia. … Someone like the pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was able to not be conformed to the “world” he found himself in. How was Bonhoeffer able to stand apart from Naziism when so many others adopted that way of thinking? The institution of slavery was an assumed reality. How was someone like William Wilberforce able to fight against slavery in the British Empire, when so many people around him and throughout

  Imagine a deep-sea fish that never touches the bottom of the sea, nor does it reach the surface. This fish spends the entirety of its life surrounded by water. We could maybe imagine that fish not being aware of water, in one way. Without the ground or air to define the water against, it could be a difficult task to even notice the water. I think that is what it is like living in a culture sometimes. It is all around us, but we don’t really notice it. It comes with a set of assumptions we are not aware of. If someone asked us why we hold to that assumption we would struggle to give an answer because we just assume it is true, as do the people around us. We often assume everyone holds these assumptions, and even feel free imposing these assumptions onto history, or other culture as "just right". I just finished a book by Carl Trueman called “ The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self ”. (I heard his book “ Strange New World ” is an easier to read and more condensed version of

Genesis 45:1-15; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15: 10-28 There is a theme that weaves through our readings today, so I want to take a look at each of them to follow this thread. First, we have our reading from Genesis where Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. This is the climax of the story … Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers, who then lied to his father that he was killed by a wild animal. Joseph was now a slave, but then was falsely accused of attacking his master’s wife and was thrown into jail. While in jail, he meets the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and correctly interprets his dream. This cupbearer eventually brought Joseph to pharaoh to interpret his dream. This he did, which predicted a terrible famine. He suggested storing large amounts of grain to prepare for the famine. Pharaoh then elevated Joseph to second in authority of Egypt under pharaoh and was put in charge of this massive preparation. … The famine hit the land surrounding Egypt as well, so his brothe

I tend to avoid talking about politics publicly, especially from the pulpit. I think that is generally inappropriate. It is important to talk about the Christian principles that should guide our politics, but (for example) I don’t think it is appropriate for me to tell people how to vote. It is important, however, that we try to understand the times we are in from a Christian point of view. There are a number of movements in our society right now that are in need of analysis so that we, as Christians, know how to approach these issues, or at least have a framework for trying to think about these issues. This is my attempt to think through some of these things. I may be the only one to benefit from these musings, and I’m okay with that. I have found the concept of “worldview” to be helpful. (I think the philosopher Charles Taylor uses the idea of “social imaginary”). (An interesting book on worldviews is “The Universe Next Door” by James Sire). A worldview is made up of a number of beli