Rev Chris Roth

John 20:1-18 It's hard for us to understand how the disciples felt after Jesus' crucifixion. Just a week earlier Jesus was riding into Jerusalem. He came as their king. The people were singing and shouting, “Hosanna!”, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, “Blessed is the king of Israel!”. Those who had been with Jesus for the last 3 years had been hoping and waiting for this day. Finally, Jesus will take his place as the people's true king- the Messiah. … What was it like to be with Jesus entering the city, believing that this will change everything? Justice. Peace. A good King. Suddenly things change. Jesus is betrayed. He is arrested. His followers are frightened. Jesus stands before the authorities under the weight of heavy accusations. Suddenly, the man they had put their hopes in is being made to look like a criminal. The goodness of Jesus is being overshadowed by accusations of heresy, blasphemy, and treason. The true King ...

2 Sam 12:1-15; James 1:19-21,26-27;  Luke 19:28-40; Luke 23:1-49  This is our last week dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins. We have been looking at them as diseases of the soul. We might not like talking about diseases, but a diagnosis is actually ‘good news’. Usually it is worse to know there is something wrong with you, but to not know what it is specifically and therefore not know how to treat it. When we have a diagnosis, then we can really start to treat the problem. “Sin” is our word for soul disease. The saints taught that this soul-disease can be broken into a few types. All sin seems to have some element of Pride- That is why pride is often considered to be the chief sin, or the root of all other sin. The other types are Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Sloth, and today we are looking at Anger. Without a diagnosis it is difficult to find a cure. A lot of the brokenness we experience in our lives is a result of these sins- either as a result of the disease inside ...

2 Sam 11:1-27; 1 Cor 6:12-20; Matt 5:27-30  This week the deadly sin we are looking at is lust. We are swimming in temptations to lust. Sexual imagery is blatant on tv, in songs, on magazines, and in advertising. We are immersed in an overly-sexualized culture that is often using sexual imagery and to manipulate us into buying things. The media that holds our attention tends to exaggerate the importance of sex and fools us into believing that our happiness depends on being forever sexually attractive and sexually active.  Thinking about our sexual desires, C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity asks us to imagine a culture where people gather around a covered dish. The cover is slowly lifted while people hoot and holler. The cover is finally lifted to reveal a pork chop. Now we might suspect that these people are starving. So, then we look into their culture to see if they have a lack of food available to them. If we find that, in fact, they are not starving and are...

Deut8:1-10; Phil3:17-21; Luke16:19-31 We are continuing with our series on the Seven Deadly Sins. We are looking at them as diseases of the soul, which are treated by the opposing virtue. This week we are looking at the sin of Gluttony. It is a sin that is hard to avoid in our society. We have an incredible abundance of food. And we also have an incredible variety of foods. Even in the middle of winter we have fruit available to us from all over the world. We have abundance in quantity and in variety. And we are also bombarded with stimuli trying to convince us to partake. We see tv commercials telling us about new foods at the grocery store, and fast food restaurants. The radio tells us about the latest restaurant specials. The magazine rack is full of pictures of cake recipes. We are bombarded by information about food. This often results in us eating too much, and often eating what isn’t good for us. Our instincts served us well in the past when food was scarce. We were att...

Prov 6:6-19 1 Thes 4:9-12 Luke 13:6-9 We are continuing our examination of the Seven Deadly Sins which are the major diseases of the soul. This week we are looking at the sin of sloth. We usually think of sloth as laziness, but that is only partially true. To really understand sloth you first have to first determine the point of human life. According to the saints, the point of human existence is to love and serve God. This has two different aspects. There is a general reality common to all of us, and a personal reality that is specific to each person. The common reality we all share is that all Christians are expected to worship God, study Scripture (to learn the way of Jesus), pray, be grateful for their life, love others, live honestly, support a just society, and so on. There are certain basic expectations for how we live our lives and to neglect this basic guidance regarding our lives is to be marked by sloth. We are negligent of our calling if we...

1Kings 3:16-28; Gal5:16-26; Luke12:13-34   Today we are continuing our series on the Seven Deadly Sins- the seven major diseases of the soul and the graces that cure them. Today we are dealing with 2 of the Seven Sins- Envy and Greed. These two can seem somewhat related, and they are sometimes confused, so it might be helpful if we define them alongside each other. Envy is the pain or sadness we feel when someone possesses some object, quality, or status that we don’t possess. Related to this, we will also feel a kind of pleasure when we see something bad happen to the person we envy. Envy doesn’t necessarily want the thing, they just don’t want the other person to have it. Envy is different than admiration. I can admire a saint and be drawn deeper into relationship with God. Admiration can motivate me to be better than I am. The Catholic theologian Peter Kreeft says,  "Aspiration looks up and says, 'I aspire to be up there too.' ...Envy, on the other ha...

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Luke 4:1-13 Today we are starting a sermon series for Lent. We will be looking at the Seven Deadly Sins-  Pride,  Envy,  Gluttony,  Lust,  Anger,  Greed, and  Sloth.  Sin isn’t very fashionable to speak about. Maybe you even had a little internal cringe when I said we were going to be looking at Sin. Preaching on Sin brings to mind the stereotype of the pulpit pounding preacher. … So why talk about sin? …  The goal of the Christian is to live a life infused with the life of Christ. Our goal is to have our minds renewed and brought into union with his. … This isn’t to lose our individuality. It is actually to find out who we truly are. Sin is what stands in the way of this union. It is sin that leaves us estranged from God. It is the disease of the soul that prevents us from coming to full health. Sin is to be out of sync with God and the world He has made. Sin separates...