Sermons by “Rev. Richard Langness”
It’s a Dog Eat God Life
This Canaanite woman was an outcast from the perspective of an Israelite. But this outcast knows it and has accepted it. She doesn’t fight against the attitude that Jesus has expressed. She doesn’t deny it. She doesn’t try to defend herself in hope of making herself acceptable. She has come to embrace it as the truth. So now she speaks these words of faith. “She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”” (Matthew 15:27) In these simple words she describes the whole of humanity before God.
View SermonJust Thistles While You Work
Thorns and thistles come in various forms. The weeds in the parable are probably one of the easiest forms to recognize. One doesn’t have to be a farmer to understand how weeds can be a nuisance and burden. Just being a home owner and wanting to have a nice yard gives one that perspective of weeds. But thorns and thistles can be found in our everyday life experiences and they are not necessarily in plant form. There are those people who can be rather prickly and irritating in our lives. We can find them at school, at work, and in our recreation. They even exist in congregations.
View SermonThe Three “R’s” of Right Relationship
As you remember how far you have fallen, the knowledge of the hope to which you were called opens the door for true repentance. It is sin that breaks the relationship. It is unconfessed sin that keeps that relationship broken. You and I know far too well what happens when someone sins against us and we know what it is like when that offense is never resolved. Yes, we have the responsibility to forgive even if the offender never acknowledges their sin. But forgiveness given is never forgiveness received if the offender never confesses their sin. Thus, as we know the forgiveness given to us in Christ Jesus, we should never fail to confess our sins to Him for when we hold onto our sin we abandon the love of God first shown to us. This is the issue that Christ has with the congregation in Ephesus. They were good, but they were not good as confessing their sins. They were not good at embracing the love of God and receiving the gifts that God desired to give.
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