Thoughts, lectures, sermons, and course downloads for my students.
Posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
For sermons on Matthew before chapter 14 look for the other pages of Matthew Sermons.
The Preacher Who Lost His Head 02 Matt 14-1-13 John the Baptist.mp3
When God Shows Up for Lunch Matthew 14-13.mp3
When You Get That Sinking Feeling Matt 14-22-33.mp3
How is Your Heart? Matthew 15:1-2002 Matthew 15-1.mp3
Posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 12:46 pm
This Sunday I will be taking a break from my usual Matthew sermons in the traditional service and will be filling the pulpit in the contemporary service. Rev. Paul Hurst will be speaking in the traditional with a message on voting and upholding our country that was very well received in the contemporary so the session has brought him over to deliver that same message. I am proud and honored to be coming back to the contemporary and looking forward to having a great time. There are things that I can do and say in that service that don’t really go over in the traditional if you know what I mean and I think you do.
At any rate, I’ll be talking about 2 Timothy 2:11-14 and I hope that it will be a helpful message for those that are there. Don’t feel bad, however, if you would rather hear Paul. I understand completely. I get tired of hearing myself all the time.
Have a great Hal err Reformation Day, I’ll be around the church tonight with shows at seven, seven-forty five, and eight twenty. Stop by and say hello to my best friend Calvin.
This message has been brought to you by CANDY CORN, the official snack of the Reformation.
SamLam
Posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I will be doing my magic show again at Creation celebration this year and decided that it might be nice if I brought a couple of assistants. Let me know what you think. (for those of you who saw this entry last night without the pictures it must have seemed very strange. I don’t know how the pictures ended up gone from the page.)
Posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
For those of you who watched the Chicago Cubs game on Thursday night knowing that I was there with Josiah, you may have felt a little bad for me. After all I had traveled all that way to watch the Cubs, only to see every infielder make an error, only to see seven unearned runs, only to see the Cubs get spanked in a 10-3 loss. I had a great time!
First I had a great time because I was with Josiah. We just don’t get to spend enough time together, with my busy schedule and his starting college and living in the dorms I have really been missing spending some time together. No matter what the score of the game, it was great just to be with him. Second, it was great to be at Wrigley. Sure, our seats weren’t the greatest, and I had to lean out to look around a pole in order to see home plate, but I still say that there is no better place in the world to watch a game than Wrigley. It was a cool Chicago night and the place was packed with Cub fans (nary a Dodger’s cap or shirt to be seen) who wanted nothing more than to see their team draw even in the series. The ivy was starting to turn, and the rooftops were packed, in what many hoped would be a chance for the Cubs to draw even in the series. Wrigley field, est. 1914, is a real baseball field (even though they have added lights), not some carpeted cement dome.
Third I had a great time going back to see the place where we lived while I was working on my Ph.D. I took Josiah back to his old first-grade school and he said “I remember it being a lot bigger.” A typical memory I think. In a candy store that we frequented he remembered that one day when he was five I had refused to let him get a bag of “Big League Chew” chewing gum (maybe I thought it would lead to chewing tobacco) so I bought him a package to wipe that memory away. I remembered playing ball with Charity and Josiah out in a back yard that now looks overgrown and yes, much smaller.
Mostly, it was a wonderful time because it seems like such a crazy thing to do. To fly halfway across the country to see one game, who does something like that? A crazy person. My hope is that in fifty years, when Josiah is telling stories to his grandchildren, he will remember to tell them that yes, sometimes his dad was busy because of the ministry, sometimes he had to miss a few things because of the church, but there were other times . . . and then he will launch into the tale about the time he and his old man flew to Chicago to watch the Cubs play in one playoff game.
Those are great memories. The score doesn’t matter, it’s the trip, . . . it’s the game, . . . it’s the memories. Don’t let the score scare you, sometimes you just need to take off and go to the game.
Posted on Sunday, September 28th, 2008 at 6:12 am
As incredible as it may seem, I was able to get two tickets to game two of the division series. This, after I foolishly lost my chance last week by failing to look carefully at the date on an email telling me that I was able to purchase two tickets. I had to pay more for the tickets, but not that much more and Josiah, Charity and I are going to Chicago!
If you happen to be watching the game (Thursday at 1:00) I will be the one wearing the Cubs hat (OK, me and about 50,000 other people). At this point I am just thrilled to be going. It is an incredible thing to be at Wrigley with a packed house cheering for the Cubs.
I’ll let you know more later.
DSL
Posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I had a heartbreaking moment yesterday. I have been anxiously making plans to get the tickets to the Division Playoff on Tuesday and head to Chicago whenever the day was that I had the tickets for. I had gotten coverage for my classes; it was all going to work. Then yesterday I looked very carefully at the e-mail and realized that it was last Tuesday and that I only had last Tuesday between 12 and 6 to buy tickets. I had lost my one chance.
I guess I should expect these kinds of things to happen. After all Chicago is the team that just can’t seem to put it all together. If I believed in curses (and I don’t) Chicago is the team that I would say is cursed. One doesn’t have to go back too many years to remember the Bartman story. One fan getting a little too excited and reaching out into the field for what would have been the third and last out and would have sent the Cubs to the world series for the first time since 1907, but once the ball was tipped, and the Marlins caught up and eventually won that game at Wrigley, you could see it on the faces of the players and the fans. Not again, please not again. But it did happen again and the Marlins came back to win the next night and the series.
It shows us how small and unreal our control of our life really is. The fan who reached for the ball had to move from Chicago because of death threats. Never mind that the real reason the Cubs lost that game was an error on a crucial play with two outs. We find it hard to admit to ourselves that we are not in control, but we aren’t. We can’t fix the financial problems the country is in, we can’t stop terrorist attacks, and we can’t end wars, sickness, or dying.
But somehow we go on living. Those of us who are Christians go on living because we are waiting for the great and coming day. Those who are not Christians find some sign of help or hope in something that won’t really last. And the Cubs, they keep on playing. The fans keep on hoping that this is the year. This year there will not be a dropped fly ball in left field for what should have been the last out of the season, causing a one game playoff. This year there will be no goat kicked out of the stadium, no owner to place a curse, and no fan to tip the fly ball. Cub fans live on hope. Christians live on a hope that is much greater.
So at incredible odds my name was chosen to get tickets and somehow (I am still not exactly sure how) I lost my chance, I still have hope. I put my name in for the League Championship Series and I can always hope that the Cubs will win the Division series and that lightening will strike twice in the choosing of my name. If the Cubs don’t win (I doubt that) or if my name doesn’t, against all odds, get chosen again, I still have hope. The hope of a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no errors, no interference from the fans, and no fools who didn’t get the tickets when they had the chance. That’s the kind of world I’m talking about. It’s coming. Be ready.
Play Fair,
DrSamLam θεόρακα (God’s Fool)
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