Worth's Sermons

With a few remarks on our mothers as healers.
Worth Green, Th.M., D. Min.

7 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. 1st Corinthians 12:27-30

Last week we spoke of the gift of the spirit that we call healing. We saw that there are at least three kinds of healing.

First, immediate healings such as those Jesus performed in the New Testament. I told you that I thought I had had an immediate healing in seminary when I managed to slough off the flu on my mid-day run after my running partner had prayed for me. That seems a minor thing. It has been said that no surgery is minor if it is happening to you. The same can be said of a healing. I might also mention that Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever is recorded in the 1st chapter of Mark’s gospel. (Mark 1:30) Papias, one of the 2nd century fathers of the church, tells us that Peter is the authority behind Mark. Perhaps Peter’s mother-in-law insisted that Peter include her story in his telling of the gospel?

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Worth Green, Th.M., D.Min.
1st Corinthians 12

This is a DVD sermon. I have added a few things that I cut during delivery for the sake of completeness.

We come now to gifts of healing. I am going to treat “gifts of healing,” separately from “healers,” as Paul may do in 1st Corinthians 12. There is no doubt that what we would readily call miracles of healing often took place in the Ancient World.

First consider the Gentile world. The Greek God of healing was Aesculapius. Many people throughout the Roman Empire sought and received gifts of healing in temples erected in his honor. Many who received healings erected expensive tablets in his honor, often specifying the nature of the healing that they had received. William Barclay, author of the “Daily Study Bible,” observes that few of these people would have spent money on the inscriptions if they had not been healed.

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Worth Green, Th.M., D.Min.

Perhaps you have heard the one about the man who walks up and ask the little boy the way to the post office. The boy points and says, “It’s down the street about a block on the right.” The man says, “Thanks. By the way, I am the new preacher in town. Come to church on Sunday and I will tell you how to get to heaven.” The little boy replies, “Aw, come-on, mister, you don’t even know the way to the post office.”

I appreciate that so many of you are here this morning. I hope it means that you think I know the way to heaven. If I do, it is “by grace, and through faith.”

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Psalm 150
Worth Green, Th.M., D. Min

Without a doubt the most popular musical instrument in the Bible is the trumpet. The trumpet is mentioned more than 100 times. For starters it is mentioned in books traditionally assigned to Moses. It is mentioned in the historical books, in three of the four Major Prophets, by a bunch of Minor Prophets, and in the Psalms. It is mentioned by Jesus and by Paul. It is far and away the instrument of choice for St. John the Divine, the author of the Book of Revelation.

In obedience to God’s command, Joshua used trumpets to help bring down the walls of Jericho. The people of Israel routinely used trumpets to announce the new moon, to accompany a sacrifice, to sound the alarm, and to call people to worship. The sound of the trumpet is hard to ignore; it commands attention. Perhaps that is why Jesus warned that when we give alms and perform acts of charity and kindness, we should not announce it with a trumpet. And both Jesus and Paul indicate that the End of the Age and the Advent of the Lord will be announced by Trumpets. In 1st Corinthians 15, St. Paul says, “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised, and we shall be changed.” Some people caution that Paul’s mention of the trumpet is poetic in nature; but maybe not. If I were God, and I were putting on a big production like the end of the age I would use trumpets.

Of course, there are other musical instruments that are mentioned in the bible.

In Psalm 150, many musical instruments are mentioned. In verse 4 we read: “Praise him (that is “the LORD God”) with strings and pipe!”

I am sure that the Psalmist refers to a pipe that was a much simpler instrument than the bagpipes that were played here this morning, something more akin to the pan flute.
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Worth Green, Th.M., D.Min.
1st Corinthians 15:14-26

This church is different from some churches. We don’t have many people here who come just on Easter and Christmas. Our additional numbers come from people returning here, on this most important Sunday, some from great distances, to remember their roots, and those whom they have loved and temporarily lost. So, too, we have many parents of children here today, and children of parents.

Some people have suggested that people who don’t ordinarily go to church go to church on Easter because they want to be seen and remember by the community of faith that once nurtured them. Some have lost the faith, but they want to keep the community of faith, or, in a sense, they want to be kept by it.

I believe differently. I believe the most skeptical and hardened cynics among us are here this morning for precisely the same reason as the most devout and sorted saint. I believe we are all here because in a world filled with so much loss, and grief, and sorrow, and DEATH, we want to hear a word of LIFE.

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The worship on Easter Sunday was special indeed. Children of the congregation traveled from great distances, from Charleston, S.C., and Matthews, N.C., and Roanoak, Va., and Greenville, N.C., etc., just to be near their roots, and to remember those who have been “promoted into the higher service,” whom they still love. We had just under 900 in attendance, including almost 200 people in the overflow area in the New Fellowship Hall; and the Rev. John G. Rights who was celebrating his 40th birthday. We wish to thank all those volunteers who made the day so special: the Choirs, the Bells of Joy, the Band, the Ushers, and especially the Sound Techs, who did yeoman duty both inside, and on the graveyard. The members and staff of New Philadlephia Moravian Church wish you a Happy Easter. Truly, we have been “born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” In a world sometimes fixated upon loss, grief, dying and death, he is the Word of Life. The Pastor

Hit the link and view the rest of this post to see a selection of Photographs by Bill Ray III. Click on the first image, then use the arrows to page your way through.

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Worth Green, Th.M., D.Min.

In 1st Corinthians 12:8 we read:

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. 1st Cor. 12.8

The word for wisdom is “sophia.” We noted that it is so beautiful a word that is often used as a woman’s name. “Sophia/wisdom” describes what is high and lofty. When we speak of “sophia/wisdom,” we speak of a world of powerful ideas. The most powerful idea that Paul knows is the idea that “the cross of the Risen Christ is the wisdom and power of God” for all who believe. (1st Cor. 1:23—Paul speaks of “Christ Crucified,” but that assumes that Jesus is the Risen Christ who was Crucified!)

I agree completely. The only God I can believe in is the God the New Testament calls “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” If God is not like Jesus Christ, I don’t want anything to do with him. If there is a God and he is not like Jesus Christ, then the New Testament Concept of God is higher than the reality of God. The God of Jesus is a better idea. Of course, we believe that God is exactly like Jesus Christ. In Colossians we read: “he is the image of the invisible God.” (Col 1:15) God is Christ-like and nothing higher can be said of God. It is what God wants us to say of him. (Read Phil. 2:5-11)

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