Pastor Scott's Musings

 Sermon for Milledgeville & Whitestown UMC Living With Idols ( Revelation 17:1-18:24 )   Billy Idol’s wife gets very upset when he’s behind on yardwork. In the midnight hour, she yells: mow! mow! mow!   Why did the little cloud idolize the big cloud? Because its the raining champion.   What exactly is an idol? Why is idolatry so offensive to God?   In the Bible an idol is a statute made of wood or stone, or gold or silver, which depicts a god or goddess. Many foreign gods were popular in the nations near Israel. Haddad was depicted as a Bull, a god of the Akkadians, Assyrians and Arameans. Baal was a Canaanite god also depicted as a bull. Dagon, worshipped by the Philistines, resembled a fish. Anubis, the Egyptian god of the underworld, had the head of a jackal. Diana was depicted as a woman with a crescent moon crown.   Israel was influenced by cultural and political forces that led them into the worship of pagan deities. Solom...

 Sermon for Milledgeville & Whitestown UMC... Living with Renovation (Revelation 15:1-16:21)   God is the Master Builder What do you call it when a thief robs a house under renovation and leaves his handprint on wet cement? Concrete evidence!   An elephant walks into a bar. The bar is now undergoing renovations   Renovations aren’t fun while they’re going on. They’re disruptive, noisy, messy and expensive. But when they’re done, it makes it all worth it. You can enjoy your newly renovated space. Early in our marriage, I tried to be that guy who does it himself. After a few botched attempts, and a few visits to the emergency room, I conceded. It’s not my gift.   I have worked on mission trips swinging a hammer and cutting with a saw, but I discovered I was way better at demolition than I was at construction. Because when doing renovations, you have to tear down what’s there to build what you envision. While building, you discover nothing fi...

 Sermon for Milledgeville & Whitestown UMC... Living With Judgment ( Revelation 14:1-20 ) “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Revelation 14:15  John’s visions from Revelation 10-14 follow the order of Jewish fall festivals. Rosh Hashannah, the beginning of Israel’s civil calendar, begins the Feast of Trumpets, a period of repentance and preparation to meet the Judge of the earth. John’s vision of the 7 trumpets calls the world to repentance. At the sound of the last trumpet Christ is announced as king. Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) follows the feast of trumpets. The high priest approaches the ark of the covenant and makes atonement for the sins of the nation. John saw the ark in the temple in heaven. Mercy is outpouring perpetually through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. Following Yom Kippur is Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, or the Feast of Ingathering. Israel just received the last group...

 Sermon for Milledgeville & Whitestown UMC... Living With Evil ( Revelation 12:1-13:18 )   A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.   She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.   Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon  with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads....  The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.   Revelation 12:1-4 John has a vision in the sky. A woman in the pain of childbirth is threatened by a massive red dragon with 7 heads. The child is destined to rule the nations with a rod iron, a reference to the messiah. (Genesis 49:10; Psalm 2:8-9) The child to be born is Jesus.   We might assume the woman in John’s vision is Mary, the mother of...