Shows
Taylor MertinsThe Gospel Is Our StoryIt’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.
At tea time, everybody agrees.
I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror.
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero.
Who knew Taylor Swift was so Pauline?
Even with all the accolades, all the money, all the power, all the influence, she sings of a life that is simul justus et peccator.
In Paul’s letter, as he gets his Swiftie on, sees his own inner anti-hero, he crescendos to these words: “Wretched that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
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2024-10-2717 min
2024-07-2216 min2024-04-0215 min
Taylor MertinsGrace Doesn't Make SenseThe world says, “do this and do that.” Grace says, “It’s already done.”
The cross of Christ, hanging empty in the sky, is a stark declaration and reminder that God stands against sin, evil, and death. It is, problematic language not withstanding, God’s war on our behalf. Grace invades into existence not because we believed in God just enough, or because we said the right prayers, but simply because God is merciful.
And grace never stops coming.
2020-09-0729 minTaylor MertinsLosing Our ReligionThe world is forever telling us to do more to be better to earn and produce and reform and things largely stay the same.
Jesus, on the other hand, is forever telling us that the most important thing has already been finished, the only thing we have to do is trust him.
Peter, like us, wants so desperately to be the master of his own fate, he wants to be in control of what happens and to whom. His imagination of the Kingdom of God is limited by his imagination of earthly kingdoms. But Jesus didn’t come to bring us...
2020-08-3123 minTaylor MertinsLove The SinnerJesus himself spent his whole ministry with sinners: drunks, prostitutes, thieves, murderers, traitors, and countless others who sinned against the Lord. You know, people like us.
Jesus routinely chose to gather with the likes of the worst to break bread, to offer healing, and, perhaps most importantly, to offer them most precious gift of all: his time.
And he said to all those sinners, “Follow me.”
But Jesus never, not even once, said to any of them, “I love you, but I hate your sin.”
2020-08-3132 minTaylor MertinsGod Said ItPaul might have something to say about women being silent in church, but many of us would simply not be Christians unless women were brave enough to stand and speak in churches.
The Bible might have more than 200 verses in support of slavery, but we recognize that slavery is incompatible with God’s kingdom here on earth.
We might read about doing our business outside the boundary of God’s holiness, but we don’t build churches without bathrooms.
Being a Christian is about more than saying things like, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”
2020-08-2336 min
Taylor MertinsGod Won'tIt is my sincere hope and prayer that, in the midst of a moment of pain or fear or grief, no one has ever dismissively said to you, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
But chances are, someone has.
It is near the top of the list of Christian expressions used when we don’t know what else to say and, spoiler warning, it’s NOT in the Bible.
2020-08-1634 minTaylor MertinsGod HelpsI don’t know what you've got going on in your life right now.
But maybe, you feel like you’re down in a pit - life just won’t let up and you feel overwhelmed and suffocated by worry, fear, and anxiety.
Or perhaps you’ve lost someone you love and every single day is a biting and ringing reminder that you will never get them back.
Or maybe you’re struggling with an addiction that, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t kick it.
We can claw at the walls all we want. We can fashion ladd...
2020-08-1033 minTaylor MertinsEverything HappensLife is hard and all sorts of things happen without explanation. I know that might not sound very pastoral, but it’s true. Can you imagine how you would feel if you came to the church one morning in your grief or suffering or pain, and you got down on your knees to pray to God when all of the sudden you heard a voice booming from the heavens declaring, “I”M DOING THIS TO YOU ON PURPOSE! THIS IS PART OF MY PLAN!”
If that’s who God is, then God isn’t worthy of our worship.
Thankfully, that’s not who God...
2020-08-0236 minTaylor MertinsThe Kingdom of JudgmentCounter to many of our church ramblings throughout the centuries, and even today, we are not judged by the Lord in the light of our previous proclivities. If we were, none of us would go anywhere but hell.
Instead we are judged by what Jesus does for us on the cross. He announces a forever and all encompassing forgiveness that transfigures us into his kingdom in ways that are hidden and right here among us.
Let me put it this way: Everybody, even the worst of the worst, is someone for whom Christ died. Whenever the church goes around kicking...
2020-07-2636 minTaylor MertinsBuying The FarmIf the miracle of miracles occurs and people stumble into the church (or online during a streamed service) looking for something, what does the church offer in turn?
Hey, um, here’s the mystery of Jesus Christ all wrapped up nice and neat for you, the in-dwelling or his kingdom, but… if you want any part of it, you’re gonna need to shape up. So, uh, write this down, you need to work on your racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ethnocentrism, STOP USING STYROFOAM, go vegan, gluten free, eat locally, think globally, fight against gentrification, DON’T DRINK SO MUCH, practice...
2020-07-2035 minTaylor MertinsIn The WeedsIn the end, the Kingdom will be populated entirely and only by forgiven sinners. That is, all of us. Hell, whatever it may be, exists only as a courtesy for those who don’t want any part of forgiveness.
The fire of refining that comes at the end of the age will burn away all the stumbling blocks to the kingdom, it will burn away all iniquity, and the only thing left will be forgiven sinners. Nothing more, less, or else.
2020-07-1337 minTaylor MertinsBaking(dom)We want God to rule by just putting the right political leaders in office so that can pass laws that will make everything perfect, but it doesn’t happen (and it never will).
We have this constant temptation to believe that we can make things right if we just work hard enough. We wrestle with a desire to bring the kingdom into being from the top down rather than from the bottom up. We think we’re responsible for, and in charge of, the kingdom.
But we’re not.
2020-07-0529 minTaylor MertinsNo Way To Run A FarmWe are hooked, downright addicted, to assuming that its all up to us. Give us just a small taste of the power that comes with making decisions about what is good and right and true and we’ll never be able to kick the habit. We delight in believing that we are the ones who get to settle scores here and now and yet, in the end, none of us could possibly make it in Jesus’ kingdom unless forgiveness reigns supreme.
2020-06-2933 minTaylor MertinsEschatology JunkiesNotice: in the kingdoms of earth, our favorite solutions to problems are knocking people down a peg or two, locking them up behind bars, and - if all else fails, getting them out of the game forever with the death penalty.
We set up systems (powers and principalities) all in the name of law and order, but in the end they keep the poor poor and the rich rich. They lift the mighty even higher, and bring the low even lower. They, to put it simply, make the world a better place by making it better for certain people and...
2020-06-2127 minTaylor MertinsThe Sower ReconsideredEvery week I stand in this place and I talk about how God gathers us together, how God proclaims God’s Word to us, and then we respond to it. The truth behind all that is our response, if it ever amounts to anything, pales in comparison to what God did, what God does, and what God will do.
And that’s the best news of all.
It’s Good News, really Good News, because nobody, not the devil, not the world, not the flesh, not even ourselves can take us away from the Lord that refuses to let us go.
2020-06-1428 minTaylor MertinsUncomfortableSo much of what Christianity, what the church, has become is focused on making people comfortable; how to tell people about Jesus without ever stepping on any toes.
The fire of Pentecost, the one that sent the disciples tumbling into the streets can be found more in our national protests than in our sanctuaries on Sunday mornings.
Parables are supposed to make us uncomfortable. Whether our soil is rocky, thorny, or barren.
Hear the Good News: The Sower never stops sowing. The Sower doesn’t stop to take stock of the condition of our condition before offering the grace we so...
2020-06-0728 minTaylor MertinsAll!Faith, belief, trust... those are merely words for letting go of our presumption that fixing the world is up to us. Everything has already been done that needs doing. The end has already come to us in the person of Jesus through cross and resurrection. The powers and principalities have been vanquished forever.
We just don’t act like it.
2020-06-0140 minTaylor MertinsA Job To DoI know it won’t seem like it right now, but this is nothing new. I am simply making manifest what I’ve been doing all along. No meddling, divine or human, spiritual or material, moral or immoral can save the world. Your salvation is already here, in me. The only thing you have to do is trust me. - Jesus
2020-05-2531 min
Taylor MertinsImmeasurable GreatnessThe eyes of our hearts have been enlightened by God, and we are called to bear witness. Through the hardship and the pain and the despair Jesus has been there through it all and He will get us through. Jesus has this, and Jesus has us.
2020-05-1712 minTaylor MertinsThe Story We Didn't ChooseA Christian is someone who calls a thing what it is. Which is just another way of saying that Christians tell the truth.
2020-05-1112 minTaylor MertinsAwe-FullHere's the Gospel: It’s like we’ve been brought before the throne of God and every single one of our mistakes is paraded out in front of us. With every instance we cower closer and closer to the floor. And at the end, Christ looks at us, really looks at us, and says, “It’s okay. I forgive you.”
That is radical.
It's Awe-Full.
2020-05-0437 minTaylor MertinsToo Good To Be TrueWhile many of you may be rightly dubious of whatever it is you receive from preacher types on Sunday mornings, there is something rather majestic here in Acts that points to a great and wonderful truth. St Paul puts it this way, “Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.”
2020-04-2638 minTaylor MertinsA Sermon On A SermonIn just about every part of our lives, from our jobs to our spouses to our children to even the ways we try to portray our perfect versions of ourselves on social media, it’s all transactional. If I do this, what can I get out of it? If I give you something, what will you give me in return? If I post this picture, what will people think about me?
And here, in a sermon on the other side of Easter, Peter presents the Gospel without cost.
This gift, the gift of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, is...
2020-04-2041 minTaylor MertinsThe Better PlaceOn Easter, Jesus’ response to the sins of his followers isn’t to berate them or judge them or even damn them. He doesn’t give them a list of things to do, or programs to start, or prayers to pray.
Instead, he just comes back to them, to us, with, of all things, love.
How odd of God.
2020-04-1336 minTaylor MertinsEaster Begins With A WhisperSome of the best and the most important things in the world take place without us have to do much of anything. That is a very strange and troubling word for those of us who feel as if we’re never doing enough. But Easter, Easter is a reminder that the most defining moment in the history of the cosmos happens in spite of us.
That’s why it’s Good News.
2020-04-1332 minTaylor MertinsOccupiedJesus wasn’t killed for telling people to love one another. He was killed because we don’t have imaginations capable of understanding what love actually looks like.
2020-04-0637 minTaylor MertinsMortalNotice: God doesn’t tell Ezekiel to go out and give the bones a ten-step process on how to get their lives sorted out. God doesn’t tell the people to pray three times a day in order to earn their salvation. God doesn’t wait for the people to memorize their favorite book of the Bible before the bones starting coming back together.
God raises the bones to life because that’s what God does!
I hope you hear that as a hopeful word. Because even at our best, we’re not very good.
2020-03-2935 minTaylor MertinsDifferentGod is intense, passionate, unbalanced, unfair, and a little too honest. God is always pushing the envelope, testing the boundaries of what we might call “proper behavior.” God is the one who sees a vision of the world that even on our best days we could never properly imagine.
And we wonder, why can’t God just calm down about all this stuff? If God really wants to be the God of all people, wouldn’t it be better it God toed the line and stayed unbiased about the comings and goings of the world? When will God relax and start ac...
2020-03-2231 minTaylor MertinsEmptyThe cross speaks the deepest and darkest truth about who we are. We are the sinners for whom Christ died.
I like to call that the inconvenient truth of Christianity. We’ve become very good these days, frankly we have lots of practice, at pointing out the sins in other people. To some degree I think that’s what social media is all about. We either log on to call out the imperfections of others, or we try to portray ourselves as if we are perfect into order to put other down.
The inconvenient truth of Christianity is that we are...
2020-03-1528 minTaylor MertinsThe Grammar of FaithGod promises to do what is impossible for humankind, God calls into existence things that do not exist, God is the subject of the verb.
If it were all on us, if it were all up to us, we would fail. We can’t bless the world because we are far too concerned with blessing ourselves. We can’t fix the world because we are so fixated on our own problems. We can’t redeem the world because we are the ones who need redemption.
We can’t even keep our promises.
But God does.
Always.
That’s a pretty crazy thin...
2020-03-0814 minTaylor MertinsThe Condition of Our ConditionWhenever we hear about Adam and Eve in church, it is usually discussed in one of two ways:
1) We're told about how bad we are and how badly we need to feel about how bad we are. We leave church wallowing in self-pity and feeling even more exhausted than we did on the way in for all of our sins, past, present, and future.
Or
2) We’re told all about how people outside the walls of the church are bad and how it is our job to go out there and fix them in all of their badness by bringing th...
2020-03-0117 minTaylor MertinsSinners In The Hands Of A Loving God - Ash WednesdayAs Christians we cannot ignore the condition of our condition, we cannot fool ourselves into believing that we are better than anyone else - we are sinners resting in the hands of a loving God.
That we can call God a loving God is what makes all the difference. For, it is in the same moment that we can truly acknowledge our brokenness that we also begin to see God as the One who offers mercy to us even though we don’t deserve it.
While we were sinners, Christ died for us. Not before we were sinners, or after we...
2020-02-2716 minTaylor MertinsYou Can't Handle The TruthNone is righteous, no, not one.
That’s the point of the Law - on our own we can’t even fulfill a fraction of it. All that stuff that Moses brought down from the mountain, it is good only insofar as it shows us that we, all of us, are bad.
We’re all bad no matter how good we think we are and no matter how good we think other people are.
Because behind closed doors, when we think we’re alone, or that no one will ever find out - in the secret thoughts of our hearts and mind...
2020-02-2319 minTaylor MertinsWe Are (Not) CrucifiedWe tend to think that we have to save ourselves, and we’ve forgotten that the cross stands to show us how Christ is already in the business of putting us back together, in ways we’d rather not if it were up to us.
But thanks be to God that’s its not up to us, because if it were all we’d achieve is more of the same instead of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God on earth. If it were up to us we’d only associate ourselves with the people who already think like us, and talk l...
2020-02-0917 min
Taylor MertinsWe Are (Not) ScandalizedThe cross is where God meets us in our own lives. In all of our suffering, in all of our sins, in our shames and pains.
And that is downright scandalous because it rubs against so much of what we’ve been taught to think and speak. If we’ve left church feeling guilty for all the things we should have done, or for all the things we left undone, then we’ve missed the scandal of the cross. The scandal is that we don’t have to do anything. Because Christ does the everything we could not and would not do f...
2020-02-0316 min
Taylor MertinsWe Are (Not) UnitedFor as much as the cross is a sign to the world about the forgiveness of sins, it is equally a reminder that we have plenty of sins for which we all need forgiveness.
Or, to put it another way, we cannot look at the cross without confronting the inconvenient truth that we are the sinners for whom Christ died.
We confess, however, that we would much prefer to hear a different kind of message about the cross. Perhaps something a little more uplifting, or at the very least something optimistic.
Ultimately, whether we like to admit it or not...
2020-01-2718 min
Taylor MertinsWe Are (Not) AcceptedThe letters of Paul and the stories of Jesus show us that there is more to grace than simply being accepted for who we are. And, no doubt, we are accepted - after all, grace abounds. But we are now in a kingdom bound by that grace which means we have been changed.
Can you imagine what Martin Luther King Jr.'s work would’ve have looked like without a call to change? What good is a dream of something new if only we stay committed to the past?
2020-01-1914 min
Taylor MertinsGood Times, Bad TimesHere’s the kicker about tragic occurrences in the world - the best thing Christians can do (other than offering signs of help and support) is to just be quiet.
The unyielding desire to discern some greater meaning, or meaninglessness, behind it all, is cruel and presumptuous. Any time we, and by we I mean Christians, offer pious platitudes or trite words of comfort it only results in our soothing our own guilty consciences and making God into a terrible monster.
2020-01-1222 min
2020-01-0618 min
Taylor MertinsThe Politics of JesusIn Jesus’ kingdom trespasses are forgiven, grace is given, enemies are prayed for, peace is practiced, and all of our earthly differences are swallowed up because its more important for us to swallow the body and blood of Christ at this table together.
In the end, our personal politics might not line up with what Jesus had to say and what Jesus had to do, but Jesus was political, and the church always will be.
2019-12-3018 min
Taylor MertinsA Strange New WorldOur world is constantly telling us to do more, to be better, and to get it all together. And even in the church, we fall prey to this temptation all the time by telling people about all the stuff we need to do. But all of that is self-defeating because the more we’re told about what we’re supposed to do the more guilty we feel for all we’re not doing.
On Christmas Eve its different. Its different because the strange new world of God’s desire has become our world. The whole story is about how we can’t do...
2019-12-2514 min
Taylor MertinsTo Whom It May ConcernPart of what makes us/Christians different is that we know that we no longer belong to ourselves and we haven’t been left to our own devices.
We belong to Jesus Christ who came into the world to take us and our burdens upon his shoulders. We belong to Jesus Christ who sees and knows our sins and nails them to the cross anyway. We belong to Jesus Christ whose birth we mark in the manger, and whose return we anticipate with joy and wonder.
2019-12-2314 min
Taylor MertinsThe Cross In The MangerWe are at our strangest when we confess the dissonance of two Biblical truths: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God AND there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
In other words, all of us are sinners AND Jesus saves us anyway.
That we confess “Jesus saves us anyway” is why we can call the Good News good. God does for us what we could not do for ourselves. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2019-12-1517 min
Taylor MertinsAll Or NoneUltimately one of the strangest things about who we are and what we’re doing is that we’re not really called to do much of anything at all. If anything, the only thing we have to do is celebrate that we don’t have to do anything. That’s the message of Jesus and his cross. God came to do what we could not and would not do. No amount of belief, or money, or morals can give salvation to us nor take it away. It is simply a gift for those who want it. No catch and no fine pri...
2019-12-0913 min
Taylor MertinsWake Up!Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.
For many of us, that moment of becoming believers came with a catch - if we believe this, then God will do this. Or if we lay aside our sins, then God will give us eternal life as our everlasting reward. Or if we promise to love God with our whole hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, then God will love us back.
But there is no such thing as “if” in the kingdom of God.
2019-12-0219 min
Taylor MertinsAllegianceI’ve noted a few times recently that it often doesn’t help the church to just spend time addressing what’s wrong in other churches. And I want to own that - I know that. But sometimes we have to know what’s wrong in order to know what is right.
If the church tells us that we need to put America first, then it is not God’s church.
If the church tells us that some people are in and some people are out, then it is not God’s church.
If the church tells us that any politician o...
2019-11-2515 min
Taylor MertinsSigns of the TimesSometimes it feels like the church is in the midst of a crisis. It should come as no surprise that less and less people come to church week after week, the world feels like is twirling down the drain faster than ever before, and that’s not even getting into the specifics of cultural and societal changes. But if the church really is in a crisis it is because we have foolishly convinced ourselves that we are a bunch of good people getting better.
The truth of the church is quite the opposite: we are a bunch of bad people wh...
2019-11-1814 min
Taylor MertinsMarried and BuriedJesus changes everything. That is what I want to tell people when I hear them talk about their better half, or their lesser half. No one becomes less of a person when they get married! Or at least they shouldn’t. We are unique and beautiful and wondrous because that's exactly who God created us to be. And yet, of course, we were made to be in community, but that doesn’t mean we lose part of who we are by being connected with other people. If anything, the point of connection is to give us the freedom and the stre...
2019-11-1015 min
Taylor MertinsRadicalWhether its Rome, or America, or our bosses, or our spouses, or whoever - we are forever being told who we are. We define ourselves by the definitions given to us by others, and more often than not from the others with power. When we look in the mirror we see not what we see but we see what we’ve been told.
But for Christians, none of us know who we really are until God tells us.
2019-11-0418 min
Taylor MertinsEmpty CupsGod cares not at all how much money we put in the offering plate or how much money we send to our favorite charity or how much money we make every two weeks or how much money we have saved away for a rainy day. God cares only that we see and know and taste and touch the wondrous gift already given to us in Jesus. What happens next is a matter of faith.
2019-10-2816 minTaylor MertinsThe Culture of NowGod sees potential in God’s creation in a frame of reference often beyond our ability to grasp. God believes in God’s people as a long term investment - it takes a lifetime of hearing about the goodness of grace before it really sticks.
But God keeps saving anyway. Even when things in the present scream the contrary, God keeps pouring out the Holy Spirit on a bunch of investments that no one in their right mind would put their money on. God saves because that’s who God is.
2019-10-2118 min
Taylor MertinsKnow Thy VocationI’ve grown tired of the endless stories of the self-made individuals, of the people who earned their own fortune without the help from anyone else.
No one is self-made. Period.
We are all creatures created by God - we’ve all been purposed with gifts to participate in the kingdom in ways both big and small. In the eyes of God the richest person on earth is of the same value as the poorest person on the earth. God makes us what we are, not the other way around.
2019-10-1419 min
Taylor MertinsThe One Thing NeedfulWisdom, ultimately, is not something we arrive at on our own. Wisdom is a gift from God. Much like the gift of God’s Son - It comes to a people undeserving, in strange ways both seen and unseen. It can completely upend our lives in ways we care scarily imagine. But in the end, its the only thing that really makes a difference.
Wisdom, much like Jesus, is the only thing we really need.
2019-10-0716 min
Taylor MertinsBelieving Is SeeingIn short, faith is being able to look out at a bunch of powerful and wealthy individuals knowing that their own interests have led to the imminent destruction in their midst and hoping against hope that they will hear what you are trying to say, that they will begin to shift their lives around, and that something new and beautiful can come out of their nothing.
2019-09-3016 min
Taylor MertinsGrace Is MessyWe will always be sinners in need of God’s grace because that’s who we are. God, in ways that are confounding, chose to make us free. Free to act with God or against God. It is a beautiful and messy gift but one that make life all the more interesting and exciting. We are not puppets being pulled along by some puppeteer up in the sky (another messy metaphor).
We are dirt. Dirt that has been given life by God.
2019-09-0916 min
Taylor MertinsWorthlessWe are the stories we tell.
It’s true. Just think about what’s important to you or to your family. Whatever the thing is, there’s probably a story that helps bring the object to light. Narratives shape the world around us and give us the means by which we can understand who we are and, in the church, whose we are.
And even though we know that we’re the stories we tell, more often than not we act like we are the things we possess. We value ourselves on the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the home...
2019-09-0216 min
Taylor MertinsUnfairThe truth of the matter is that being Christian means being different. But unlike how we so often present this in worship or in the greater cultural ethos, it doesn’t mean being like the good religious man, it means admitting that we are all like the tax collector.
You see, following Jesus means admitting the condition of our condition. It's falling to the floor Sunday after Sunday with the same confession on our lips, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And it’s knowing that before we can even bring those words to our lips God has forgiven every la...
2019-08-2613 min
Taylor MertinsJustice Is BlindWhile we were still yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
There are few sentences in scripture as unnerving and beautiful as that one. It’s beautiful because it's true. But it’s unnerving precisely because it we are the ungodly for whom Jesus died.
We might like to imagine that God is waiting around hoping to dispense a little bit of perfection like manna from heaven if we just offer the right prayer or rack up the right amount of good works.
But Jesus’ story about the unjust judge screams the contrary. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Do you thi...
2019-08-1920 min
Taylor MertinsBlinded By The Light"No matter how all of you feel about this stuff, there will be others who point at the craziness. They’ll say that mass shootings are my way of getting you back to prayer. They’ll say that locking up immigrants is a sign of holy justice. They’ll point and point and point and say my name. For God’s sake, literally, don’t go running after all that nonsense and don’t you dare follow their examples. Those people haven’t a clue in the world." - Jesus
2019-08-1213 min
Taylor MertinsInescapableThe cross stands as an uncomfortable and unwavering reminder that you and I don’t need to do a thing for it. And yet so much of what we do as a culture, and heaven forbid as a church, tells people there is always more for them to do in order to get God to do anything.
And that might be the greatest stumbling block of all.
2019-08-0515 min
Taylor MertinsThe Game Is OverNo one, certainly not God, is keeping score and tallying up all of our good works against our bad. There is not a divine ledger with little tallies every time we misstep or we bring about something good in the world. And there is definitely not a test by which the accumulation of our wealth will determine whether or not salvation is in fact ours.
The truth is a much harder pill to swallow precisely because everything else in the world tells us the contrary.
Do all you can, earn all you can, achieve all you can, save all you...
2019-07-2920 minTaylor MertinsScandalousJesus ends the story of the Prodigal without an end and it shows us that what’s most important has already happened. The fatted calf has been sacrificed so that the party can begin. Jesus has already mounted the hard wood of the cross so that we can let our hair down, and take off our shoes, and start dancing.
We were lost and we’ve been found.
That’s the only thing that matters.
2019-07-1415 min
Taylor MertinsGive Me Liberty And Give Me DeathIn this particular parable none of the people who had a right to be at the party came, and all of the people who came had no right to be there. Nothing in the kingdom has anything to do with rights; God is going to deal with us in spite of our deservings, not according to them.
And that just gets under our skin, or, worse, we completely ignore it. We’re so accustom to a way of being about earning and rewarding that free grace sounds irresponsible or too good to be true.
But hear this, hear it in al...
2019-07-0814 min
Taylor MertinsThe Dinner PartyJesus destroys the exceptions of the dinner party crowd and he does it throughout his ministry. He is a critical Lord, though we often forget that part of him. He’s critical because he wants to destroy all of our favorite and foolish expectations. Being first, found, big, important, and alive matter little in the kingdom of God. They matter little because Jesus didn’t come to make the first firster, or the found founder, or the important importanter, or the alive aliver. He came to raise the dead.
And we can die, we can die to the desire to sit...
2019-07-0117 min
Taylor MertinsNarrow Hearts. Narrow Minds. Narrow Doors.At the very end, Jesus says the we who are knocking at the doors of perfect living and measured morality are nothing but workers of iniquity. Our good deeds are no more capable of getting us into the kingdom than our bad deeds are of keeping us out.
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Not while we were perfect, and not even while we were repentant, but while we were sinners. There is nothing on this earth that can make God love us any more OR any less.
That’s the scandal of the Good News, but it...
2019-06-2319 min
Taylor MertinsGod Hates FigsJesus doesn’t give a flip whether we’ve got a fig on the tree or not. He only cares about forgiveness, a forgiveness we so desperately need because we have no idea what we are doing.
For if we knew what we were doing, we would’ve solved all of the world’s problems by now. We wouldn’t have to worry about a young girl being ostracized in middle school for dressing like a boy. We wouldn’t have to worry about the safety of people dancing in a nightclub simply because of who they might be dancing with. We wou...
2019-06-1716 min
Taylor MertinsParty Like JesusWe are blessed by the risen Lord, for he knocks at the door, even in our deaths, and he comes bringing the party with him. And this party is not far off and distant in both place and time from us, the party is here with us, right now. It’s just that most of us are too stubborn to notice.
2019-06-1015 min
Taylor MertinsI Pity The FoolOur world runs on avarice - Extreme greed for wealth or material goods. It’s the lie we were fed as children, and it’s the lie that we feed to our children. It is reinforced on every magazine cover, in every instagram post, and with every commercial on TV.
Happiness is yours if you acquire this thing.
And it’s all a lie.
2019-06-0216 min
Taylor MertinsBe UnpreparedJesus doesn’t come just to show the disciples, and us, a new way of life but is, himself, the new way.
This can be rather frustrating for the many of us who want Jesus to just be clear about what we should and shouldn’t do. Contrary to what we often hear from the church, Jesus is not waiting around for us to be perfect, but simply says the time has come for us to recognize how last, lost, least, little, and dead we all are.
2019-05-2718 min
Taylor MertinsWon't You Be My Neighbor?Jesus is free among the dead - He is the one who, again and again, is with the last, the least, the lost, the little, and the dead.
If we want the parable to tell us to imitate the Good Samaritan, which it certainly does, then that’s fine.
But if that’s all the Good Samaritan is good for, then it isn’t very good.
Instead it leaves people like you and me feeling fine and guilty. We feel fine in terms of thinking about times we have been neighborly toward our neighbors, or it can leave us feeling guilty...
2019-05-2015 min
Taylor MertinsUnforgivingnessWe will never ever be able to enjoy the gift of the resurrection, a gift handed to us for nothing, if we cannot face the absurdity of our own forgiveness.
2019-05-1213 min
Taylor MertinsAll Is LostThere’s nothing necessarily wrong with wanting to be better - it’s just that in spite of our desires for approval and change and growth, the work of the Lord remains steadfast.
Jesus saves losers and only losers.
He raises the dead and only the dead.
He finds the lost and only the lost.
The last, least, lost, little, and dead receive more of Jesus’ joy than all of the winners in the world.
And we can’t stand it.
2019-05-0516 min
Taylor MertinsDeath and TaxesReligion, in the many ways it manifests itself, often only has one thing to say: people like you and me need to do something in order to get God to do something. We need only be good enough, or faithful enough, or merciful enough, until we tip the scales back in our favor. But this kind of religious observance, which is most religious observance, traps us in a game that we will always and forever lose.
It’s bad news.
But Jesus comes to bring Good News.
2019-04-2917 min
Taylor MertinsUnbelievableThe resurrection of Jesus is completely contrary to our way of being. It is completely contrary because we have nothing to do with it.
Jesus wasn’t waiting in the grave until there was the right amount of belief in the world before he broke free from the chains of Sin and Death.
Jesus wasn’t biding his time waiting for his would-be followers to engage in systems of perfect morality before offering them the gift of salvation.
The Good News is that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.
But the even better news is the fact that Jesus was...
2019-04-2215 min
Taylor MertinsUngodlyThe crucifixion of Jesus puts to an end the religious categories that separate people from one another and unites us under a common banner.
We might want that banner to be a declaration of love, or grace, or mercy. But the thing under which we are all included is actually our guilt.
We, all of us, are the ungodly.
And yet Christ dies, for us.
2019-04-2014 min
Taylor MertinsIn AnticipationWe Christians are a people forever stuck in the past.
And we can hardly be blamed; we only know what we know.
But on Maundy Thursday we are compelled to get our sense of time confused.
For tonight we do what we do both in remembrance and in anticipation.
2019-04-1916 min
Taylor MertinsEnough Is EnoughThere will always be more for us to do, but the one thing we could never do has already been done for us.
The work of Christ, life-death-resurrection, provides all the enoughness we could ever really hope for.
It is the sign that though we are unworthy, Christ makes us worthy, though we have sinned, Christ offers pardon, though we feel empty, Christ proclaims that we are enough.
2019-04-0717 min
Taylor MertinsThe Death Of The PartyThe elder brother is so convinced, too convinced, that doing all of the right things will be enough to save him. His refrain is “I did everything I was supposed to. I stayed home. I took care of my responsibilities. I planned accordingly. I was perfect.” And yet his life is anything but perfect.
And he cannot stand the idea of his father throwing a party for his brother who deserves nothing.
But we all deserve nothing.
2019-04-0114 min
Taylor MertinsThe Good, The Bad, And The UglyThe cross is the manure of grace that is spread into and throughout our lives. It is a frightening thing that we’d rather ignore or dismiss, and yet without it we are nothing.
And still, the manure that is grace is offered to our lives even when, and precisely because, we are not bearing fruit!
We worship a God of impossible possibilities, a God who offers more chances than we ever deserve, a God who willingly drops manure on our lives over and over again.
The cross is like manure; it is good and bad and ugly.
But it is...
2019-03-2514 min
Taylor MertinsFor The Love Of GodThere is a great leveling on the hill called Golgotha. Because until that moment, as Jesus says, the house was left to us. And when the house is left to us we, more often than not, like to chose who is able to join us in the house. We like to create our own rules about who is first and who is last, who is right and who is wrong, who is included and who is excluded.
But so long as the house is left to us, it will not look like the kingdom of God.
Instead it will be...
2019-03-1815 min
Taylor MertinsLead Us Not Into...We are so much a people of the world, rather than the kingdom, that it is nearly impossible to see the temptation story from any point of view other than the devil’s - If you take away the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, take away the fact that we know the end of the story, the devil’s questions sound pretty good...
That’s crazy.
It’s a crazy thing to realize, here at the beginning of our own Lenten journeys, that the person with whom we have to most in common in this story isn’t Jesus, b...
2019-03-1115 min
Taylor MertinsDisturbing The PeaceOn Ash Wednesday we gather, we listen, and we faintly begin to grasp that there is quite literally nothing we can do to get God to love us more. We look deeply into our sins, the sins of the church, and the sins of the world and we inexplicably come into contact with the God who extends mercy to us even in the midst of our horrible condition.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. And yet it is given to us.
2019-03-0710 min
Taylor MertinsTerms And Conditions May ApplyWe started the recent General Conference in prayer and we even had a cross up at the front of the room, but there was one person who was conspicuously absent from the proceedings: Jesus.
Sure, I heard a lot about what it says in Leviticus. I heard a lot about Paul. I heard people quote precisely from John Wesley.
But Jesus?
I honestly don’t know where Jesus was while we were trying to figure out the future of his church.
In fairness to our Lord, it felt like he had better things to do than witness the devolution of an...
2019-03-0313 min
Taylor MertinsIfIt is crazy that the United Methodist Church has the potential to go up (or down) in flames in the next ten days all over a debate about what does and what does not count as a sin when every one of our sins has already been taken up in the cross.
2019-02-1813 min
Taylor MertinsBack To The MiddleChrist died for our sins.
He was buried in the ground.
He was raised on the third day.
To Paul, this was of first importance.
Not our behavior.
Not even a list of beliefs.
But a story.
The story.
2019-02-1017 min
Taylor MertinsAll You Need Is...If God is love, then so is Jesus.
Jesus is patient; Jesus is kind; Jesus is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way; Jesus is not irritable or resentful; Jesus does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth.
Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Jesus never ends.
So, we can go and love the people around us. We can even love the people we hate. The world could certainly use a little more love. But there is a big difference between “be...
2019-02-0416 min
Taylor MertinsJoy!There are many things we can do on our own, but being a Christian is not one of them.
2019-01-2815 min
Taylor MertinsRage Against ExplanationIn scripture and in life, God does not speak to us of why things happen. Instead, God speaks about how things can be. God speaks to us not in explanations, but in promises!
Promises that we can scarcely imagine or even fathom.
What Isaiah announced to the people called Israel, God has revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We who were once far off, removed by our own exile, have been brought near by the blood of the lamb who was slain for the world.
2019-01-2116 min
Taylor MertinsThe Gift That Keeps On GivingHere, on the day of Epiphany, as we celebrate the total scope of the gospel extending to the gentiles, we are challenged by Isaiah’s words to move out of the waiting of Advent darkness, and beyond the mystery of the Christmas incarnation, toward the brilliance of the brightness in Christ the Lord.
But the brilliant brightness is only necessary because of the thick darkness that covers the people. During the time of Isaiah the darkness was nothing new to the people Israel; they truly knew what it means to dwell in thick darkness while exiled in Babylon. And today, we...
2019-01-0717 min
Taylor MertinsThe Hopes And Fears Of All The YearsLittle baby Jesus, the one with teeny tiny toes and the one resting in the feeding trough, is the same person who walked through Galilee, who was transfigured magnificently, who feed the people abundantly, who walked on water miraculously, who suffered on the cross tragically, and rose from the grave majestically.
The womb and the tomb could not and cannot contain the grace of God. Even in the darkest moments of our lives there is an everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus tonight.
2018-12-2513 min
Taylor MertinsMissing From The MangerToday we assume we know where Jesus is or, at the very least, where Jesus should be. We elevate particular politicians because we think they are on Jesus’ side, or we dismiss entire populations of people because we think Jesus is on our side.
We relegate the incarnate Lord to our perfect manger scenes only to pack him away in a few days.
But the story of Christmas is that God cannot, and will not, be stopped.
2018-12-2511 min
Taylor MertinsMerry Christmas Ya Filthy AnimalHear the Good News! Jesus’ arrival both from the womb and from the tomb means that he will not let us remain as we are. He is the judged Judge who stands in our place. He is, in himself, the Good News.
2018-12-1617 min
Taylor MertinsStuck In The Middle With YouJohn the Baptist’s words and ministry upset the status quo of our complacency. The kingdom earthquake is shaking all the old expectations of what we should say and what we should do. The fault lines of change are running through the middle of history and God is announcing a new order that carries with it a whole new way of seeing the world.
2018-12-1016 min
Taylor MertinsThe End Is Our BeginningAdvent is the season we celebrate new life - Jesus’, our own, and the new reality made possible by our God. We live in a time and among those who wish to see the world fizzle out in a tiny smoldering fire, but the Lord promises to return to us in a glorious way and is already bringing us signs of new life and peace.
2018-12-0216 min
Taylor MertinsWe Have No King But JesusJesus would be a terrible president.
Can you imagine? He’d always disappear in the middle of something important just so that he could pray with his heavenly father in private. He’d ditch the secret service to go hang out with the homeless around the Whitehouse. And he’d probably wear a dirty robe when he gave speeches from the Rose Garden.
Jesus would be a terrible president.
But he makes a pretty good King…
2018-11-2613 min
The Naked Preacher Podcast"Preachers Get Sick (Part 2)" with Reverends Jason Micheli, Teer Hardy, and Taylor MertinsCancer is funny?
That's the belief of Rev. Jason Micheli, pastor of Annandale United Methodist Church in Annandale, VA. Jason was diagnosed a few years ago with a very rare, very serious form of bone cancer, and he's here to talk with me about how journeying through his sickness while pastoring forced him to be more vulnerable in front of his congregation. Jason is also joined by his friends, fellow UMC pastors Teer Hardy and Taylor Mertins, who lend some outsider perspective on his experience.
Fun points in this episode include a conversation about how to g...
2018-10-1745 min
patheological: The Podcast for the Pastor TheologianPastors Fail? A Conversation with Taylor MertinsJust four years ago it was reported, “that 1500 pastors leave the ministry for good each month due to burnout or contention in their churches.” What is a pastor to do just five years in when he or she realizes there already exists lessons from failure?
Not Much Has Changed?
Thirty years ago this coming December I recall a denominational leader relaying to a group of seminary graduates that any given week 12 ministers take up new positions and 12 ministers resign. It was surprising to hear there were twenty-four staff changes any given week just in Oklahoma.
2018-02-2100 min
Saturday@5:30Jason Micheli with Taylor Mertins - Saturday@5:30 - 3 December 2017A dialogue between Jason Micheli and Taylor Mertins on the first weekend of Advent. Taylor Mertins, pastor of Cokesbury UMC in Woodbridge, Virginia, grew up at Aldersgate.Recorded December 2, 2017, at Aldersgate UMC in Alexandria, Virginia, at the Saturday@5:30: Conversations at the Heart of the Matter service.
2017-12-0429 min