Munger Place Church - Dallas, Texas

Keep your ears stopped. Shut your eyes tight. Make your necks stiff. And harden your hearts. For: If you hear and see, If you receive and obey, This message will bring life abundant. Do you have ears? Use them. (Reflections on the Parable of the Sower.) Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Mark 4:1-25

The portrayal of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel is a man of great power and authority: He commands the unclean spirits; He heals with a word; He calms the storm into silence. But there is one thing Jesus does NOT do, one thing he never commands or coerces. That one thing is, so to speak, the dog that doesn’t bark in Mark’s Gospel. And it is unbelievably important. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Series: Gospel o...

From the first page of Mark’s Gospel, we are immediately struck by the *strangeness* of the world we encounter. To paraphrase Thomas Merton, in Mark’s Gospel we encounter a “translucent world”, a world in which God is not far away but right at hand and one in which "the divine is shining through it all the time.” To many modern people, the idea of a translucent world seems ridiculous—after all, we...

Paul closes his letter to the Ephesians with what has become one of the best-known metaphors in all of his writings: the armor of God.   It’s a powerful, inspiring image, but what does it actually, practically mean?   Paul says that the point of wearing the armor is “so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”   In other words, something about putting on the armor will keep you f...

Yes, it’s an overwrought image (“A 'firing squad'? Come on!"), but nevertheless there is something about knowing you only have a finite amount of time left that helps you focus on what matters. I have a short amount of time left as the pastor for Munger Place Church, and that awareness has been a good reminder: I need to do whatever it takes to prepare my people. Let’s go. Preacher: Andrew Forrest...

You know what I’ve noticed? The way the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesian church is not how we pray. Either he’s wrong and needs to pray the way we pray, or else we need to learn from Paul and change our practices of prayer. (My money’s on the latter option.) See, it turns out that we don’t need what we think we need. What we really need is not prosperity or security or even clarity. What we rea...

We take a break from Ephesians as the Rev. David Forrest—our pastor’s father—preaches a sermon on a way to look at the entire Bible. Preacher: Rev. David Forrest  Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4

It is a good thing that these days we are acknowledging the ways that each of us has different privileges. But what happens next?  After we acknowledge our privilege, how should we live? Let’s talk about how to play diversity bingo in church. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-14.

Does difference always lead to division? Since Babel, the world’s answer has been: yes. And since difference is an inescapable part of life, this answer means the world always tries to erase difference, either through violence or a forced homogeneity. But difference is part of God’s plan, and difference is no threat to unity in Christ. Some thoughts on an important—and difficult—topic. Preacher: R...

We’re divided—tribe, tongue, people, nation—and we have been from the beginning.   Since Eden, we’ve been divided by our differences, and our divisions have led to more divisions, and to contempt, and to hate.   But those divisions are actually lies.  There is in fact one human race.  As the Apostle Paul reminds the Ephesians:   "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hop...

What if something amazing happened and you just totally ignored it? This is exactly what happened with the people in Bethlehem: the Christ was born right in their midst, and everyone but the shepherds missed it. The same things still happen at the time: we ignore amazing stories right in our midst. This Christmas I want to share with you the first and second most amazing stories I’ve ever heard. M...

Christmas lives right in the tension between God’s foreknowledge and our free will. Is history pre-determined or are we free to choose our actions? To the biblical authors, the answer is, “Yes.” Christmas is about God’s sovereign acts in human history AND about our freedom to take part in what God is doing. Here’s my question: how are you going to participate? Occasion: 4th Sunday of Advent Preach...

All of it is a gift. What else can we do but say, “Thank you thank you thank you!”? Preacher: Andrew Forrest Occasion: Christmas Commitment Sunday 2021

Hope is necessary for life. It’s hope that makes it possible to get up tomorrow morning, put your feet on the floor, and take a step. Hope is the belief that in the end, everything is going to be okay, and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end. We need hope, and Christmas provides it in surprising ways, as surprising as the gifts the magi brought to the holy family. Christmas is proof that God is sti...

I learned this week that the key to understanding Romans is to read it backwards. When you start at the end, you see that Paul really wants for the Romans is unity. Unity wasn’t any easier 2,000 years ago than it is today. Which doesn’t make it any less important. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Romans 16

I don’t like it when people tell me what to do, but nevertheless I’m going to do just that: I want you to pick just one of the pieces of advice Paul gives in Romans 12 and put it into practice this week. Everyone wants to know God’s will for his or her life, and Paul provides a way to find it. Paul also gives the church a way forward, too. It worked 2,000 years ago, and it will work today. Preache...

1. The imperative to tell the Good News to the people in our lives is the same as it’s been for 2,000 years. 2. And yet in our current cultural climate—so called “Negative World”—it’s difficult to know how to actually share our faith without turning people away from Christ. Here are some ideas. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Romans 10:11-15

My wife asked me this week, “What have your learned?” Time is so precious, and life is so short: I want to be sure I reflect back on time that passes. So, as we celebrate our 11th birthday at Munger, I’m thinking back over these past 11 years. This is what I’ve learned.   Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Psalm 1

Preacher: Andrew Forrest

This is my definition of suffering: Living through bad circumstances that you are unable to change. These days, we face two HUGE problems with regard to suffering: 1.  It is inevitable in every human life. 2.  Contemporary American culture has absolutely no idea what to do about it. Guess what? God’s word has a way forward for us.  Turns out the Apostle Paul knew a lot about suffering, namely that...

“Judge not, that you not be judged.” “Who am I to judge?” Yeah, well: This week I want to tell you why George Washington needs to face judgment. Actually, I want to tell you that it’s a good thing and a healing thing for George Washington to face judgment. More than that: I want to tell you why God’s judgment is actually a good thing for all of us. In fact, the reason our politics are so bitter is...

I know why we want to stay in the center of the herd—after all, it’s the early Christian that gets the lion. The herd gives us a (ultimately false) sense of safety, and in a world of howling jackals, we need all the safety we can get. And yet. In spite of our almost overwhelming sense to stay squarely with the herd, the Apostle Paul’s words to the Roman church have the same urgent clarity today as...

Where else would we go?  Whom else should we follow?  What options do we have?  Will ideology or technology or wealth or power or science give us what we need?   This is the 3rd and final sermon in a series about the church as a refuge, a bit of Eden, an oasis in the desert.   And this is the week we go on offense.   I explain *why* I’m so intense about the church and why I think the world needs t...

I’m convinced that Aaron Renn is right, and that we live in what he calls “Negative World”.  Here’s how he describes it:   “In this world, being a Christian is a social negative, especially in high-status positions. Christianity in many ways as seen as undermining the social good. Traditional norms are expressly repudiated.”   Now, we’ve been talking about how the church is meant to a refuge, an a...

I’m taking it back, I’m taking it all back. Like Mikey under the wishing well in “The Goonies,” I’m taking it back. I’m taking back my attention, my focus, my heart from all the voices screaming at me, from the aggregator algorithms, from the scrolling chyrons. I’m taking back the only thing I really totally control—my thoughts—and refusing anymore to give heed to the latest and loudest. I’m takin...