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Showing posts from June, 2016

Setting Our Face to Focus On The Future, Or Questions for The Church In Light of the Brexit Vote

This is my manuscript of my June 26, 2016 sermon. The lessons were 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, and Luke 9:51-62. My actual remarks varied slightly at each church from this text. If the Gospel of Luke was made into a movie, this would be the turning point. It would start with a wide shot of Jesus standing on top of a hill, his hair blowing in the wind. As the camera zooms in on him, the music begins to build, until just as the camera comes close to him, he turns to face the camera with a determined look on his face. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. That is a very heavily loaded sentence, with some phrases that could be translated better, and with meanings that we may miss. First, this is happening shortly after he was transfigured on top of a mountain. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus shine brightly, and he spoke with Moses and Elijah. Rather than when the days drew near , the text can be read as when the

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?

  This is my manuscript for my sermon on June 19, 2016. The lessons that I choose were Galatians 3:23-29 and Luke 6:27-38a, 46, and are below. The Gospel lesson was read responsively. Two of my three churches did not have services today, and were a part of a community worship service. Galatians 3:23-29 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.  Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Luke 6:27-38a, 4

Biblical Values for Stewardship

This is An Article From Ananias on stewardship from the June-Early July newsletter. My Big Guy read chapter 4 from the book Ask, Thank, Tell which is about the values of stewardship. He reminded me that stewardship means how we manage and use the gifts and blessings that God has given us.  For you all, that means the money and possessions you have, but it also means the talent and abilities you have, like the things you are good at. I’m good at sleeping and chewing on things, so I was excited to find out how I could be a good steward of these talents. Mr. Lane who wrote this book says that there six values of someone who gives using Biblical values. They are: Intentional Regular Generous First Proportional, and Cheerful.  What he meant by that is you have to make a plan on your giving and sharing, then actually do it. You need to give on a regular basis. You are generous because you trust that God has blessed you and will continue to bless you, so you don’t have to t

Taking Time

  This is my Pastor’s Ponderings article for the June-Early July OS/Em Newsletter. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning. – Exodus 16:23 We are made to rest from time to time, by commandment, at least one day per week. Sometimes, you need to get away to rest. That’s what I did a few weeks ago when I went back to Gettysburg. I went for their Spring Academy, a week-long set of workshops for pastors and others. But most of all, I wanted to go where I could find a place of peace. One of the things I have loved about Gettysburg since my first visit is that it is a place where I can find peace and reflect upon what God is calling me to do. I was able to remember the spiritual disciplines I had while I was at the seminary. There are times that I struggle with nurturing my own soul with prayer, meditation and reading God’s wor