Presby-Musings

Today, we continue our Lenten journey by reflecting on something we can add to our Lenten practices as we release the things that keep us from following Jesus more fully: a renewed commitment to faithful worship. Worship attendance among members of faith communities in the U.S. had been in decline for decades before COVID, a trend that accelerated both during and after the pandemic.  The most recent statistics indicate that the definition of "regular worship attendance" has shifted.   Pew Research recently found that only 25–30% of church members attend weekly  or nearly weekly, while 33–40% attend once a month.  The remainder attend rarely.   The reasons for the decline are varied, but the fact remains that fewer church members are attending worship, and in so doing are missing out on something extremely important to their spiritual formation.   You see, corporate worship is a vital part of our life together as a community of faith....

Engaging in the season of Lent is not always about letting things go or giving things up.  The idea of fasting or relinquishing things that help keep us focused on Christ as we symbolically follow him during these forty days leaves room for us to add life-giving practices.  Adding spiritual disciplines during Lent is a faithful practice that enables us to be more open to the Spirit, and to experience God in ways we might never have imagined.   Fasting is not only subtraction; it is addition. When we remove distraction, we create space to add life-giving rhythms that nourish our relationship with God. Lent invites us to clear away what clutters our attention so that practices of faith can take deeper root. Scripture encourages discipline not as a burden, but as formation. Paul writes to Timothy, “Train yourself in godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). The word train suggests practice, repetition, and patience. Spiritual growth rarely happens suddenly. It unfolds through habit...

Today, we continue our reflections on the three main practices during the season of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Giving.  Our focus this week will be on fasting or letting go of whatever keeps us from experiencing God more fully.   We live in a culture of consumption.   Every single day, we are presented with advertisements and information that lead us to believe that, to be more, we need to consume more.  We are studied, tracked, and haunted by algorithms designed to tempt us into buying things we come to believe we can't live without.   And so, for many of us, we live in an endless cycle of imagined needs, becoming more and more a part of a system designed to sell us on the idea that material posessions will bring us joy.   The author Ellen Goodman puts it like this:  “Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for—in order to get to the job you need to p...

It’s The Fourth Sunday of Lent The season of Lent offers us a time to consider how best to identify with Jesus during the forty days from the Cross to Easter.    This series will teach us what it means to face injustice, evil, and suffering by laying down everything but love.   What does it mean to be unarmed with nothing but love in our current culture?    What are the barriers we put up to protect us? Today, we will study a story from John’s Gospel about Jesus and a Samaritan woman he meets at a well.   GRACE CROSSES EVERY LINE WE USE TO FEEL SAFE John 4:5-42 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. Samaritans & Jews, Men & Women, Wells & Marriage   7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to t...

There are a lot of distractions in the culture we inhabit.  And for someone like me, who enjoys multitasking, it doesn't take long to discover them, usually when I'm trying to focus to get something done.  We are seldom enveloped by silence.  There are, to coin a phrase from Hamlet, a "thousand natural shocks" that keep us from being quiet and focused.  The act of being fully present in a moment is often jarred by the notifications on our phones or computers.  We have a TV blaring in the background or music in our headphones.  We have schedules to keep, appointments to make, and projects to do, but they all become difficult to even start because we find ourselves distracted by one thing or another.   All the ways that we are inundated with distractions can take a toll on us, mentally, physically, and even spiritually.  I often find my mind wandering when I try to spend time in prayer and meditation. As it turns out, it's a lot harder to empty...

This has been a busy week. I've had lots of appointments to keep, meetings to attend, and writing to do.  I've been planning sermons, working on projects that seem to never quite finish when I want them to, and having lots of conversations with church members, colleagues, and friends.  Truth be told, I've enjoyed it all, even when it's been challenging.  I love what I do for a living. This strange and wonderful calling that I've spent nearly half of my life following gives me purpose, joy, and has also turned my beard quite gray.   But even when you love what you do, it's possible to grow weary in doing it.  I struggle with feelings of guilt and restlessness when I stop for a breather.  I tell others to rest, rejuvenate, and recharge, but I have a hard time taking my own advice.   Busyness often masquerades as importance. We fill our schedules and wear exhaustion as a badge of honor. Yet Scripture consistently calls God’s people to rest. “Be ...