Presby-Musings

One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride , based on the wonderful book by William Goldman.   The movie follows Princess Buttercup (the first on-screen appearance of Robin Wright) as she becomes a pawn in the efforts of an evil ruler who wants to marry her (then kill her) to solidify his grip on the kingdom.   Luckily, she is rescued by her long-lost love, Wesley, who had been sold into slavery by the aforementioned evil ruler, but became The Dread Pirate Roberts, scourge of the seas.  Seriously, it all makes sense when you see the movie.  At any rate, there is a wonderful moment when Wesley and Buttercup are fleeing from the evil ruler and his minions, and their only chance to escape is to go into the infamous Fire Swamp.   The following exchange takes place:  Princess Buttercup: “We’ll never survive!” Wesley: “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.” I've always loved that line, which is why it came to mind when I ...

Last Sunday night, I was invited by friends to attend a 50th anniversary screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which also featured an appearance by John Cleese, one of the original members of the comedy troupe.   The truth is, I haven't had a ton of fun lately.  I work a lot. I live alone with my cat, and I work a lot.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job and have a lot of fun doing it, but I haven't been getting out much lately to do things that aren't work-related.   Also, I haven't sold my house in a year, which has its own level of buzzkill.   Which was why last Sunday night was so meaningful to me.  I laughed, quoted a bunch of lines from the movie as it played, and sat in awe as I had the chance to listen to one of my lifelong heroes talk and answer questions.  It was pure joy.   When you aren't accustomed to feeling pure joy and then experience it, it's almost overwhelming.  It also got me thinking.  Why...

  It’s (Still)The Season of Pentecost! We are teaching through a sermon series in September, entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” This series is based on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoefer, who had this to say about humility:  “But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it it to be arranged by God.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Today, we’re going to read a parable of Jesus about a rich man, a poor man, and a lesson learned after death.   But first, let’s talk about heaven and hell and what Jesus may have thought of each.   To begin with, images of the afterlife in the Bible are not consistent.  The Old Testament is not entirely clear. It  refers to  Sheol , the realm of the dead, a shadowy realm where the dead reside .  It could be a place of eternal sleep or rest, but there is no reference to the resurrec...

Years ago, I officiated at a funeral for a man I did not know.  He was loosely connected to the church I was serving at the time through some of his family members, and they needed a pastor for his graveside service.  On the day of the funeral, I was rushing around because I  tried to fit too many things into the morning, and realized I needed to hurry or I would be late, so I raced off to the cemetery where the graveside service would be held.  When I arrived, I realized that I had left the order of service I had created for the occasion, along with my funeral service book, which contained all the prayers and other pastoral elements I use at funerals.  My first thought was, "I can do this. I've done over a hundred funerals. I can probably do most of it from memory."  And that was when I realized something far worse.  I had no idea what the man's name was.  It was on the order of service, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember it.  What ...

Once when I was small, I was being ornery in a grocery store, and my mom finally had enough.  She fixed me with the steely gaze that only a mom can muster, the kind that pierces you through to your soul, and informed me that I was going to get punished when I got home.  I decided that this was a good moment to get right with God, so I found a small corner in the bean aisle and began to pray to God to forgive me... out loud.   My mom overheard my earnest prayer, which included a plea to God that I somehow avoid punishment, and took pity on me, mostly because she couldn't stop laughing.   So the next time I was "acting a fool," to coin a delightful Southern mom phrase, I tried it again, more dramatically and with no small amount of theatrics.  Unfortunately, it didn't work.  I was left wondering why God seemed to answer some prayers and not others.   I have come to see prayer in a much different light than that of the little boy in the bea...

After the death of right-wing activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk, I posted something on my social media feeds decrying his assassination.   I stated that, even though I disagreed with Kirk's stances and statements, I grieved for his family, particularly his wife and their two young children. I also unequivocally stated that to celebrate Kirk's death was an un-Christian act.   It didn't take long for someone to comment that I had no right to tell people who had been wounded by Kirk's statements in the past how to react to his killing.  In other words, I was called out for having empathy.   We live in a culture where expressing empathy for others, even the ones we disagree with, has become twisted into a sign of weakness or betrayal of our "side."  And for those of us who call ourselves Christians, this is a direct assault on the very foundation of Jesus' message and ministry.  We all need to take a hard look within ourselves at this moment ...

If you've ever had a friend or a loved one come to you for comfort or guidance because of something they are worrying about, you probably gave them advice that amounted to something like this: "Try not to worry, it will only make things worse."   You may have also dismissed their worry by assuring them they had nothing to worry about, or that stressing over something they couldn't control wasn't productive.  You could do this because you weren't the one worrying.   However, when it comes to our own concerns and stressors, we often find it difficult to heed our own advice.  In fact, we may not even want to hear the very things that we have told other people when we were trying to assuage their fears.   When we're the ones worrying, it's hard to see beyond the thing that is in front of us, causing us to spin out, turn inward, lose sleep, and a host of other effects that are the direct result of where worry takes us when we let it.   And in...

It's easy to assume that some theological arguments have been widely settled when you are part of a church or denomination that has ostensibly settled them within its own body politic. It's also easy to see those "settled" arguments as signs of progress in the wider Church.  But the reality is, within our current culture, those who long for a return to more literal and traditional views of Scripture and church governance have become emboldened to harden their stances on issues like gender and who is allowed to lead.   For example, I've been an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for over twenty years, and the ordination of women as elders and ministers has been a part of our community life for nearly half a century.   But the majority of Christian communities and governing bodies still refuse to ordain women as leaders, denying their gifts and essentially reducing them to second-class citizens.  And in recent years, they've doubled down on th...

It’s (Still)The Season of Pentecost! We are teaching through a sermon series in September, entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” The inspiration for this series comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and pastor who was executed by the Nazis at the end of World War 2.   Bonhoeffer wrote a book entitled "The Cost of Discipleship," in which he asserted that grace is costly, not cheap.  We are going to be talking about our relationship with money today, and so I  want to share a quote from Bonhoeffer regarding a shift in the way we think about what we have:  “In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Today, we are going to read a strange parable that Jesus told that speaks to how we ought to relate to money.   As it turns out, Jesus spoke extensively about money.  He spoke about money more than he spoke about anything...

  Yesterday, I had a moment of existential dread that washed over me like a dark, cold wave, and I couldn't shake the feelings that it brought with it.  I hardly recognize the country that I was raised to love anymore.  I don't look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, but things have changed over the past decade, and it feels at times as though we are headed toward a future that is dark and destructive.   We are being programmed to hate one another.  There are no more polite disagreements.  The powers-that-be for the moment are doing everything they can to stoke the fires of discord and silence the voices of dissent.   And violence and retribution have become the end result of this campaign over our souls waged by those who broker in fear.   But I also know that there is good in the world, and that love has the power to overcome anything that hate can muster.   The other day, I came across this powerful poem by Kam...

Some years ago, I read a wonderful quote from Abraham Lincoln that caused me to chuckle, but also to think more deeply:  “I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” There's a lot you can do with that quote, to be fair, but today I'm thinking about it in terms of generosity.  For a lot of us who claim to be Christian, religion can become a mask that we put on when it suits us, especially when it comes to living out of abundance rather than scarcity. We claim to want to follow Jesus, and then gloss over all of the numerous passages in the Gospels where Jesus encourages his followers to give away their possessions and learn to live with less.     Far too many of us measure ourselves by what we own, or what we have accumulated, whether it be wealth, possessions, power, or influence.  When we do this, life begins to shrink.  Our calendars fill, our closets bulge, and still we worry there won’t be enough—enough money, enoug...

Most of us know all too well what it feels like to carry the bitterness and pain of wounds that have been inflicted by others.  We have felt the sting of betrayal, the deep cut of rejection.  We know the sorrow that comes from broken relationships, friendships, and the grief that washes over us in waves when we are left to pick up the pieces of what was and try to move on.  And in these troubled times that we are living in, we also know what it feels like to see friendships end over disagreements, and to realize that people we thought we knew well can turn on us in an instant.   But carrying around bitterness over all of these wounds will never lead us to healing.  It's like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.   As is often the case with me, I find incredible wisdom from the 13th-century poet Rumi, who  wrote: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in t...

The ability to engage in actual, reasonable, and civil discourse in our culture is becoming a thing of the past.   It's been heading this way for a long time now, fueled by the constant barrage of uncivil engagement on social media (where far too many people are internet-brave and feel like they can be as nasty as they want to be), and the intentionally provocative "opinion" hosts on cable news.  And also most politicians, 98% of whom seem to lack any shred of civility at all.   We live in an age of bullies and narcissists, where poor behavior is rewarded with clicks and likes, and so many of us have begun to emulate the behavior we see modeled by those who want to keep us angry at one another.   One of the many life lessons that I have had to learn the hard way is that bullies and narcissists (which are synonymous terms most of the time) will generally play the victim after they've needled, goaded, and antagonized you into finally reacting against th...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how anger (and rage) has become such an ever-present part of our current culture, and what it is doing to us.   There's an undercurrent of anger that is thrumming in our society, fueled by clickbait viral videos, social media algorithms, and carefully curated news feeds.  Depending on our political and social views, we tend to hear and see exactly what it takes to keep us agitated, to keep us watching and growing angrier.   And if you dare to try to be reasonable, to advocate for restraint, God help you.  You just might get hammered for it online, or lose friends over tableside arguments.   There is no shortage of reasons to feel anger in our world today. We see injustice, cruelty, indifference, and brokenness, and something within us rises up. I know that I feel it almost every day.   However, not all anger is detrimental to us.  Anger can be a powerful barometer of our inner life, pointing ...

It’s (Still)The Season of Pentecost! We are teaching through a sermon series in September, entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.”  This series draws inspiration from the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was executed right at the end of World War II in Europe for being part of a plot to kill Hitler.  He wrote a book by the same name as this series.   I'd like to share a quote with you from that book, one that speaks to what we're going to be talking about today:   The community of the saints is not an "ideal" community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness. You and I, those of us who say that we are followers of Jesus, we need to constantly remind ourselves just how much we need Jesus.  Before we start condemning others, we need to take a hard look in the m...