Presby-Musings

Anne Lamott writes, "Pope Francis says the name of God is mercy.  Our name was mercy, too, until we put it away to become more productive, more admired and less vulnerable."  This is what I feel has happened to what I would best describe as "Corporate Christianity" in America.  It's lost it's way.  It's become triumphant and obsessed with bigger and better, and forgotten what it means to be merciful.  But I've come to believe there is a "silent majority" of Jesus-followers who have grown weary of the pretenses and posturing of "Corporate Christianity" and are waking up at last to pursue their deep longing to simply be more like Christ.   For all of the negative news stories that surface from time to time about a few angry, and loud Christians, who are boycotting things, banning books, shunning other Christians who don't agree with them, and the like, it's good to be reminded that there are far more Christians sim...

In my morning reading today, I read this incredible and uncomfortable quote from Anne Lamott's latest book Hallelujah Anyway:  "The world has an awful beauty.  This is a chaotic place, humanity is a chaotic place, and I am a chaotic place."  I do feel pretty chaotic most days.  Maybe you feel that way, too.  Much like the particles of the subatomic world that exists below our ordinary vision, we are constantly colliding with one another, exchanging energy and being transformed (for good or ill) by these constant collisions. I hold to the belief that God is at work in our lives all of the time, and it is our own limited ability to perceive that keeps us from being aware of God's guiding, loving presence.   Because of this belief, I also hold to the notion that God also places people in our paths (and us in theirs) for a reason.   Sometimes it's easy to see the reasons when being with a particular person fills us life, light and love.  Bu...

I used to be friends with someone years ago, who was a champion at holding grudges.  If someone crossed her, offended her, or wronged her in any way,  this former friend of mine would adopt a "scorched earth" mentality toward that person.  They would cease to exist, as far as she was concerned.  No apologies.  No attempts to make things right. No mercy.   The day finally came when I stepped over one of the many lines she'd created, and I found myself on the outs with her.  There was no way back, no path to reconciliation.  Our relationship just ended.   My life didn't change all that much because we were no longer friends. It had been a chore to be in relationship with her anyway--always walking on eggshells, measuring each conversation to ensure it didn't cause offense.   In the end, I believed I had done everything I could to make things right between us, and felt righteous and guilt-free.   But then I f...

This week we are launching a brand new sermon series entitled, "Prayer" that will take us all the way through the month of June.   Our purpose throughout this sermon series is to take a long, hard look at prayer and to try to answer some serious questions that I am sure that many of us have had about prayer at one time or another in our lives...  Questions like: What is prayer, really?  Am I really talking to God when I pray?  Does prayer really work?  How do I pray--do I need a format, or do I just let it fly? When do I pray--is it when I need something, or am in trouble?  Does God really answer my prayers?  What do I do when it feels like God doesn't answer my prayers?  What good is prayer?  Can it really change God's mind, if God already has a plan for everything?  That's a tall order for just four weeks--but we'll do our best.  I should tell you a little bit about my own history with prayer.  I vaguely remember...

This week we are continuing our exploration of the core values of our church--what we've called "The Five Things:" Worship, Pray, Grow, Love and Serve. Five years ago, our church embraced these core values and we identified that if we were able to focus on these values, that we would be able to move closer to our vision of being the kind of church that reflects and reveals the unselfish love of Christ . From time to time it's important for us to be reminded of why these values are so important to us, and so this sermon series... But it's not merely enough to say  that these values are important, we need to understand  why they are a vital part of not only our life as a church, but also our individual lives as followers of Jesus. We called this sermon series, "The Core" because we are re-exploring our core values, but we also wanted to draw attention to a very important fact:  We are made of what we value. Last week we tackled the first of o...