Presby-Musings

This week I'll be continuing the sermon series "The Way of The Cross: Following Christ On the Lenten Path."     Each week we'll be exploring one of the core values of our church as a Lenten practice, a spiritual discipline that we can take up --both as individuals and as a community.  The story is told about a small, country church where the pastor called a special meeting of the congregation to approve the purchase of a brand new chandelier. After some discussion pro and con, an old farmer stood up and said, "Buying a new chandelier may seem like a good idea to you, but I’m against it for three reasons. First of all, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford one. Second, there isn’t anybody around here who knows how to play one. And third, what we really need in this church is a new light fixture." Sometimes in our life together as a Jesus-following community we find ourselves in disagreement with one another, but if we dig just a bit deeper below the...

This past week I got to do something that I have wanted to do for years--I visited the island of Patmos, and the traditional site where the book of Revelation was born.  In the first chapter of Revelation we find these words from John the Revelator:   I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book.  Tradition teaches that it was John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of Jesus, who received the Revelation while he was in exile on Patmos.  These traditions teach that he would climb the highest hill on the island to pray inside a cave.  It was in that cave that he saw the vision that would become the Apocalypse  or the book of Revelation.   We visited The Cave of the A...

I've been serving in church ministry of one form or another for over sixteen years.  Over the course of that time I have had more people than I care to count approach me and offer the following statement: "I have a friend who says that there's more than one way to get to heaven. Is that true?"   Now the question might be framed a bit differently from person to person, but the idea is always the same.  Christians make the claim that a belief in Jesus is the only sure way to know that you will "go to heaven" when you die.  But in an increasingly diverse culture, those of us who call ourselves Christians often find ourselves in relationships with people of other faiths, or with people who may not have any particular faith at all.  And in this increasingly diverse culture that we find ourselves a part of, our claims about Jesus being the only way to God often get challenged.  These claims might get challenged directly by relatives, friends, co-w...