Presby-Musings

This Sunday I am preaching the final sermon of the series that I've been preaching for the month of June entitled, "Dusting Off Old Stuff."  This sermon series on essential Christian doctrines and why they matter has been an eye-opener for me. And a reminder that I didn't remember that much from what I learned in seminary. This is what happens when you drink from a fire hose, so to speak: you might get some  water down your gullet, but all you remember is the fact that you got owned by the hose. The topic of this sermon is The Lord's Supper.  Or Holy Communion.  Or the Eucharist. Lots of Christians call it different things.  And celebrate it in different ways. Which leads us to some questions that could use answering, at least in my mind.  First, If we say that we are celebrating the Lord's Supper, why does it always seem as though we are acting like we are at a funeral? Anyone else feel me on this?  Seriously, for most of my life I hav...

Imagine... It's the first century, and you are gathered with your family and some of your close friends in a grotto below the street of the town where you live.  You are a Christian, a follower of the Way of Jesus.  And you are about to be baptized. The place you are gathered is a cistern to catch rain water.  Everyone seems nervous and solemn.  A man standing near the cistern, beckons each of you forward.  You take off the robe you are wearing and step naked into the water.  The man proclaims that you are "buried with Christ in his death," and that "you are raised to new life in his resurrection."  And he does this "In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit ." As you emerge you are given a white robe and the man anoints you liberally with oil.  Above you on the street, you can hear the sounds of your town waking up.  A rooster crows and a cart rumbles past.  If anyone on that street above knew you were here, the...

When I was a kid and played sports, the only people who got trophies were the people who actually won something. Now everyone gets a trophy just for showing up.  But despite the love-fest of indiscriminate trophy distribution at my children's awards ceremonies, everyone knows who the star on the team is.  Everyone knows which team beat all of the other teams for the entire season, even when the league officials fervently avoided keeping score.  We may all want everyone to get a trophy and feel good about themselves, but we know that not everyone deserves one.  We also know that life isn't fair, and that sometimes even when we work hard, play hard, try hard and want something hard... it doesn't always go our way.  I've noticed that the kids who tend to perform better than their peers at sports, scholastics, you name it, also tend to complain about the seeming lack of fairness inherent in the "Everyone's A Winner" approach. Because we all know that n...

What would you say if you heard of two churches deciding to experience the same sermon series on the same Sundays, singing the same songs, and reading the same Scripture, but doing it in different places?  What would you say if the pastors of said churches decided to study their sermons together, and then even switch pulpits for a Sunday during the series to preach at the other pastor’s church?   You would say that it would be the kind of thing that would make some people want to bust out their guitars, get in a circle and start singing Kum Ba Yah, right?  Right.  Well, we're not going to do that.  But we'll tell you the story, if you like...      This story begins with a crazy idea between friends.  Pastor Steve Hulsey from Lake Square Presbyterian Church and I are friends.  By all rights, we should be competitors.  Our churches are just a few miles apart.  They are both growing when many of our sister churches a...

My good buddy Steve and I are Presbyterian pastors in neighboring towns.  Our churches are very different, but they also have a great deal in common.  They are different in that my church is nearly 130 years old, while his is maybe 30. My church is in an historic building in the center of the small town of Eustis.  His is down the street from a mall. Our churches are, however, roughly the same size and have basically the same age range of parishoners. And both churches are growing. A few months ago Steve and I decided that we wanted to collaborate on a sermon series.  We also thought it would be a good idea to bring our two churches together and preach from the same texts, share the same ideas for music, hymns, etc.  We also decided to do something crazy and swap pulpits in the middle of the thing and see what happened. This is the first week of this collaboration and I am excited. You see, Presbyterians can get along after all---despite all of the ...