Presby-Musings

There is a moment in the book of Exodus from the Hebrew Scriptures when the Hebrew people have only just escaped slavery in Egypt, and they discover to their utter dismay that they are being pursued.   The story tells us that after allowing the Israelites to leave Egypt, Pharaoh (king of Egypt) repents of his decision to let his slave work force escape, and heads after them with his army.   Immediately the Hebrew people start lamenting their circumstances.   10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” All the Hebrew people could see r...

When my family moved to Florida in 1982 we rented a small house not too far away from the church and Christian school where my dad would be serving as a schoolteacher.   We had been filled with hope and excitement when we made the cross-country trek from Colorado to Central Florida.  My parents believed that God had been in the middle of their decision, and I was eager to make new friends and start a new life in what seemed like an exotic and awesome place.  But the house was small and hot--my room didn't have air conditioning.  One evening, as I was reading a book for school on my bed, a huge cockroach crawled across my chest.  I didn't sleep well that night, or for the next several.   The house didn't have a washer or dryer either.  My mom and I had to carry our laundry to a dirty laundromat every week.  We were sufficiently poor enough that my dad had to get a part time job driving a bus at Disney World to make ends meet.   All ...

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor . - Exodus 6:6-9 It's been a hectic week.  I'm in the middle of moving, and the house I'm moving into is also being remodeled.  Almost all our worldly belongings are in boxes, and there are a hundred things that need doing before the movers arrive on Saturday to shuttle over all the furniture....

U All good things must come to an end. Have you ever heard that before?  Maybe you've even repeated it on occasion. Probably when something good was coming to an end. Recently, my wife and I had the opportunity to get a way for a couple of days--just the two of us.  We relaxed, sat by the beach, wandered around Key West, watched the sunset, ate unbelievable meals, slept in, read some books, laid in a hammock... What? I should tell you everything? At any rate, as we came to the end of our time away we both found ourselves saying over and over again---"just one more day... if we had just one more day..." I remember the last football game of my oldest son's high school career.  He re-injured his surgically repaired shoulder throwing a forty yard touchdown pass, and then a few plays later got concussed on a running play.  We all knew that it was over.  His season had ended, and a promising football career with it.  I remember my wife and I sitting...

Years ago I attended a Presbyterian minister 's conference for the express purpose of hearing Walter Brueggemann teach.  He was the featured speaker at the conference---or should I say he was supposed  to be the featured speaker.  I can't remember exactly why he couldn't make it at the last minute, but I do remember being fairly bummed about it.  You simply don't get too many chances to sit at the feet of one of the most esteemed Old Testament scholars in the world, after all. Brueggemann's work has in alternately inspired and convicted me whenever I've had the opportunity to study it. My personal library is stocked with more than a few of his books.  But I have to say that his latest, Sabbath As Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now  has had the most personal impact on my life. This short study of the Fourth Commandment is, in my opinion, the perfect Christian counterpart to Rabbi Abraham Heschel 's seminal work The Sabbath.   Bru...

This week we are concluding the sermon series that took us all the way through the season of Advent , and has now shamelessly encroached on the season of Christmas--which lasts until Epiphany, in case you were wondering.  Oh yeah, baby.  Christmas is far from over for the Church.  That's how us mainline Protestant-types roll. There's this song on the Beatles " Rubber Soul " album that came to mind as I was preparing for this week's sermon.  Sometimes the Beatles just happen when you're sermonizing.  Trust me on this. The song?  "In My Life."  It goes a little something like this, in case you've forgotten or if you have no concept of good music and have never heard it: There are places I remember All my life, though some have changed Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life I've loved them all ...

Today is Maundy Thursday ---the day Christians around the world will be commemorating the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples before experiencing the Passion of the Cross. It's easy, within the Christian-y context that I inhabit, to forget the reason why Jesus was gathering with his disciples in that particular moment.  Like a lot of Christians I tend to focus on the parts of the story that affect me, and as a result lose some of the rich meaning Jesus seemed to embed in each teaching moment with his followers. First of all, the occasion for the meal was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread --Passover.  This was a commemoration of the night when God freed the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and set them on the path to the Promised land.  On that night, the Angel of Death passed over the houses of all those who had taken the blood from the Paschal Lamb (sacrificial lamb) and smeared it on the doorposts. The bread, meat and all of ...

Yes, I am still preaching about money. And no, people haven't stopped coming to church. Although after last week's sermon on tithing, I might lose a couple. Listen, I saw the above bumper sticker in a restaurant on the bulletin board.  I went there to consume mass quantities of Italian food.  I ordered spaghetti and meatballs with extra meat balls.  The extra meat balls cost like a buck extra.  There were four of them--each the size of baseball. I got my money's worth and took about twenty minutes off of my life, too boot. Woot!  Anyway, back to the bumper sticker.  What do you think o that? Isn't that messed up? I mean, we just started climbing out of the worst recession since the Great Depression and the first thing on everyone's mind is... "Well, get back to spending!" Okay, okay.  I get it.  It's Capitalism.  But isn't that the thinking that started this whole mess--the belief that the acquisition and consumption of wealth ...