Presby-Musings

"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him." - Matthew 9:9 When Jesus called Matthew to be one of the twelve disciples, he was really stretching the good will of the other eleven.  Matthew was a tax collector, which meant that he took advantage of his own people in order to line his pockets.  And worse yet, Matthew was one of the tax collectors who set up on the docks and taxed the fishermen who were coming in from fishing all night.  Since most of Jesus' followers were fisherman, they probably already knew and couldn't stand Matthew.   But Jesus called Matthew to follow him, and it says in the text that Matthew simply got up and followed.  He left behind his booth, his livelihood, and his old life, and embraced a new way of living and a new set of traveling companions.  That text tells me that Matthew must have been longing for ...

This week we are concluding a short two-part sermon series entitled 30 Days To Live.  The basic premise behind this series is to come face-to-face with what it means to live a full and purposeful life.  The fact that we couched it in kind of morbid terms doesn't mean it's meant to be depressing, however.  I am sure that some of you came in here today kind of dreading what we were going to talk about.  I hope that if you were here last week, though, that you would kind of give those who weren't an encouraging nod.  Let them know that it's all right.  They need to be filled with confidence that they won't walk out of here feeling blue.   BUT... we do want to wrestle with a fairly serious question.  What WOULD you do if you were told you only had 30 days to live?  Would you live with more intensity?  Would you be intentional with every moment that you had?  Of course you would.   So why is it that we are so afraid to live...

Today is Palm Sunday --the Sunday before Easter, the day when we celebrate the beginning of Holy Week with the waving of palms, singing of songs, and other assorted awesomeness. This is the Sunday--before the  Sunday.  The moment before the moment. Did you know that the moment before the moment is the most important moment? When I say the moment before the moment, I mean the moment before the great moment --the moment of decision, the moment of destiny, the moment that always seems to get all the attention But it's the moment before the moment that's actually the most important---moment. Think about it. Remember the first time you went on the high dive at the pool?  You climbed up that ladder that seemed like it went to heaven.  Then you stood there at the end of that diving board, barely able to walk.  But you did--you stepped forward and then stood there at the end of it looking down.  And then you took a breath. That moment--the moment...

All throughout the month of November I'll be preaching a sermon series entitled, "Attitude of Gratitude," which is pretty timely considering by the time we finish the series, it will be time for Thanksgiving.   You're Welcome .  That's how I roll. What we learned the last time that we gathered together (I was out for a week with a busted mouth) was that there is evidence of God 's grace, blessings and favor all around us --if we are willing to see it.  In fact, we also learned that the every breath we take is a prayer of thanksgiving to God--as we say his name (Yahweh) each time we breathe in and out.  Which led us to say this... When you finally realize all that God has done for you, the only true response is gratitude.   I wanted to take things a step further this week.  We started pretty far out in the universe with the first sermon in this series--echoing the question that the Psalmist proclaimed: "When I consider the heavens... the moon and...

This week at my church we’ll be celebrating “Baptism of Our Lord” Sunday, or as it is also known, “The First Sunday After Epiphany.”  Actually, it’s not ever really known as “The First Sunday After Epiphany,” but since next Sunday is the “Second Sunday After Epiphany,” I just assumed we could do that sort of thing.  I hope I don’t upset any official church people, and get an official letter of reprimand from the official magisterium of whatever.. I lied.  I really hope I do.  That would be cool to frame and put on my wall. We are, in fact, studying a passage of Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew that tells one of the accounts (there are four) of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist .  Baptism is one of the two sacraments that us Protestant-types celebrate in the Church, the other being the Lord’s Supper .  Catholics have seven or something like that, which is kind of cool, but definitely more complicated. The reason why we have named this m...

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 ...

This sermon will be the very first preached at Radiant - a new worship gathering for young adults that is being launched by my church on August 26th...  I've attended thousands of church services in hundreds of churches, listened to more than my share of youth talks, Sunday school lessons and whatnot, not to mention all of the chapel services I attended at the Christian schools I went to, and I can't even begin to tell you how many of them included a moment where the pastor or preacher would preface whatever they were about to tell me with these words... "The Bible says..." The trouble with beginning our conversations about faith, God , Jesus and Christianity with those words is that they have a way of coming back on us.  "The Bible says..." a lot of things.  And one thing I've discovered over the years is that not many Christians I know came to know Jesus because they were blown away by the words, "The Bible says..." Now, don'...