Presby-Musings

This is the fourth and final week of the most challenging sermon series I have ever preached.  It seems fitting that we would end it with a sermon on a grace-filled response to the issue of True Religion . I discovered a couple of years ago to my amusement, and slight dismay, that there is actually a clothing company called "True Religion."  This is an ironic fact, considering how Consumerism and Materialism have become neo-religions in and of themselves complete with temples, (malls), vestments (fashion/clothes), priests (designers/marketers), missionaries (stars/artists) and adherents (consumers). That, my friends, is an entirely different sort of sermon. What I am proposing today, however, is that our culture is at an existential crossroads when it comes religion itself.  In our increasingly connected and diverse society, it is impossible to ignore our neighbors and co-workers who might practice a different faith than our own.  This collision of theology a...

In the first installment of the sermon series that I am currently preaching, entitled " Hot Button : Grace-Filled Responses To the Things That Divide Us," I preached on Abortion. I was fairly certain that it was the most difficult and challenging sermon that I had ever preached. Until this one. The official title of this sermon is: "Being Human: A Grace-Filled Response to Issues of Sexuality ."  I should have renamed it: "What the (Bleep) was I Thinking?"   Seriously.  Who preaches on sexuality?  Willingly. Christians usually don't talk about these issues on Sunday morning---or at all.  Unless, of course, they are condemning someone for sexual sin or protesting too much over their proclivity of choice so that no one will ever wonder whether they themselves are sinning up a storm. We need to talk about sexuality, though.  And we need to do it in church regardless of how difficult it is to do so.  You see, if we can't learn to find grace-...

This week I'll be continuing the sermon series entitled, " Hot Button : Grace Filled Responses to the Things That Divide Us."  The premise behind this sermon series was to actually talk about some of the more difficult and divisive issues in our culture, and to do it through a Biblical lens, with a whole lot of grace. As I said last week, I need a lot of work in this area, just as much as anyone else I suppose.  I am also aware that not everything I say will be received with the same grace within which I am hopefully offering it. Herein lies the dilemma for most preachers:  Say what God has laid on your heart to say, and surrender the outcome, or keep sticking your finger in the air to test the winds of disquiet that might be blowing from that one person who probably doesn't like you anyway and will take half of what you said out of context, and misrepresent it. So, to all those preachers who are tired of walking around like a human weather vane I have this to...

When I announced that I would be preaching a sermon series on some culturally relevant issues that divide us, a few people who I know and trust asked me if I had gone mad. Admittedly, preachers usually don't preach on issues like Abortion , True Religion , the Environment and Sexuality unless they are fairly certain about the outcomes of their sermons.  To put this another way, they will only preach on these kinds of things when they know that virtually everyone (or at least the biggest donors) in the congregation will agree with what they have to say. Some call this "preaching to the choir." The trouble is, choirs are typically full of people with differing views on these and many other issues.  And you don't want to make the choir mad.  Trust me. "Why would you willingly preach on this stuff?" someone asked me recently. "Because I feel like I am supposed to," I replied. "Better you than me," they said. So why is it th...