Presby-Musings

This week I will be concluding the sermon series that I've been working on with my congregation for the past few weeks: In The Meantime: Living the Christian Life in A Time of Uncertainty.  This study of the book of Habakkuk has been a timely one.  The past few months have been filled with a lot of uncertainty in our world and in our community.  Lately, I have had more conversations with people who are struggling with issues of faith, doubt, fear, loss, you name it. Habakkuk is a book that was written for faithful people in any time or place who find themselves living in the meantime between redemption and fulfillment. Habakkuk was a prophet who went to God with some serious questions about God's motives and actions.  He wanted redemption.  He wanted things to go back to the way they were when people were worshiping God faithfully, justice reigned and all was right with the world. Who doesn't want that?  I want that about a thousand times a day. ...

In 2006 a judge in New York granted Jose Luis Espinal's request that his name be changed to Jesus Christ. Espinal stated that his reason for wanting the name change was simple:  He wanted his name to match who he really believed he was on the inside.  Since he firmly believed that he was living like Jesus Christ, acting like Jesus Christ, thinking like Jesus Christ and speaking like Jesus Christ, he felt his name should be Jesus Christ.  There's kind of a perverse logic there...but there's a problem. He isn't Jesus Christ.  Several years ago a story broke in the news about a man named Werner "Jack" Genot, a politician in a small town, who was also a war hero.  Genot had dozens of medals, a couple of Purple Hearts, citations, and awards.  He had several uniforms he wore to special occasions that were festooned with his medals and ribbons.  He was honored on Veterans Day events, was a regular speaker at patriotic programs and easily won elections...

This Sunday I'll be continuing the sermon series that I'm preaching on the book of Habakkuk entitled "In the Meantime."  This week we'll be focusing on Habakkuk 2:4,  the key verse for the book---a verse that is used by the Apostle Paul to help Christians understand their new life in Christ.  Before I dig into the Scripture I need to share something first so that we can all get on the same page.  This is what educators would call "getting into learning mode." I read a story this year about a group of IT workers in a New York business who always pooled their money and bought Mega Millions New York State Lottery tickets together.  There were eight workers altogether, and they'd been buying tickets faithfully for a long time.  It seems that one of the group decided that he wasn't going to participate on one particular week.  When his buddies asked him why he didn't want to kick in for a ticket, he told them "I don't feel lucky thi...

This week I am continuing my sermon series on the prophetic book of Habakkuk.  I continue to be amazed at how much these sermons have been speaking right into situations that I have been going through, people in my congregation are experiencing and what is going on in the world around us. God is good.  And this book for faithful people living in the meantime is "rolling up on us." There.  I used an urban reference to establish my street credentials.  Don't hate the player, hate the game. This particular sermon deals with some fairly serious issues for those of us who really want to believe in God.  One of the biggest obstacles that people claim keeps them from believing in and/or being in a relationship with God is their belief that God really isn't good.  Here's a question for most of us...             "Have you ever wondered if God's plans were really on target?"  Or maybe you thought...

This week I will be picking up where I left off on the sermon series I was preaching on the book of Habakkuk . Since I've been gone for three weeks, I am going to have to spend a little time refreshing everyone's memory on what exactly we've been talking about, but that's all good. In this space, just suffice it to say that Habakkuk is a book for faithful people in any time or place who find themselves living in the meantime: between redemption and fulfillment.  It's a book for uncertain times. In the previous sermon we talked about how Habakkuk shouted at God, demanding that God do something to deal with the injustice the prophet was seeing all around him. This week we are going to be taking a long, and difficult look at God's answer in Habakkuk 1:5-11.  Here's what God has to say to Habakkuk: 5 “Look at the nations and watch— 
   and be utterly amazed. 
For I am going to do something in your days 
   that you would not believe, 
  ...

There is a myth about Christianity that is perpetuated despite all of the evidence to the contrary.  that myth is simply this: When you trust Jesus, your problems fade.  Maybe this myth was conveyed to you at some point in time.  Lots of Christians try to use this as a selling point for non-Christians so they'll start following Jesus. There are even some Christians who try to put their head in the sand about their problems because they've been taught they shouldn't have any if they really trust in God.  Others try to tell you that if you have problems it's because you don't have a close enough walk with Jesus.  Recently at one of the  Lifetree Cafe programs that our church hosts, we heard the story of a woman who was told by her pastor that the reason her son was born with Downs Syndrome was because she had sinned. The fact of the matter is that we all face problems of one sort or another.  We live in uncertain times, and as we learned last we...

This week I am beginning a new sermon series on the Old Testament book of Habakkuk .  I have wanted to do a sermon series on Habakkuk since I was a seminary student and I saw this statue on the right when I was on a trip to Italy: This statue was created by Donatello in the 15th Century, and is affectionately known as Lo Zuccone, "The Bald One ." When I saw this statue, I was able to walk up to it and stare the prophet in the face.  Donatello's vision of Habakkuk is not rooted in any sort of Biblical evidence, but there's just something about it that struck my imagination.  The prophet looks as though he has seen something, and whatever he has seen has changed him.  His mouth is open, his eyes are wild and he is ready to speak.  To deliver the burden that he has been given to bear.  "The Burden" is the title of my first sermon from the book of Habakkuk.  The "burden" in question is the prophecy that the prophet received, but I'll get to th...