Presby-Musings

This week we are continuing the sermon series that we started last Sunday--a Sunday that happened to be the  Sunday of Sundays in the Christian calendar .  We celebrated Easter with style last week.  For the second year in a row we had over 800 people experience worship at First Church.   At our casual service, the Crossing we had 100 more people in the room than we did last year.  Everyone dressed up, wore hats and looked awesome.  Families came en masse, some of them even brought their wayward Uncle Larry, who never goes to church.  And now it's the Sunday after the Sunday.  Most of the snowbirds are gone.  Uncle Larry isn't here.  It's just us.   Easter is over.  Jesus is risen.  Now what?   This feeling that we have today is not unlike what the disciples of Jesus felt after his resurrection.  There was joy at first, then elation, then unbelievable purpose and then he left.  Jesus appeared ...

This Sunday is the final installment of the sermon series that we've been working on for the past several weeks--a sermon series entitled, "The Core."  This sermon series has been a re-exploration of the core values of our church--what we call the Five Things: Worship, Pray, Grow, Love and Serve. Throughout this sermon series our conversations have been shaped by one very important truth: "We are made of what we value."  And, as we've discovered, this is more than just a metaphor, it's quite literal, in fact. At the very core of our being we are made up of trillions of atoms that are constantly exchanging energy with other things and other people.  Those of us who are Christians say that the energy between us, around us, in us and through us is stamped with the very DNA of God , and is fueled by God-energy that we call the Holy Spirit . And at this level of being---there's a load of mystery.  Science can't explain everything as it turns ...

This Sunday is Palm Sunday , the beginning of Holy Week .  At our church we'll be celebrating this special day by singing hymns and praise songs at the top of our lungs while children run around our church waving palm branches. Christians know how to party. The story that we essentially reenact every Palm Sunday is found in each of the Gospel accounts.  This week we'll be studying Matthew's version, which is found in Matthew 21:1 -11. Before we open up the text and start reading this story--a story that is often called "The Triumphal Entry" of Jesus into Jerusalem --I need to tell you about a "triumphal procession" that took place before this one. It was initiated by none other than Pontius Pilate himself--the Roman governor of the region.  At each of the major feast days in Jerusalem, Pilate would process with his soldiers from his headquarters at Caesarea Maritima on the coast, across the Judean wilderness and into Jerusalem. Pilate's...

This week I am continuing the sermon series that I've been working on with my church for the past several weeks--a sermon series entitled "One Way?"  Throughout this sermon series we've been discussing how followers of Jesus can demonstrate with their lives all the ways that Jesus is the way to God . We're doing something a bit differently this week.  I'm starting off by diving straight into the text.  As I teach, however, I want everyone to hold on this one big idea, which is going to loom large for us as we dig into the story: Jesus is the One Way to God that shows us what God is really like.   Let's get moving--we've got a lot of ground to cover. This is the story of how Jesus raised a man named Lazarus from the dead.  The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead only appears in the Gospel of John . In Luke's Gospel Jesus tells a parable about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, who die and go to opposite  places, if you kn...

This week I am concluding the sermon series, "Big Church," which has been both a study in the book of Acts and a vision for the way the Church should be in the world. I admit that I write that last bit with a certain amount of confidence, which might be interpreted by some as presumptuous.  "Who are you," they might ask, "to determine how the Church should be in the world?  What are your qualifications?  What right do you have to speak for the rest of us?" Or something to that effect. I don't have the right to speak for anyone, honestly.  I'm simply a pastor of a medium-sized church in a small town in the middle of Florida.  It takes me forty minutes to find a Whole Foods Market , or a proper Starbucks.  My platform isn't very large, and I have no national audience to speak of. But for the past several years something has been stirring in my heart, and as I read the story of the Church in Scripture I begin to catch glimpses of what ma...

It seems that at least once a week the leadership of my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA)  seems to find itself in the middle of controversy. The latest is a continuation of a long line of what have been characterized as "anti-Israel" stances that at least one wing of the General Assembly Council has chosen to take. Here is the story reported from an Israeli point of view: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152904#.T1S_k3LOy_Y Listen, I know that there is plenty of blame to go around in the Middle East .   But I've been to Israel.  I've talked to Israelis and Palestinians.  I've seen first hand the close proximity of neighboring Muslim countries there who would like nothing more than to see Israel overrun.  I've also seen the Israeli settlements that are being built as fast as possible in areas where the "ownership" of the land is disputed.  I know that even among many Israeli's these are unpopular. But I've ...