Presby-Musings

Today we're going to be continuing the sermon series, "The Messenger," a study in the book of Malachi.  This series is preparing us for the coming season of Advent Today we're going to be focusing on one of the many prophetic words that the prophet Malachi offered to the people of Israel.  And in this one, the prophet really doesn't pull any punches.   He tells the people that they have been robbing God by their lack of generosity.  And, not surprisingly, they wonder how that could possibly be...   More on that in a bit.   When I was a kid, I was taught that you were supposed to tithe back to God 10% of all the money you earned. So, if I earned a dollar, I owed God ten cents.   There was a time when I would get really excited about giving my tithe. I would drop my coins into the offering plate, slowly... letting them hit and make a lot of noise.   But the older I got, I started thinking to myself: "10% se...

Today we are continuing the sermon series "The Messenger," a series based on the Old Testament prophecies of Malachi---the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures.   
The name Malachi actually means "my messenger."   
The role of the prophet in ancient Israel was a dangerous one--especially if what you were prophesying was unpopular.  And the message that Malachi had for the Hebrew people was a hard one to hear.   
Times had become challenging for the Hebrew people, and their commitment to God had taken a hit.  The prophet calls the Hebrew people out on their lack of commitment in the second chapter of Malachi, which will be the focus of our study today.   
But first, I want to share something with you that I think might help us prepare to learn together today.  
I've learned over the years that most of my biggest regrets have been due to a lack of commitment on my part.  Let me explain.   
When I was in hi...

This week I am concluding the sermon series that I've been working on for the past four weeks:  "Balanced: Gaining and Maintaining Financial Stability."  I have always had a hunch that whenever I have preached on money there are some folks who make the conscious decision to stay away from church.  That got confirmed this week after I heard one of my parishoners told her friends that she wasn't going to attend church during this sermon series.  This was personally kind of icky for me, but honestly I am not surprised. I am sure that there are lots of ways that people might want to parse it, but in my mind there's pretty much only one reason why Christians don't want to hear sermons on money and how it affects our relationship with God:  Guilt.  Those of us who call ourselves Christians don't want to hear what the Bible has to say about money because we prefer our relationship with God to be separate from our relationship with our cash. The truth of the...

When I planned my sermons for the summer a few months ago, I didn't realize that the day I elected to preach a sermon to "men only" would be Father's Day.  Coincidence?  I think not. God has a way of showing off when it comes to that kind of thing, though.  At any rate, I started my journey toward the sermon this week by thinking about manhood.  More specifically, I thought about what sort of cultural messages that men receive about what it means to be a "real man." This is my man card. If my manhood gets called into question (unlikely) I can produce this card and reveal to the world that I am a card carrying man.  Because I have the Man Card iPhone application for my phone, I also have the power to revoke another man's Man Card if he says something like, "I really liked 'The Notebook.'" or "I just knitted a sweater."  I kid. Do you know what question men get asked more than any other question?  It's not ...

This Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent. If you were paying attention last week, we talked about how the word Advent means "expectation" and how our expectations should be pretty high this year.  If you weren't paying attention... grace abounds, and so does the definition of Advent. Our expectations should be high because things have been pretty icky for a while.  There's this whole war thing going on, and oh yeah... the world economy took a huge bite out of the crap burger this year.  Not to mention that Michael Jackson died, so there's that, too. We could use a lift. I'm expecting one.  I think that God is still in the miracle business.  I think that joy is coming and I choose to believe that peace is going to happen.  I also want to straight up claim some joy and some love, too.  Can I get an "Amen?"  I want so desperately for the Church, the Body of Christ to believe the same thing--that God is still in the business of performing...

I am continuing my sermon series on Money this week. And I will be preaching on tithing. First, I need to say this. The word tithe comes from the word "tenth."  So when I talk about "tithing" I talk about the regular giving of one/tenth of one's income to God. Just so we're clear. People don't like to hear sermons on tithing, I've learned. Because most of them don't... you know, tithe.  Some Christians (generally the ones who as I mentioned earlier don't tithe) like to say things like, "Well, Jesus didn't say anything about tithing!" or (if they are really pompous and learned) "Tithing is simply not part of the New Covenant."  That last bit is a Christianese way of saying the first thing. And both things are bushwah, by the way---which is another way of saying "cha-ra," which is the Hebrew way of saying "crap." There are some people who get all hoity-toity (untranslatable in any lang...