Presby-Musings

Some years ago, I read that ancient Jewish rabbis believed the reason God did not give the Ten Commandments to the Hebrew people before he parted the Red Sea and rescued them from the Egyptian army was because God didn't want their keeping them to be conditional.   The ancient rabbis surmised that if God had given the Commandments  then  saved the children of Israel, they would have kept the laws out of duty, rather than love.   In other words, God wanted the Hebrew people to keep the Commandments because they remembered all that God had done for them over the years.  God wanted them to keep the Commandments because they  trusted  and loved  God, and knew that God had their best interests at heart, not because they felt they had to .   I think far too many of us live our lives praying that God will "show up" and reveal Godself to us in miraculous ways, in dramatic rescue, and inspirational moments.  And we often will say things...

Courage.  I always liked how the Cowardly Lion said that word. "Currrage!"   There aren't too many moments in my life when I get to exhibit courage.  My courageous moments are more ordinary--everyday courage, if you will.  Like that time this woman tried to cut in front of of my family and I at Walt Disney World when we were waiting in line for Peter Pan.  "Hey!" I barked at her. "The end of the line is back there!"  "Oh really?" she said trying to act dumb and not moving.  "Really." I said and sort of shuffled around to block her way.  She mumbled curse words or something at me and went to the back of the line.  I was a hero to like eight people. It felt awesome.  Or the time I was called by a telemarketer at dinner.  "Seriously?" I exclaimed over the phone.  "You are seriously trying to call and sell me something over the phone a DINNERTIME?" Then I hung the phone up with a bang. B...

Years ago I attended a Presbyterian minister 's conference for the express purpose of hearing Walter Brueggemann teach.  He was the featured speaker at the conference---or should I say he was supposed  to be the featured speaker.  I can't remember exactly why he couldn't make it at the last minute, but I do remember being fairly bummed about it.  You simply don't get too many chances to sit at the feet of one of the most esteemed Old Testament scholars in the world, after all. Brueggemann's work has in alternately inspired and convicted me whenever I've had the opportunity to study it. My personal library is stocked with more than a few of his books.  But I have to say that his latest, Sabbath As Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now  has had the most personal impact on my life. This short study of the Fourth Commandment is, in my opinion, the perfect Christian counterpart to Rabbi Abraham Heschel 's seminal work The Sabbath.   Bru...

This week I am going to be preaching on Sabbath as part of the " iLife " sermon series. Whenever I think of the word "Sabbath," I think of lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon after a huge meal with football on the television, and the knowledge that I will soon be sleeping. I'm pretty sure that over half of the people who come to church on Sunday have a nap in their future.  Some of my parishoners don't wait until they get home to start their nap---they just catch forty winks right there in their pew. I can see them.  I don't think they know that.  In my last church there was an elderly lady who would come to church and would sleep through half of the service, but very nearly all of my sermon.  Without fail, she would leave, shake my hand and tell me what a good sermon I preached. Remember when things were "closed on Sunday?"  I am old enough to remember these things.  You didn't just pop in to the store on Sunday after church...

This week I am launching a new sermon series, " Family Values : Rediscovering What's Really Important."  The idea is pretty simple... Our culture has become marked by anxiety.  There is no way to escape the deluge of bad news that just seems to permeate the air around us.  Some blame it on the recent 24-hour news cycle that was once a phenomenon, and is now just the status quo.  Others blame it on the immediacy of information from cable TV, the internet, smart phones and social media. There is the passage of Scripture from Psalm 85 where the psalmist extols the virtues of those who are walking in pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem with the blessings of God all around them.  "They move from strength to strength," he writes.  Strength to strength... that sounds beautiful doesn't it? Unfortunately, I think that most of the people in our culture move from fear to fear.  We move from being anxious about terrorism to being anxious about war....