Presby-Musings

This week I'll be continuing the sermon series "The Way of The Cross: Following Christ On the Lenten Path."     Each week we'll be exploring one of the core values of our church as a Lenten practice, a spiritual discipline that we can take up --both as individuals and as a community.  The story is told about a small, country church where the pastor called a special meeting of the congregation to approve the purchase of a brand new chandelier. After some discussion pro and con, an old farmer stood up and said, "Buying a new chandelier may seem like a good idea to you, but I’m against it for three reasons. First of all, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford one. Second, there isn’t anybody around here who knows how to play one. And third, what we really need in this church is a new light fixture." Sometimes in our life together as a Jesus-following community we find ourselves in disagreement with one another, but if we dig just a bit deeper below the...

I just got a new iWatch--one of the newest ones that we ordered for my birthday.  It's pretty cool, I have to admit.   When we ordered my watch some weeks ago, we were still in Florida and driving to Orlando to meet some friends for dinner.  When we were told that it wouldn't be able to be delivered until the second week of December, we had it sent to the Apple store near where we knew we would be living in Texas.  I picked it up yesterday at a mall in Austin.   It's amazing to me that the world has gotten so flat, and that we have the ability and opportunity to be so connected to one another.  I was reminded this morning of the words of Shakespeare from the Tempest :  "O brave new world..."   The world has gotten flatter, to be sure, but we're now dealing with a new set of issues.   Singer/songwriter Michael David Rosenberg (known more widely as "Passenger") recently wrote, "We should stare at the stars and not just the screens/ You...