Sermons

Divine Healing

Lesson: Mark 1 :40-45

Last month when I was back home in Pittsburgh for Christmas, I was invited by my aunt to attend a worship service at a congregation which she has been recently attending. Attending my aunt’s church was a good experience for me because not only did I get to see my aunt and her family, but as a Presbyterian, I got to worship in a style that is different than how I normally worship. In this particular case, I was worshiping in a non-denominational contemporary church setting.

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Wings Like Eagles

Lesson: Isaiah 40:21-31

A colleague once told me he hoped to write a book someday called, “It Isn’t in the Bible.”  It would cover those quotations and words of wisdom that people believe are Scripture – but they aren’t.  Like, “God helps those who help themselves.”  Not in the Bible.  “To thine own self be true.”  That’s Shakespeare, not the Bible.”  “This, too, shall pass.”  “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”  Neither of those is in the Bible. Read more →

A New Teaching

Lessons: Psalm 111, Mark 1:21-28

Many people are excited that next week is Super Bowl Sunday.  Others of us know that what’s really exciting about next week is it’ll be only two more months until Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season.  In one of my favorite baseball movies, Bull Durham, Crash Davis, who’s been a catcher in the minor leagues for twelve years, is sent down from a triple-A team to an A-team to help train a very talented but very young, very green pitcher nicknamed “Nuke.”  Part of a catcher’s job is to know the batting records of the players on the other team.  The catcher then signals the pitcher what to pitch – a fast ball, a curve ball – whatever that batter is least likely to be able to hit.  In one of Nuke’s first games, Crash gives him the sign to throw a curve call.  Nuke shakes him off, which is what it’s called when a pitcher doesn’t want to do what the catcher signals.  Crash walks to the pitcher’s mound and asks Nuke why he’s shaking him off.  Nuke says he wants to bring the “heat” – throw a fastball.  He says he wants to announce his presence with authority.  Crash knows that the man at bat is a “first ball, fast ball hitter.”  But Nuke says this batter hasn’t seen his fast ball.  Crash goes back behind home plate and tells the batter to expect a fast ball.  The batter, knowing what’s coming, smacks the ball over the fence – a homerun.  And we figure out who has the authority on the team.[1]

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More Than a Whale of a Tale

Lesson: Jonah 3:1-10

My sister, who shares my from-a-distance fascination with the grocery store tabloids, informed me over Christmas that the Weekly World News has gone out of business.  Where will we now go to read that Hillary Clinton has adopted an alien baby or that Dick Cheney is a robot?  How will we keep up with the adventures of Bat Boy?  If you’re worshiping with us for the first time, I want to assure you – I promise you – I only read these headlines safely from the other side of the checkout counter – well, except for those few times I’ve used them in sermons.  But after all the times I’ve made fun of the tabloids, today we read from a story in the Bible that could have come straight off the cover of one of them.  “Man Survives Three Days in Belly of Giant Fish.”  There’d be a photo, of course – in black and white – a fish that looks suspiciously like a large-mouth bass blown up to look ten feet tall with a cheesy photo of a tiny bedraggled man superimposed next to it.  The article probably would say that scientists believe the fish is the product of a mutation caused by organic dairy products.

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Speak, Lord

Lesson: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

A phenomenon you encounter as a parent is the book or movie or TV show that looks as though it’s for kids, but it’s really for adults.  Sometimes it’s pretty obvious.  Tom Robbins’ alphabet book, B is for Beer, was not written for toddlers.  Sometimes it’s more subtle, if slightly more sinister.  We might feel like reading the book, Monsters Eat Whiny Children,[i]  to a fussy five-year-old, but in the long run, that’s probably not such good parenting.  Read more →

The Heartbeat of God

Lesson Luke 2:15-35

Today is officially the 8^th Day of Christmas, and it has been quite a week. We gathered together on Christmas Eve, many of us travelling long distances.  We celebrated Christmas Day.  And then last night, the hubbub of New Year’s Eve, with the big countdown, the ball descending inTimes Square, cheering in a New Year.

So here we are this morning, after all that.  And, friends, I hate to be the one to break the news, but – The party’s over.  Folks have headed home.  It’s the morning after – time to sweep the confetti up off the floor.

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A New Beginning

Lesson: John 1:1-14

John’s gospel  is not exactly the stuff of children’s pageants the world over.  No, John is more of a big, poetic thinker and though it may be difficult to tell exactly what he’s doing in this famous bit of writing, I can assure you it is no less wondrous and miraculous than the traditional nativity story. Read more →

While We’re Waiting — A Child is Born

Lessons: Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-20

I learned recently that the very first nativity scene was contructed by Francis of Assisi.  Theologian William Placher writes that when we think about God becoming human in Jesus Christ, we don’t think about theories of Incarnation but about the story.  Saint Francis understood this and so in 1223 he made a life-size replica of the baby in the manger, there in Assisi, Italy, so that the folks in the neighborhood could see the story with their own eyes.[i]  And of course, that’s why we have the Christmas pageant every year.  The kids not only hear the story; they participate in it.  Only a story can convey the poetry, the mystery, of something as mysterious and miraculous as Christmas.     Read more →

While We’re Waiting – Hold On To Hope

Blue Christmas Service

Lessons: Isaiah 40:1-5; Luke 2:1-20

My family watched the old movie, “White Christmas” the other night. It was the first time my ten-year-old son had seen it. If it’s been awhile since you’ve watched it, it begins with the characters played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kay as soldiers on the front lines in Europe, on Christmas Eve, 1944. Bing Crosby sings the song, “White Christmas” for the troops. The young soldiers, who had been rowdy and cheering a moment before, grow quiet, their eyes sparkling with tears. My son asked what was happening. I said, “Can you imagine being away from everything and everyone you love at Christmas, and on top of that, worried about whether you’re safe?” “They want to go home,” my son said. Read more →

While We’re Waiting – Lift up the Lowly