Over our two months of exploration, a couple major attractions should be overshadowing our walking tour of the Ten Commandments. What I hope first captures your attention are the positive aspects of the Commandments – the holy attitudes and loving behaviors that the Lord prefers and encourages. Those Words of Life, first given to MosesContinue reading “Sticky Fingers”
Author Archives: First Presbyterian Church
Wrestling with Erotic Energy
Moses should have asked for more. As he stood high atop Mount Sinai, dutifully noting Yah-Weh’s directives for faith and life, Moses should have asked the Lord for some more details about No. 7: “You shall not commit adultery.” Five words, period. End of sentence. And down the list the Lord moves on. A fewContinue reading “Wrestling with Erotic Energy”
From the Pastor: Looking Good at Age 167
Number Five is the sole Commandment to come with a promise: “If you honor your father and mother, ‘things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.’” (Ephesians 6:3) We must be doing a good job of honoring our givers of life, because indeed things are going well.Continue reading “From the Pastor: Looking Good at Age 167”
Too Few Are Noticing
A death with dignity and compassion it was not. Those pieces still recognizable as a cricket lay bottom side up. The missing parts, presumedly, composed the linear slick of black goo scuffing the gray floor, on the shoulder of the steel-blue track at the Wellness Center. Passers-by the deathly scene included countless walkers and runners,Continue reading “Too Few Are Noticing”
Multitasking: Really, just stop it!
Earlier this year, the writer Oliver Berkman teetered on the brink of feeling overwhelmed by life – its responsibilities, its expectations, its demands. Inflicting the emotional low blow was the ambient anxiety that comes as a standard feature of life these days. So, in an effort to restore some measure of his sanity, Mr.Continue reading “Multitasking: Really, just stop it!”
Honor Your Parents
A lunchroom filled with schoolchildren raises the curtain on a familiar cast of characters. Perhaps most immediately: The Spillers and Wasters, the Yellers and Screamers, the Wigglers and the Jigglers – each as equally aggravating as the next, but nevertheless shaped and sized uniquely in the image of the God who made them. Continue reading “Honor Your Parents”
Keep the Lord’s Day Special
If you fancy yourself a would-be author, let me suggest a topic for a definite New York Times best-seller. You’ll be working the crowded neighborhood at the intersection of Self-help Street and Spirituality Avenue. Your topic is flung far afield across disciplines – the healing arts, physical and natural sciences, psychology and sociology. YourContinue reading “Keep the Lord’s Day Special”
Take Not in Vain
Unless you live in a monastery or convent, you don’t have to listen too hard these days to hear God’s third commandment take quite a verbal beating. Plenty of folks don’t even break a sweat when casually invoking God’s name to make themselves look more trustworthy or electable, even though they oftentimes are actuallyContinue reading “Take Not in Vain”
No Graven Images
Within the ancient words of the Old Testament dwell 613 commandments regulating everything from soup to nuts. And we’re exploring the first 10 – through the lens of the New Testament’s greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself – asContinue reading “No Graven Images”
No Other Gods before Me
Over the years, I’ve preached sermon series on any number of themes, but for no reason in particular, the one topic I haven’t touched in depth is the Ten Commandments. So, for the next 10-or-so weeks, we’re going to be unpacking that list of do’s and don’ts – given by God to Moses, aContinue reading “No Other Gods before Me”