Master gardeners well understand that their plants, trees, and bushes need rest, nutrients, and time – and hungry growers also need their flora to produce fruit and vegetables. Both needs are true in the biology of horticulture – and so also in the discipleship of those who sow, tend, and water their faith. To flourishContinue reading “Rest and Growth: The Parable of the Fig Tree”
Author Archives: First Presbyterian Church
Faith and Works
Dr. David Moessner was one of the seminary professors who taught me the New Testament. Though he had the kind heart of a pastor, Dr. Moessner was nonetheless an intimating figure – not only because his scholarship was so rich but also because he read Scripture in its original Greek with the same ease thatContinue reading “Faith and Works”
Intention and Action
Chapters from the Gospel of Luke will be guiding our journey through Lent, beginning this morning with Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem and its Cross of Calvary. In reflecting on and wrestling with these Lukan scriptures, their common thread is the depth of Jesus’s relationships that disrupt the established social, political, and religious dividesContinue reading “Intention and Action”
‘Be Muzzled, Be Gone’
Demons and the stuff of unclean spirits play the villains in this morning’s Scripture lesson. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, we have an uneasy alliance with such sin and brokenness. We’ve grown quite comfortable naming the demons and unclean spirits in others, while demonstrating far less fortitude in wrestling with our own. ThanksContinue reading “‘Be Muzzled, Be Gone’”
A Costly Summons
If you accept the Lord’s invitation to follow him to the Cross of our upcoming season of Lent, then you must take the first steps of that long walk in precisely the same place that Jesus does. As I suggested a couple sermons ago, baptism begins the march of Christian faith, and you must startContinue reading “A Costly Summons”
Been There, Felt That
A seminary education conveys a certain practicality. A seminarian learns how to perform the rites and rituals of the Church like baptizing littles. And the initial guidance given to me was fundamental and rudimentary: Don’t forget to put water in the baptismal font. Don’t forget the child’s name. And don’t drop the baby. Now isContinue reading “Been There, Felt That”
Angels Attending
Somewhere along the journey of faith, too many of us get the mistaken notion that following Jesus somehow drapes our lives in an invisible cloak of spiritual bubble wrap that wards off all trial and tribulation. Actual experience proves otherwise: bad and evil things really do happen to good and faithful people. While surely weContinue reading “Angels Attending”
Hiding in Plain Sight
You need not be a parent to sense the horror of a losing a child. Whenever something precious is lost – as with Mary and Joseph and their 12-year-old son in this morning’s Scripture lesson, the anguish of the moment is soul-crushing torture; the guilty questions that follow weigh heavy upon the human spirit likeContinue reading “Hiding in Plain Sight”
Suffering Well
The sinister scene embraces the clickbait ingredients of a viral TikTok video. When the Wise Men from the East innocently ask him about the newborn King of the Jews, Herod’s blood pressure undoubtedly spikes. His Grinch-ly face starts turning beet red, and thick veins commence to popping in his neck. Then, as last Sunday’s ScriptureContinue reading “Suffering Well”
God’s Ideas
So often have we heard the Christmastime story about the coming of the Wise Men – and sung the time-honored carols about their intrepid following of a yonder star – that probably some can recite by heart the details of the Magi’s bold voyage across field and fountain, moor and mountain. But what we thinkContinue reading “God’s Ideas”