Sermons
Learning from Naaman . . . no swimming required!
I am playing catch up again, which is always frustrating, but then again, if I don’t play catch up . . . I’ll still be behind! So this post is for the first Sunday of July, i.e. a month ago [sigh]. This sermon, and there is only one sermon for this post on which more later, is drawn from the story of Naaman. Naaman, a very important military leader for…
Some thoughts on being afraid
I am occasionally afraid. I think that virtually everyone finds themselves in that state at least now and then. Frequently what makes us afraid is something that is just ridiculous but often we are made afraid by something that is frightening. A car careening toward you is something that should make you afraid; the dark, probably not so much. The challenges is drawing a proper distinction between what makes you…
Paradoxes
Paradox: A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. (google.ca) I don’t care for paradoxes for all kinds of reasons. There are some people who suggest that paradoxes are “impossible,” i.e. a paradox is a trick of language, restate it properly and the paradox disappears. Others say that a paradox is a cop out and if you…
Miracles? Still?
There is something about the very notion of the miraculous that offends most modern sensibilities. We think that a miracle is something from another, ruder, more credulous, age. Or we try to get around it by saying that “everything” is a miracle, thus, nothing is. I’m not going to try to explain everything here, but if you listen to one or the other of these sermons I hope you will…
Who knows what God can do?
Who would be so bold as to take up valuable preaching time with such a peculiar question as this one: Who knows what God can do? Well, as it turns out, me. I don’t know that I would call it boldness but rather a response to the texts. It took me quite a bit of the week to finally nail down what I thought I needed to talk about but…
The Trinity . . . so what?
Trinity Sunday is one of the few Sundays of the year where a preacher might be forgiven for preaching a heavy, doctrinal sermon. Believe it or not, there is something rather attractive about really digging in and laying out a good 45 minutes of careful reasoning and exposition. The problem is that, no matter how much we might say that we preach to ourselves and let others listen, we really…
Pentecost! Gifts and fruit and tongues, oh my
Well today (and by “today” I mean the day I preached the sermons below) is the birthday of the church: Pentecost. It seems strange that we have such an unequivocal beginning. The strange thing is that the direction I took with the Lectionary texts was to address an old, old fight that isn’t even on the radar in most Presbyterian churches and especially not in the Presbyterian churches I preach…
Not a Mother’s Day sermon
Ah Mother’s Day. I give ground to no one in my appreciation for my own mother, mother-in-law and step-mother to say nothing of the mother of my children! I love them all. I am amazed at how capable, creative and wonderful they are. I wish them, and all mothers, nothing but the best on this day that is set aside for them. However, I did not find a natural connection…
Vision, everybody wants one and everybody has one
It seems rather ironic that after having to put up with all sorts of irritating travel problems I missed last Sunday simply due to a temporary and minor illness . . . [sigh] but I’m back this week and hoping to not miss for a long time! This Sunday I wanted to spend some time thinking and talking about what it might mean to have a vision, and “back doored”…
Some more (last, I think) thoughts about sheep
What a peculiar Sunday this turned out to be, at least as far as preaching goes. If you have any reason to go to the Service Info page with any regularity (https://sites.google.com/a/holtslander.com/knoxstmarks/home/service-info-year-c-2012-2013) you were probably shocked a week or so ago when you saw that I had a sermon title, “Are they all sheep?” up more than a week in advance of the Sunday involved. This is very unusual for…