Presbymom

PicStitch Hebrews 2:10-18 As we sit here nestled between Christmas Day and the start of the New Year, we are surrounded by memories. They may form a pretty collage or they may be jagged at the edges torn in half to delete a person, or with some blacked out faces or places we would rather forget. In the age of computers, that is the joy of apps such as pic stitch. With this app, on the fly, I can sort through the photos taken on my phone, make my image skinnier, prettier, bigger or smaller and blot out that ex or the person photo bombing my favorite picture deleting the unwanted background or person from a shot that was supposed to show special time with a best friend. Magazines and media review the year in pictures. We review highlights and biggest news events and look forward with hope of what is next. Even though we are still in the season of Christmas, Christians quickly move past the baby in the manger. As Theologian Johnny Hill puts it we have shifted our attention from...

Christmas Eve Sermon on Luke 2:1-20 I think it took maybe 5 minutes before there was a knock on my door after turning in today’s sermon title. Ever careful, our church secretary Carol wanted to just make sure that I really meant it when I put the sermon title down as Xmas instead of spelling Christmas out. Rightly so, she wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing printing the title this way. Yes, it is on purpose! With a husband who works retail, I am very aware of the retail side of Christmas. This year has been especially interesting watching the news and social media grab the argument and embrace the season in a so-called War on Christmas. News channels debate the reason for the season, comedians have a heyday picking apart their words, televangelists and even politicians – maybe especially politicians - all want to have their say on the importance of Christ and not letting our secular society heist the season and leave out Christ. Rachel Held Evans notes that pe...

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 I find it intriguing that the lectionary texts this year all seem to elcit the responses from my study group of: "Oh no not that one!" or "That text is so misused." What is it about this particular set of scripture that is tempting to 'misuse'? Today's text is a letter to the Thessalonians about the community and imitating the example of the disciples who started the church. It exhorts us to be willing to work for it has been heard that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies. Those who are not willing to work it continues, should not eat. In the current era in America, this is used to belitle plans such as Obamacare, assistance such as food stamps and an array of other services. Others are quick to rationalize or latch on to the term 'willing'. They may be willing but unable at this time to do work or to find work. However, in doing this, we miss the point. The misuse is applying scripture to judge eve...

Luke 17:5-10 Following a passage where they are brought to task to rebuke those who sin, and then to forgive them if they repent. Okay - but then how often? We are admonished that 7 times  a day isn't too much. C'mon isn't that  bit much? Even the apostles must have thought so because that is where verse 5 begins. 'Add faith to us' ask the apostles - if you expect THIS of us. Jesus' response at first glance sounds like another rebuke, and yet it is not. He says - 'If you have faith of a grain of mustard' you would have asked this, and it would have happened. And this isn't a hopeful 'if only you could have had enough faith'. The intent behind these Greek words in this type conditional statement is that - yes, you do have this faith! And that faith is enough. In these verses, Jesus is telling us that we are powerful enough. Matthew and Mark would have us move a mountian with our faith, and for Luke it is just a tree. However, watchin...

Luke 16:19-31 Luke has grabbed us by the throats and refuses to let go with the texts from last week and this (last week was Luke 16:1-13) We are being called once again to justice. Rather than leaving it alone, we are being pushed a little more and a little harder to look honestly at ourselves and the role we play in life. How do we make money decisions and what are we controlled by in our daily lives? The rich man walks past Lazarus every day yet does nothing. Do we have to do works for salvation? My whole tradition says that it is by grace alone that I am saved. And yet, how can we claim that grace if we do not recognize and embrace our connectedness. What exactly are all of the structures for government and for non-profit aid we have set in place for if not justice? Let's begin with a definition of the word. According to the Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, justice is the concept of each person receiveing what is due with a Biblical emphasis on right relations...

Luke 8:26-39 What a ridiculous tale of demons asking to be thrust into pigs? How can we possibly relate to this scripture in modern times? I am not as quick to doubt the existance of demons as I once was because of people whom I respect reporting interactions and exorcisms. However, I do remain skeptical. This is not something that I have any experience with in my world today. What in the world can I pick up and carry as the lesson learned from this scripture? I start by backing up and looking at where this lesson fits in the overall gospel of Luke. Luke had very definitive things to say about the authority and power of Jesus. At a quick glimpse, the hint of Legion as a name seems to imply that even the all-powerful Romans weren't enough to overcome Jesus. Perhaps a little tongue-in-check political commentary that they are pigs? But setting that aside, the most pressing issue for me here is the value of the individual. Jesus doesn't turn aside from this man who has bee...

Romans 5:1-5 How dare a scripture on endurance and suffering - one of being tempered in a pit of suffering and fire if you will - begin with words of peace and grace and conclude with love and hope? Yesterday, businesses and schools in my Texas hometown were a bit frantic and paranoid over a basic thunderstorm, and rightly so. The disasters of Oklahoma tornadoes earlier this week and the national disasters of the past few months have been more than enough to make anyone wonder where is God in all of this. But isn't that exactly where God is? In our wondering and searching and even shaking of our fists in anger. Isn't that where God is? Right beside us. But that is so hard to see for the person who lost a loved one, the person who has nothing left, the person who is unemployed and has a family looking to them for support. How do I keep my faith through evil, disaster and the misfortunes of life? Where do I see God outside of my meditations and reading - real life? Wher...

Romans 8:12-17 Acts 2:1-21 The Holy Spirit rightly plays a dominant role in our Pentecost traditions. This advocate that we have been sent is appealing and yet elusive. We are adopted into the family with all of the peace and with all of the strife. This family is not one where everything is promised to be easy. It does bring with it assurances of the peace of the Holy Spirit, but it also comes with the suspicion of drunkenness because we are not living according to the standards and expectations of the world. These men with flames dancing on their heads speaking about the deeds of Christ so that all are able to understand as if in their native tongue - how are they normal? Wouldn't we look at such a scene today and think - that is one really bizarre family? Why in the world would I want to be adopted into that? Similarly looking at the images that media gives the Christian church today - why in the world would I want to be adopted into that? What does it mean to be adopt...

John 14:15-27 Given all of the options for this week, why do I feel myself pulled back again and again to this lectionary text? Isn't this just a pullout from an exceedingly wordy discourse in John? We seldom hear Jesus go on and on in sermon style. Rather than cutting to the chase or telling a neat parable, that is what these verses of John seem to do. But they contain so many nuggets. The words from this scripture have found their way into many things as words of comfort, frequently in funerals to comfort the bereaved. But while this scripture promises peace and comfort, it goes beyond that as well. As a mother of two, I remember looking back to when I was pregnant with my second child. How am I going to find enough love, time and energy for another? My heart is surely already filled to bursting with my husband and daughter. Pete and I semed to spend hours just staring into the amazing eyes of our daughter when she was first-born. Will I be able to love another child as much?...

John 10:22-30 Interesting that the Jews in the Gospel According to John should be saying exactly the same thing so many of us today are thinking. Why can't Jesus just tell them clearly and succinctly that He is the messiah? He says in his reponse in verse 25 that he has said this, but for the life of me, I don't know where it was ever stated that clearly. Jesus speaks to us in parables and through the way he lived his life. Jesus showed us repeatedly and often but doens't use the clearcut statement. Messy thing faith. No wonder so many of us start trying to map out things that the Bible says to specifics in the world today and in history. As a former computer programmer, wouldn't life be grand if it were a series of clearcut if/then statements? There would be no ugly terrorist attacks without warning or explanation. Death would happen in its expected time and never too early. I have heard so many people this week falling back to the Psalms - even did so myself. ...

John 21:1-19 Breathing a sigh of relief last week I set about cleaning my desk to find the surface again, catching up on e-mails, cleaning laundry, shopping for food to actually feed my kids something other than fast food. Pastors are probably worse than anyone else in getting so caught up in Holy Week that everything else goes on hold. And, perhaps rightly, this week should get special attention and hold a prime real estate in our priorities for the year. Yet, here I am back in my routine. Much like those disciples, when all else fails - it's back to the norm. The disciples had trouble recognizing Jesus on his first two appearances, but he spoke to them and charged them and sent them out into the world with the power of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20 verse 21. This week, we are in the very next scene. Instead of doing something profound, inspiring and motivational to change the world, we find the disciples fishing. Much like me, and I would guess many of you, afte...

John 20:1-18 Why do we as pastors look at this week and scratch our heads? Perhaps it is the challenge of saying something 'new' at the biggest Holy Day of services in our year. Seasoned pastors struggle not to repeat, huh? Weird, but there it is. Even our Bible study this morning had some awkward pauses of 'what to study'. Don't we deal with this same story every year? Leave it to the inspiration of an honest friend in our midst to start the conversation rolling. Not - what new can we say, but - how do we really understand resurrection? And, more importantly, what does it mean to us? Okay - so the way she worded the question was, "My friend is an intellectual who just can't believe in a bodily resurrection, but she still identifies herself as a Christian. How do we see this? Symbolically, literally? Are you still a Christian if you don't believe in bodily resurrection?" There was a collective sigh in the room as 20 people began to struggle w...

Luke 11-32 Studying this text in various groups this week has allowed me to glimpse a shared theme of family expectations. Family is so hard and so vital! One of the main cornerstones of my faith is koinonia - relationship. The tangled web of interrelatedness among friends and family and our connectedness to God. And, isn't that what we are all about as Christians anyway? The complex way we influence each other in biological families is just the tip of the iceberg as we extend that to our church families and the dynamics within the church. How do we relate, interact, love and worship together? Teaching confirmation last night, one of the youth asked for clarification on grace and what it means. Struggling with that with her and then continuing on my own meditations has led to some insight on family. I explained to her that an easy illustration comes to us from Romans 6 - we can't be sin free. But that does not give us carte blanche to go about lives like we want relyin...

Luke 13:1-9 Let's just start with some honesty - there is nothing worse about religion to me than when God is used to justify a disaster. Really - did God intend for innocent children to be shot, or those going about their daily lives to be swept up in a storm having their lives abruptly ripped apart? Does God need to stoop to petty retaliation if we are misbehaving? What comfort is there to be found in looking at bad things that happen in our lives and thinking we are being punished? The wrong kind of comfort! If we need to be in control so much that we must have a 'why' to every occurance, then we are not trusting in God at all. We want for everything in our lives to be understandable by our rules and concepts of how the world works. But there is chaos, there is random misfortune, there is evil. I don't believe that God is the hand controlling any of these. From 1 Corinthians, we are told that God's ways are beyond us and God's thoughts are above us. True ...

Luke 13:31-35 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Wow -what to do with this scripture reading? Jesus derogatorily calls Herod a fox. Then he refers to himself as a hen trying to gather in her brood. When I take these pictures deeper with what they mean to me today, I do not at all get a favorable picture of either Jesus or Herod. Herod is a wily fox that uses its cunning and intelligence for power, conquest and control. Calling Herod a fox still sounds insulting today and would have been at that time as well. But then - when I look up mother hen and think about it, that imagery has morphed in our world to not at all be a favorable thing either. A mother hen is an over-protective mom using what meager intelligence she can muster to coral and heard - yes control her offspring. This type of mothering is not something that we aspire toward today as parents. Yet that same hen is sacrificial - willing to insert herself between danger and her children no matter the cost. And, here is...