Presbymom

I am not going to relate this blog to a specific scripture, but instead will worry a bit with the idea of living in the gray areas of our faith. The study group in which I participate had a lively discussion about why Jesus seems so often to answer the questions he is asked with another question or with a parable. Doesn't this just cause problems, some asked. Doesn't it add a great potential for misdirection, asked another. And then the opposing view - that this approach just adds to the beautiful mystery and spirituality of our faith. I fall somewhere between the two extremes of responses. I truly believe that Jesus answered us in parables not to be confusing but to enable and encourage us to use our brains in our faith lives. Rather than just giving cut and dried answers, God expects us to grow through mature reflection, study and wrestling with faith questions. For me the givens are God's grace and love for all. Beyond that, I take comfort that my faith can change ...

Romans 12:1-8 Why was Paul writing to the Romans? The Pauline letters make up a large portion of the New Testament. They are letters that Paul wrote to the various communities he had visited offering advice, correction and greetings to the churches he had formed in those locations. This letter to the Romans is thought to have been written from Corinth when he thought he was going to visit Rome and use it as a new base for expanding his ministry into Spain. Paul was offering advice regarding how a Christian should live. To Paul, a new time had come after Jesus’ resurrection. In this messianic time, The Kingdom of God was begun among us, being worked out by us and was to come. That this had started therefore called upon us to respond by leading changed lives. The old righteousness and wisdom should be completely thrown out – replaced with that of God, the wisdom and righteousness that are given to us not earned. The old ways are the ones where we trust what we have been tau...

Associated Press photo from Portland Press Herald  - children at Brownsville facility I am struck numb by the response of so many of my neighbors in Collin County to the crisis of children trying to flee to the United States. The reasons given for not extending a helping hand center around fear - fear of giving to someone else instead of our own children, fear of disease, fear of the unknown. I find it ironic that we are afraid when the situations that these children are running from instill fear beyond our imaginings. The very foundation of this country is based upon a pride in offering a safe haven to the oppressed. Why would we go out of our way to create a policy pre-emptively prohibiting a county from ever offering support to any group of people? Such a restriction flies in the face of freedoms we so value. How can we scream, ‘no, no, no!’ when we do not know what we might be asked to do, if anything? We have not been asked in our county to house anyone. We have...

Apologies to my non-Presbyterian friends, but here goes some unpacking from my last week. The past week was a super busy one in the life of my church and in the life of the PC (USA). Watching the progress in polity of General Assembly (GA) our governing body meeting in Detroit from a youth mission work site in New Orleans was unique and in surprising ways enriching. In both service out in the world and service within the church body, we struggle together to do the right thing. There are no guarantees, but the spirit is at work in our midst to help us muddle through. We pray, we serve, and we struggle together. Because we are pretty much guaranteed to not always make everyone happy, we compromise and work together. In my case this time with a hammer in one hand and a cell phone checking updates in the other.   But the important thing is prayerful action. We serve together seeking to make the community and our neighbors feel the justice and benefit of Christ's b...

Palm Sunday is a wonderful/horrible day. How are we to preach this text when it is a very typical best of times and worst of times? We celebrate Jesus riding on a donkey and being welcomed by the crowds and then quickly turn to a gruesome betrayal. Weird as it may sound, this reminds me greatly of my experience this past weekend. I attended a junior high youth conference. How in the world you might ask does this relate to Palm Sunday? The youth are having a wonderful time and are also being pushed and challenged in their faith discussions during such a conference. They are enjoying themselves in a retreat setting and can leave the cares of the world behind. Often times, they are rejoicing and spending time with dear friends who they will not see regularly outside of such retreats. For many it is a mountaintop experienced that they wish to hang onto. Much like disciples who want to build tents on the mountaintop and reside there forever on the right and left hand of Jesus, the you...

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...