Getting Round the Grinch

The janitor at the Chapel of St. Starbuck's the Jittery asked me a good question the other day. He asked how I felt about Advent. I had to confess that the noise of the commercial aspects leaves me in a bad mood every year. When I went to the Lectionary text for this Sunday, hoping to find something sentimental, I found instead "The Little Apocalypse" from Luke going on about the end times. Very helpful. Thanks for nothing.

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky to find out how I worked my way out of that in our sermon, Getting Round the Grinch.

Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.

Christ the Thing

The Bible is written in metaphor and simile familiar to people of a long-past world, a world in which shepherds and kings were commonalities. When read by people who have no emotional connection to either shepherds or kings, there is a good chance of misunderstanding. This is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the liturgical year. What does "King" mean, and what are we saying by calling Christ a King? We might as well call it "Christ the Thing" Sunday. We've lost our emotional connection to kings.

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky for our sermon, Christ the Thing.

Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.

Raisin Bread Dough

Today's text is the story of Penninah, Elkanah and Hannah, and it's one of my favorites. Hannah is barren, but her husband asks her, "Hannah, why are you sad? Am I not more than ten sons to you?" Elkanah's love for Hannah allows him to see beyond the demands of his culture to his wife's other qualities. Hannah, however, is stuck in her culture like raisins in a loaf of unbaked raisin bread dough. She cannot feel her husband's love. Many of us are like that -- God tells us that He loves us, and we hear Groucho Marx's voice saying "Any club that would have me as a member, I want no part of. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for our sermon from Samuel and Hebrews, Raisin Bread Dough.

White Knuckle Fliers

We put our faith in baskets full of things we don't understand at all, daily. Electricity, computers, even airplanes. We do that because we have come to trust the things that science provides for us. I think the belief is something like, "I don't understand it, but all these smart people do, and so I'll trust that they know what they're doing."

Trusting God is much more difficult because no man has seen Him. He can't be verified in a test tube. It is a very, very hard thing for some people to manage. Of course, many people don't try at all. It sounds like the sorts of folks you meet on airplanes -- frequent fliers who don't give it a thought, educated, knowledgeable people who understand and appreciate what's going on, and, of course, the white-knuckle fliers. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky as we fly with the white-knuckle fliers.

Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.

The Little Match Girl

How do we think about poverty and our response to it? It seems that we ricochet between two poles: a romanticized vision of the poor, perhaps like the little match girl of Hans Christian Anderson's story, and a judgmental, "it's your own durn fault" view of poverty which locks up our wallets. The book of Ruth offers a more nuanced view, and includes within it the stubbornness of self-denying love. Come join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky for this week's sermon from the book of Ruth, "The Little Match Girl".

Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.