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Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Birds and the Bees

The best laid plans of men and angels....This week's sermon, from Exodus 17:1-7 and Matthew 21:23-32 is titled "The Birds and the Bees". It was a hard sermon to prepare. I actually wrote the entire thing twice. Right up to church time, I was altering it. In fact, I ad libbed part, and changed the written sermon AFTER church. The one thing I didn't do was to push the "record" button.

When I saw what I had done, I comforted myself by noting that this is fourth Sunday, and on fourth Sunday, I have the service at King's Daughters' and Sons' Home. "I'll record it then", I comforted myself.

Nuff' said...I didn't do it then, either, so this week's sermon is only available (for now) in written form, HERE.

UPDATE: If you can put up with audio recorded in my man cave, with the A/C going in the background, It's now available by clicking HERE.

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.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Righty Tighty

Some parts of the media have so successfully linked illegal immigration and the budget deficit that you could well come away from the debate believing that the one is the cause of the other. Among certain portions of our population, that impression reaches the level of certainty. In the same way most people will think "whale" when you say "Jonah", the mention of budget deficits brings up the immigration debate in the minds of many. It becomes "what everybody knows" and is accepted as uncritically as the notion that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The text, however, makes no mention of a whale.

In the debate about our societal responsibility toward those in the dawn of life, the children; those in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those in the shadows of life, the convicted, the sick, the hopeless, we're often encouraged to believe that "God helps those who help themselves". Thus, the down-and-outs of our society have no one to blame, and we have no responsibility toward them. That's also not in the Bible. It's one of Aesop's Fables, but it's become "what everybody knows".

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky for our sermon from Jonah 33:10-4:11 and Matthew 20:1-16 titled Righty Tighty by clicking HERE or download a pdf from HERE.

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.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Mah Nishtana

Protestants tend to see church as something you "go to", and religion as something you "do", usually on Sunday. Sometime in the past century, we turned religious matters over to the professionals, and, as a result, biblical illiteracy is now a frightening reality. "Most Christians", George Gallup says, "don't know what they believe or why."

Jews, on the other hand, tend to see religion as a story one lives out, and religion as primarily a family affair. That's reflected in the text for today describing the first Passover and in Jewish Pesach practice down to today.

We might well, with the youngest child at the Seder, ask "Mah Nishtana?" "What's different?" Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, KY and the Chapel of St. Starbuck for this week's sermon from Exodus 12:1-14, "Mah Nishtana" by clicking HERE, or download a pdf copy by clicking HERE.

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.