The Passion

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowds but leaves in quite a different way. A couple of years ago I said that preaching on Holy Week is like holding a seminar on the three little pigs -- we have heard the story so often that it takes on a gloss of "Once Upon a Time". We need to hear the story of the Passion, and I elected to read it from a paraphrase, "The Message". Listen for the word of God in this reading from Mark.

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, The Passion by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text. 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. 

All Scripture quotations in this publication are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Father Rohr's Confessions

Lent is the time when we are called to examine our relationship with God, Jesus and the church with prayer and integrity. Father Rohr offered three confessions that I think we need heed. They are:

1. We worship Jesus instead of following Him
2. We have turned Jesus into a religion
3. We have turned ourselves into believers and belongers

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, Father Rohr's Confessions by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text. 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.

God's Goad

The people who followed Moses out of Egypt had no more idea how to move into a new life than a fish has of how to ride a bicycle.  Even more telling, they didn't have any understanding that the course Moses would plot for them was the ONLY way forward and that every other path led only to death. Sound familiar? It is the contemporary certainty that we are smart enough to run our own lives.

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, God's Goad by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text. 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.

Our CPS App

During Lent, the church is obligated to assess where it is currently, and where it should be headed. If the course is wrong, the church is obligated to correct it. In that spirit of correction, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote:

We worshiped Jesus instead of following Him on his same path.
We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else.
This shift made us into a religion of “belonging and believing” instead of a religion of transformation.

That is pretty damning when you think on it. 

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, Our CPS App by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text.

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 Point of It All

No matter how much you love your church, no matter how big an impact it has had upon your life, it is not actually the point of the enterprise. I bet THAT got your attention!

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, The Point of It All by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text. 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.