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.

Cesi n'est pas une pipe

It's Reformation Sunday, and that made me think about names, relationships, and our connections to both Jesus and the church -- how they are different. It also made me think of a painting by Rene' Magritte called "Cesi n'est pas une pipe." Unfortunately, I thought everybody on planet earth knew about this painting. I'm informed by my congregation that this is decidedly NOT so, therefore, I include a photograph. Come join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church for our sermon on blind barTimeaus from the Gospel of Mark titled Cesi n'est pas une pipe.

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 Story of Zinc

The Book of Job ends with God finally addressing Job's complaint, and God is strangely harsh. From our perspective, Job is the one who has been harmed. Why is God all snarky? It may have something to do with zinc. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky for this week's sermon, The Story of Zinc.

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 Lamed Vovniks

The Book of Job is not an easy book to love. It's not even an easy book to read, and it offends most people who take the trouble to read it. But the Book of Job squarely faces our common observation that the world contains a lot of undeserved suffering. A lot of innocent people get beat up pretty badly in this old world, and it is cold comfort for some preacher to intone, "We suffer because we are sinners and bring it on our own heads." Not what *I* want to hear when I suffer.

The Jews offer a tradition of The Lamed Vovniks -- the 36 righteous men who must exist at any one time and who bear the suffering for the world. This opens the story of Jesus to us from a new light. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky for this week's sermon, The Lamed Vovniks.

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.

A Side of Ribs

Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin are arguing in "Yentl!" about the interpretation of one of the creation stories in Genesis. "Side!" she says. "The word can mean 'side'!"

Streisand's character is arguing that men and women are equal in the sight of God. Patinkin's character is insisting that women were created from man's rib, and is, hence, inferior. Should we ever read Scripture to say that God lifts up one at the expense of the other? Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church for our sermon this week, A Side of Ribs.

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.