Leading Ladies

The Second Testament was written by men about the men's activities in the new church. The activities of the women didn't get nearly enough attention. Mother's Day is a good time to balance the scales a bit by talking about Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe. Lydia was an important person in her community -- a dealer in purple. Her influence in spreading the Gospel isn't documented, but it's unthinkable that someone of her standing would not influence the course of her community, and the church at Philippi which became one of Paul's proudest accomplishments.

Today's service is special in another regard -- a gentleman who rejoices in the name Terwilliger Jones came by and offered to play the Offertory on his Zither.

Click here to join the joint congregations of the Chapel of St. Starbuck's and Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky for this week's sermon, Leading Ladies.

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.

Getting Above Your Raisin's

I heard once of a child abuse case in which the child was beaten severely. The defense was that the grandmother was trying to "flop the child's liver" as she had been raised to do. The Lord only knows where this family got the idea that an infant's liver needed to be "flopped" or what that meant, but in practice it injured the child. Here in the hills, we have a saying, "Don't get above your raisin's" meaning not to act above your station in life or deviate from the way you were raised. I'd suggest that there's a better meaning: sometimes the way we were raised gets in the way of our hearing the voice of God. If we are to hear God's sometimes radical message, we must get above our raisin's.

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.

Knock Knock

Sometimes it seems that the Gospel of Jesus Christ goes out into the world, and all you get back are the sounds of crickets. The world is such a consuming, dangerous, interesting, distracting place that it's hard to devote the time necessary to actually hear and react to the Gospel. Yet, in any time and place, there seem always to be a group of people, a remnant, whose involvement with the world gets interrupted by the Gospel -- who do really crazy things because they can conceive of no alternative. They're sort of the remnant. This week, we read from Revelation and John about the "flock" of Jesus. Spend some time with the joint congregations of the Chapel of St. Starbuck's and Community Presbyterian Church for this week's sermon, Knock Knock.

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.

Rear View Mirror

Several things converged this week to create a vortex of "things to think about" so compelling that before I knew it, a sermon appeared of its own volition. The Pope spoke to the child abuse scandals and said that the church needed to repent. The Christian Science Monitor wrote a piece on a resurgence of interest in Calvinist theology. Most importantly, I was annoyed by a tailgater and complained to the Sexton at the Chapel of St. Starbuck's, (since the Archbishop is a silly sort of man no one pays any attention to), and received some good advice about where to put your eyes when you're driving. Come and join the joint congregations of the Chapel of St. Starbuck's and Community Presbyterian Church for this week's sermon on John 21, "Rear View Mirror".

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

Mind Over Matter

Ah...the best-laid plans of mice and men. I forgot to turn on the mic this morning, so the sermon wasn't recorded. I had a graveside service right after church, but went back after we left the cemetery and re-recorded the sermon to an empty church. You'll have to provide your own laugh track.

The question is: what is the difference between faith, doubt and belief? How badly are we Christians supposed to beat ourselves up if we find doubt creeping into our minds as we read of the Resurrection? Is it necessary to rub salt into the wounds after we beat ourselves up, or is it enough to just let the blood dry?

Come and join the joint congregations of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte and the Chapel of St. Starbuck's the Jittery as we talk about the story of "Doubting Thomas" in this week's sermon, "Mind Over Matter".

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.

Confronting A Grave

The Resurrection isn't a rational event. Isn't that an odd thing for a preacher to say? But it's true. No amount of scientific study will ever explain the Resurrection. The Resurrection isn't a historical event. Historical events have witnesses. There are no witnesses to the Resurrection -- only the people who encountered the results of the Resurrection. Today, we have the evidence before us -- two pieces of cloth, two men who saw, one woman who encountered both grave and the risen Lord. This is the place where only faith will carry us, for logic, science, and rational thinking isn't up to the task. But where faith carries us is to the only place from which the Resurrection can be viewed -- the empty tomb.

Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky for our Easter sermon, Confronting a Grave.

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.

Confronting Your Faith

Jesus entered Jerusalem with issues. What played out so long ago, was an assault on the political compromises that had allowed Judea what little peace it had known over the last 100 years. As we begin Holy Week, the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to confront the decisions which had made Roman occupation tolerable at the cost of the relationship between God and His people challenges us to confront the compromises we have made over the last year. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky for this week's sermon, Confronting your Faith.

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.