Live Stream – Page 3 – Wicomico Presbyterian Church

Claiming New Possibilities

Matthew 16:13-20 On the day of our wedding, I remember standing in the church with Kim and both our parents gathered around us in a tight little happy circle. I very clearly remember Kim’s mother saying to my mother how hopeful she was that I would get Kim’s life more organized. And I remember the doubtful expression on my mother’s face. “I wouldn’t count on that,” she said. Neither of our mothers had a high opinion of our organizational abilities. I guess, for both of them, prior experiences kept their expectations quite low. Looking back, I have to assume they prayed for us. a lot. But I also have to wonder if they were pleasantly surprised later, when we both managed to be pretty normal grownups, who do all kinds of stuff. Successful adults, you might even say. It turned out we both had the ability to respond to the […]

Into the Light

Luke 24:28-49 W.H. Auden wrote a poem that became very famous when it was included in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. It begins, Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. It is a poem about the loss of a loved one, someone so near and dear to the heart that it just feels like the world has ended. It goes on, Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead. There is the sense of the earth shifting beneath us and nothing will ever be the same. It is cosmic in its scope: The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. I don’t know any other […]

Safe This Far

1 Chronicles17:16-17 Years ago, a young man named Samuel Jones felt the overwhelming sense of being called to Christian ministry. He went to his pastor with this news. To his surprise, the pastor immediately set him up with a date to preach. It would be a Sunday evening service. Samuel threw himself into preparations for a sermon that he hoped would impress everyone. That Sunday evening, he stood in the pulpit and looked out at a full congregation, all there to hear and encourage him. He began to preach his prepared sermon, full of big words and clever arguments. But soon he began to stumble. And he was lost. He could not remember anything he wanted to say. He was ashamed and stepped down from the pulpit feeling so much the failure. But as he walked away, he felt God asking him a question: Samuel, have I really given you nothing? The […]

Telling Stories

John 20:1-18 Many years ago, my parents moved into a nice rental house in a nice neighborhood. This was shortly after I graduated high school. Most of the years I was growing up, we had lived in town houses, in neighborhoods where they were all rentals. They were okay; there was nothing wrong with them. But this place was different; it was pretty nice. I don’t know how they found this place, probably from an ad the owner had put in the newspaper. And we didn’t know why he was renting out the house, he just was. But nothing abhors a vacuum like the imagination. My mother was great at developing stories. My mother’s favorite words were, “I wonder…” as she began to let her imagination spin out a tale that would give meaning to whatever was on her mind. When she began wondering about our landlord, she went to work. She asked aloud, “I wonder […]

The Unexpected

Matthew 21:1-11 There is a film called The Banshees of Inisherin about a man named Padraic. He is a sweet, gentle guy. He lives on a little island off the coast of Ireland, sharing a cottage with his sister, Siobhan, who loves him. Padraic has a friend Colm, who he thinks loves him, and life is fine – until it isn’t. Something that is said again and again throughout the story is that Padraic always thought of himself as one of the good ones; never harmed anyone, always a kind word for everyone. But when he gets pushed hard enough, it turns out he is capable of some pretty horrific things. Padraic is changed through the course of this story. But in the end, he’s not a different person. He is just showing something that has always been inside of him. It was unexpected. But, in truth, it’s something that is inside of all of us, if we are truthful; […]

The Shepherd

Psalm 23 John 9:1-41 Robert Jones has been a Christian all his life. He was raised in the Southern Baptist Church – this was something that played an important part in forming his identity. But at some point, he began to have questions he could not ignore. There were things about his upbringing and the church community that he grew uncomfortable with. He began noticing the implicit racism all around him. He increasingly became aware of the assumptions that were made about people that no one ever seemed to question. Beliefs and preferences were accepted as facts. But, to Robert, they no longer seemed to be reliably factual. As an adult he pursued a career studying religion in America, particularly the way our religion forms our social and political identity. He founded an organization called the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducts opinion polls to measure how political issues in […]

The Helper

John 3: 1-17 Way back in the beginning, Lent was a season of preparation for new Christians, who would be baptized on Easter Sunday. The typical Lenten discipline was the fast. It was taken very seriously. Usually, fasting was observed Monday through Saturday, when they were permitted only one meal at the end of the day – a vegetarian meal. Sundays were exceptions, because every Sunday is considered a little Easter – a feast day, a celebration of the resurrection. It is rare now for Christians to observe such a strict Lenten discipline. When we think of a Lenten fast, we might think of giving up sweets or caffeine. We consider it optional. And, very likely, we are not really sure what the point of it is. This is probably why many Christians now embrace the idea of taking something up rather than giving something up during Lent – that feels more purposeful, somehow. Yet the Lenten fast is a […]

The Resister

Matthew 4:1-11 I have some friends who told me once that in their basement they have a room full of provisions – stocked floor to ceiling with cases of bottled water, cartons of canned and dried food. It all started because of Y2K. Back in the year 1999 when we all wondered if the computers that run everything would make it through the millennium safely. And if they didn’t it would be Armageddon, for sure. The computers were okay, it turned out, nothing terrible happened. But since that time, there have been other reasons to stockpile. There is always, it seems, a reason to stockpile things. But you have to maintain it, replenishing as necessary, with new items as the older ones pass their expiration date. The old ones then get tossed in the trash. I thought of that recently when I was talking with another friend about her parents. […]

In the Cloud

Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17:1-9 An interesting thing has been happening at a small Christian school in Kentucky, Asbury University. On Wednesday February 8, students gathered in the chapel for morning prayer service. This is a normal part of college life at Asbury, like many religiously based schools. People say it was routine. Ordinary. Unremarkable. Then, when the service ended a small group of students stayed behind to continue praying together. All morning, they prayed. All afternoon. When evening came, they were still there and more students were joining them. They continued in prayer all through the night and the next day, and the days after that. And they are still praying. Some people posted videos on TikTok, which caught the attention of the world. Pretty soon, young people were dropping their plans and heading to Asbury. Flying in from Hawaii, driving down from Illinois, college students are being drawn to […]

The Heart of the Matter

There is a story by Graham Greene called The Heart of the Matter. It takes place during the Second World War in an unnamed British colony in Africa. Greene does a very effective job of showing what a difficult cultural experience it was for everyone involved. Those who felt the oppression of British rule, of course, but also the peculiar discomforts of the British working in this foreign land. There was much talk about the weather – far too hot and humid and sunny for the English, except during the rainy season, six months when they all fear they may drown. There was the malaria, which seemed to be an inevitability for anyone who was there long enough, and apparently no treatment for it except quinine. So, lots of gin and tonics. And there was the overwhelming level of distrust – which went in every direction, and this is where we see the real problem. The distrust, the constant tendency to be suspicious of others’ […]

1 2 3 4 5 6 … 10 11 12

Posts navigation