Sermon – Mark 5:21-43 – February 2, 2020

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Today’s sermon is in the form of two letters. The first letter is written by the nameless woman from our passage this morning; the woman who suffered from 12 years of chronic hemorrhaging and then was healed by Jesus. She is writing this letter to the little girl who died waiting for Jesus to arrive. The letter is written after the woman learns that the delay caused by her healing was at least partly responsible for the death of the little girl. I am imagining that when she writes this letter she does not know that the girl has been brought back to life by Jesus, so she is grieving the girl’s death and blaming herself for the delay. 

Sermon – Isaiah 40 – December 8, 2019

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Sermon – Ruth 1 – October 13, 2019

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Sermon – Genesis 18 – September 15, 2019

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Sermon – Genesis 2 – September 2, 2019

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Today we begin another year of working through the whole story of the Bible. Starting today in Genesis, we move chronologically through the Old Testament until December 15th. We do take some pretty huge narrative leaps in order to cover the entire Old Testament in 14 Sundays, but we should get a sense of the narrative arc of the Old Testament in that time. Then from January until Easter, we will be reading the Gospel of Mark. From Easter to the end of May we get some passages from Acts and 1 Corinthians. This schedule is called the Narrative Lectionary and it has a four year cycle with a different gospel featured each year. And our children and family Sunday School class will follow the same schedule.

I like using the Narrative Lectionary because as Presbyterians we claim as inspiration the whole story of the Bible. Yes we prioritize Jesus as a unique revelation and inspiration, but we believe his life, teachings, death, and resurrection are consistent with the testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. Another way of saying it is that we read the whole Bible, but we do read through the lens of Christ. 

Today we begin with a very particular portion of the creation story.

Sermon – Revelation 21:1-5 – August 25, 2019

What does the Bible say about the Book of Revelation?

I want to spend some time giving an overview of this mysterious book of the Bible. Some people have heard little bits and pieces of it, but don’t really know the big picture. 

However, before we do that, I want to offer a way of interpreting this book, that may be helpful. Some of us may have heard very literal readings of the book, but there are other more helpful ways to read it, and ways that are probably more consistent with the intention of the author. In other words, the author did not intend it to be read as a prediction of the future, or as a novel. On the contrary, it is intended as a political commentary, or satire or perhaps most accurately a political cartoon with words instead of pictures. The author is drawing word pictures the people, institutions, and governments of his time. Just like political cartoons on the editorial page of the newspaper that use outrageous or exaggerated images so does Revelation. 

Sermon – Matthew 4:1-15 – August 18, 2019

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What does the Bible say about evil and the Devil? So many things. For instance, the well-known story from the Book of Charlie Daniels, “The Devil went down to Georgia. He was looking for a soul to steal. He was in a bind ’cause he was way behind, and he was willing to make a deal.” Just kidding that is not in the Bible. But, we do learn from that song that the Devil is a really good fiddle player, just not the best. Which I think is probably true. But, like I said, not in the Bible. There are many things that people think about the Devil that are not in the Bible. 

Sermon – Matthew 10:34-40 – July 28, 2019

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Psalm 104 – “Unity with of All Things” – July 14, 2019

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When you ask a congregation, especially Govans congregation for sermon topics, you never know what you’re going to get. I asked this congregation to complete the following question ”What does the Bible say about ________?” Shortly after that I received the following e-mail from choir member Doug Storey:

“Hi Tom, In response to your request for sermon topics, here is one I have been thinking about for a long time.

A book that influenced me many years ago was the slightly hippy-dippy effort to popularize Eastern philosophy, especially the Vedanta, by Alan Watts called “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.” In it, he provides a simplified version of the Hindu creation myth that goes something like this…

Romans 1:16-17 – “Yes, We Can!” – May 19, 2019

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It’s hard to know where to begin with Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, better known as Romans. On one hand, it is his most sophisticated articulation of his theology, written late in his ministry after refining his message with years of active missionary work. It also probably influenced the Protestant Reformation more than any other single book of the Bible with its emphasis on salvation by faith alone.

On the other hand, Romans can be a daunting read as Paul takes a deep dive into human sinfulness and the nuances of faith with somewhat esoteric arguments based on assumptions we might not have. Further, anyone who has been a victim of anti-gay teaching and preaching in the church may know that just a bit further on in this same first chapter of Romans, we find a passage that has been and is still used repeatedly to bludgeon, shame, and exclude LGBTQ people. And though we can accurately state that Paul did not have a modern understanding of sexual orientation or knowledge of same-gender romantic relationships that were based on love, it is also probably fair to say that even if he had that knowledge, he would have come to the same conclusions as he did. In fact, that particular passage from Romans 1 is one of the passages that led me in my own journey to conclude there are some things in the Bible that do not reflect God’s will for us today, but instead reflect the biases and prejudices of the flawed, sinful people God used to write the Bible. And though the line between the author’s prejudice and God’s will is not always clear, we as modern people of faith have the responsibility to try to figure out which is which.