Sermon Blog

  A gracious lady went to the post office to mail an old family bible to her brother in another part of the country. "Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk. "Yes," answered the lady "the Ten Commandments." The Ten Commandments.   Arguably one of the greatest contributions of Hebrew Culture to civilization as we know it.   In the not too recent past, The Ten Commandments and the public posting of them, have been highlighted in the midst of controversy.   This week, we begin a series to consider the importance of the Ten Commandments in our lives.   We are not going to enter the debate of whether or not they should be displayed publically.   For the people of God, for whom they are intended, the way of life they entail should be engrained in our hearts to the degree that whether or not they are on display in the courtroom is a moot point.   In his book, Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places , Eugene Peterson suggests that what we ca...

Joe's wife likes to sing. She decided to join a singing group at church. From time to time she would practice while she was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Whenever she would start in on a song, Joe would head outside to the porch. His wife, with hurt feelings, said, "What's the matter, Joe? Don't you like my singing?"   Joe replied, "Honey, I love your singing, but I just want to make sure the neighbors know I'm not hurting you." Joe’s wife loved to sing…nothing was going to stop her from singing God’s praise.  Even her apparent deficit in singing talent did not dissuade her.  My question is, what keeps us from singing?  I’m not going to pull any punches this morning, the truth is, it is easy to stand up in the pulpit and look over the congregation as we are singing, and see many people not singing.  Why is that, why are we not all offering up our voices to God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving as we sing? One reason often stands out, and it ...

The trail is approximately 2,165 miles long.   It begins at Mt. Katahdin in Maine and concludes at Springer Mountain in Georgia.   It is considered by some to be the most popular hiking trail in the world.   On the journey, a hiker will pass through New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.   Each year somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 hikers decided to take on this journey, yet, for one reason or another, only about 12% actually make it from beginning to end.   A “thru-hike” of the Appalachian Trail usually requires anywhere from five to seven months to complete. [i] My brothers and sisters, while we have not taken on the Appalachian Trail, over the last six and a half months, today we complete a journey that many would consider as mentally and spiritually demanding, as the Appalachian Trail is physically and mentally demanding.    Today w...

Father Muphy walked into a bar and said to the first man he met, “Do you want to go to heaven?” The man said, “I do Father.” The priest said, “Leave this bar right now!”   He approached a second man.   “Do you want to go to heaven?” “Certainly, Father,” was the man’s reply.   “Then leave this den of Satan!” said the priest. Father Murphy then walked up to O’Toole and asked, “Do you want to go to heaven?” O’Toole replied: “No, I don’t Father.” The priest looked him right in the eye and said, “You mean to tell me that when you die you don’t want to go to heaven?” O’Toole smiled, “Oh, when I die.   Yes Father.   I thought you were getting a group together to go right now.” How many of us are waiting to go to heaven?   How many of us picture this as some day that we will never see until we die or until Christ returns and we are whisked away into the sky…you know, “some glad day, when this life is o’er, I’ll fly away.”?   And so we just wait…and while we ...