Presby-Musings

"There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever."  - Revelation 22:5 "No one looks for stars when the sun's out..."   - Rumi  I have these moments where I long for the presence of God in my life so deeply that it's hard to breathe.  I know that sounds kind of odd, but it's true.  I want to know more, to feel more, to understand more of God more and more all of the time.   I catch myself wishing that there was a rift between whatever dimension we happen to be living in at the moment and the one where God exists in God's fullness.  I just want a glimpse, just a glimpse of what it must be like there.   Heaven, at least in my humble opinion, isn't somewhere up there.  Heaven is just on the other side of here.  God is all around us, in us and through us, but we struggle to experience God because ...

In my Bible reading this morning I read this verse from Hebrews chapter 11---a verse I've read over many times in my life, but this morning... I was struck by it like never before.  I have placed in bold the part of the verse that hit me like a sledgehammer today:  "It was by faith that Moses left Egypt and was not afraid of the king's anger.   Moses continued strong as if he could see the God that no one can see."   What an amazing description of a life of faith!   The writer of Hebrews declares that Moses carried himself with the kind of faith and confidence that made it seem as though he was seeing the Unseeable, knowing the Unknowable, walking into a hope-filled future toward a loving Redeemer who was already there making a place for him. I have to ask myself today:  Do I live my life like that?  Do I continue strong as if I could see the God that no one can see?  Can others see this confidence in me and take inspiration from it?...

There is a moment in the book of Exodus from the Hebrew Scriptures when the Hebrew people have only just escaped slavery in Egypt, and they discover to their utter dismay that they are being pursued.   The story tells us that after allowing the Israelites to leave Egypt, Pharaoh (king of Egypt) repents of his decision to let his slave work force escape, and heads after them with his army.   Immediately the Hebrew people start lamenting their circumstances.   10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” All the Hebrew people could see r...

"There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."   - Revelation 22:5 "No one looks for stars when the sun's out..."   - Rumi  I have these moments where I long for the presence of God in my life so deeply that it's hard to breathe.  I know that sounds kind of odd, but it's true.  I want to know more, to feel more, to understand  more of God more and more all of the time.   I catch myself wishing that there was a rift between whatever dimension we happen to be living in at the moment and the one where God exists in God's fullness.  I just want a glimpse, just a glimpse of what it must be like there.   Heaven, at least in my humble opinion, isn't somewhere up there.   Heaven is just on the other side of here.   God is all around us, in us and through us, but we struggle to experience God because of ...

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor . - Exodus 6:6-9 It's been a hectic week.  I'm in the middle of moving, and the house I'm moving into is also being remodeled.  Almost all our worldly belongings are in boxes, and there are a hundred things that need doing before the movers arrive on Saturday to shuttle over all the furniture....

Throughout the season of Lent, we'll be focusing on some of the Scriptures that are included in the daily lectionary readings each week of the season. I'll be sharing portions of those passages that speak to me and reflecting on them.   “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.  As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him..."   - Acts 7:30-31 I've had this idea for a while now--an idea about miracles, signs and wonders.  I used to think that miracles, signs and wonders were the exception in our lives and not the rule.  In other words, most of our lives are spent doing pretty mundane, and uninspiring things, but every once in a while we experience something incredible, a miracle, a sign, something wonderful and perhaps even a bit mystical and otherworldly.  And when we experience those moments...

In the first chapter of the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Scriptures , God speaks to Joshua, who has been waiting for his mentor and leader Moses to return from talking with God about life, the universe and everything. And God says... "Moses, my servant is dead." God doesn't try to break it to Joshua gently.  He doesn't ask him to sit down and pour him a cup of tea before breaking the news to him.  He just tells him bluntly, "Moses is dead... now you need to get going."  There is no going back to search for Moses to make sure that he is truly dead. "Moses is dead.  Now go..." I made the graphic you see at the outset of this blog into a poster that hangs on the wall in front of my desk.  It reminds me of two things: 1)  The past is the past.  You can't go back there.  You can't live there.  God doesn't want you there.  When it's time to move forward into the future that God has in store for you---you better get moving.  ...

This week I am preaching on a strange story in Jesus' life called "The Transfiguration": 28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah , talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came ...

There is this vacant lot I drive by every day on my way to work that until just a couple of weeks ago had this partially constructed house on it.  Whenever I looked at it, I wondered what happened that it was never finished. Here's a video on the site of the unfinished house and a short message to my congregation about the sermons I am preaching for the next two weeks: Funny thing.  I shot that video before leaving on a trip to the Holy Land for two weeks.  While I was gone, whoever owns the property decided to tear down the house. Ironic. Whatever plans that someone had for that house a long time ago when they started building it are fairly irrelevant now.  The vision was lost and now even the reminder of lost vision is gone. Maybe somebody with a better vision will come along and make something happen on that vacant lot. Here's why a vision is necessary:  When you don't have one, or you lose the one you had, things start falling apart.  And...

This week I am going to be preaching on Sabbath as part of the " iLife " sermon series. Whenever I think of the word "Sabbath," I think of lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon after a huge meal with football on the television, and the knowledge that I will soon be sleeping. I'm pretty sure that over half of the people who come to church on Sunday have a nap in their future.  Some of my parishoners don't wait until they get home to start their nap---they just catch forty winks right there in their pew. I can see them.  I don't think they know that.  In my last church there was an elderly lady who would come to church and would sleep through half of the service, but very nearly all of my sermon.  Without fail, she would leave, shake my hand and tell me what a good sermon I preached. Remember when things were "closed on Sunday?"  I am old enough to remember these things.  You didn't just pop in to the store on Sunday after church...

I am continuing my sermon series on the Lord's Prayer this week---moving into the second line of the prayer: " Hallowed Be Thy Name ." As I pondered that line this week, I asked myself "What's in a name?"  Naturally, I googled to find a good website that revealed the meanings of names.  I picked www.behindthename.com because I liked the title. Why don't you click on it, and enter your own name just to see what it says.  I'll wait. Were you surprised?  Was it pretty much what you've always known?  Most of us have a pretty good idea what our names mean.  It's not something that we walk around shouting from the rooftops, nor do we plaster it on tee-shirts and wear them every where we go.  We just sort of know what our names mean.  I bet that you probably can't even remember when you first learned the meaning of your name. But you did.  Someone told you, I bet.  You may have read it somewhere, but almost certainly before you could re...