Sermons

It's been a summer of contrasts. Summer has been as full of life as the program year; the volunteer choir has sung, voice class has run its course, the youth have served in Appalachia, the food pantry has fed and Second Saturday Program sustained, the altar guild has prepared for worship, planning for the third service has continued, new windows have been fitted, Vacation Bible school overflowed and worship has been packed - and that's just to name a few of the things that have gone on around here in the short weeks since June.

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The Things that Make for Peace

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"And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have barns full of food and money; relax! Eat! Drink! Be merry!"

Oh, the stories we tell ourselves. 

"If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man."

So sings Tevye, the poor, hard-working, holy Jew at the start of "Fiddler on the Roof."  It's a wonderful dream.   "If I were a rich man....what would it be like?"

Happy Independence Day! Many of us will celebrate the Fourth of July today, with the traditional grilling of meats and wearing of patriotic colors. We celebrate the independence of our country by blowing up small parts of it in the sky.

"Freedom" writes Paul to the Galatians. It's a word we really like. Freedom - a sweet tasting word for anyone but especially to an American. We are, are we not, the "land of the free and the home of the brave" are we not, and proud of it?

Paul uses the word freedom three times in barely a paragraph. "For freedom Christ has set us free."  "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters." And "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence."

Psalm 42:13.  All day long they mock me: and say to me, "Where now is your God?"

1 Kings 19: Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence...   Then the LORD said to him, "Go. Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus."

Several years ago, in seminary, a friend of mine said something that I have never forgotten. He said, "Well, Susan, some people really are immune to self-awareness."