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God seems to have a knack for starting small and impacting on a gigantic scale. With one elderly couple, Sarah and Abraham, God builds a community of faith that spreads out through the lands which are now Israel and Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and more. Starting with one man, Jesus, God expands the community of faith to the rest of the world. So the image of a tiny mustard seed transformed into a tree/shrub that could get as big as 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide, home to birds and more, is a good one. The image of a few tiny grains of yeast impacting an entire bowl of dough, spreading, growing into something very delicious is a good one. Size doesn’t matter. Fame or riches doesn’t matter. God has a knack for starting small.

God starts even with you. Jesus’ words, “the kingdom of God is within you”, have at least two meanings, and very likely Jesus meant to get across both ideas. Because he is in the midst of the people, the kingdom is there in their presence—some translations say, “among you”. In your midst, right here with you, in front of you. In other words, if you want to point to the kingdom of God, point at me! And the words also mean inside of you as an individual, in your heart, in your very being. The kingdom of God is within. You. If you have to find a physical place where you can point to the kingdom of God, look in the mirror. You are the location of God’s kingdom. You are the worker in God’s kingdom. You are the sharer of God’s kingdom. Continue reading “Sermon: “Thy Kingdom Come…”” →

Delivered by Ruling Elder James Parks,

July 5, 2015, Hunting Ridge Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD.

Matthew 6:5-9, Acts 17:23-28

Every child who attends Sunday School or Vacation Bible School knows the Lord’s Prayer. Any Christian who prays at all says it almost every day. It is the one common denominator of all the Christian churches. Every one of them, without exception, uses the Lord’s Prayer; it is probably the only thing all denominations agree on. But as much as we repeat it, I’ll bet we don’t completely understand how revolutionary it really is.

The great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “My religion is summed up in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.” Those two words “Our Father” are two of the most powerful and life-changing in the Bible.

In today’s scripture Jesus has just finished telling the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount not to be like the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees who took pride in their praying skills and showed off when they prayed, you know, using big words and acting like they are the only people who can get God’s attention. So Jesus says they had already gotten what they want. They had your attention. But Jesus says if you want God’s attention you need to do a few basic things.

First, realize that prayer is not a show it is a private conversation between you and God. Almost every time you read about Jesus praying, it says that “he went off by himself to pray” or he “went to a quiet place.” You see, you can’t have a talk with God with all the distractions of our daily life around us—the TV, the phone, the children, your spouse—it’s just too much. How are you going to hear God’s voice in all that noise? Continue reading “Sermon: “Our Father Who Is In Heaven”” →