Category: Sermons

Mark 4:1-9, 30-32

“You reap what you sow.” Many of us have heard that old adage and used it to advise someone else.  Even non-farmers could tell you that if you sow corn you will reap corn, and if you sow wheat you will reap wheat.  The apostle Paul uses this phrase as he writes to the Galatian Christians….but he is not talking corn or wheat.  He uses the planting and harvesting image to show that we make a choice on what comes at the end of life’s season by what we do at the beginning and middle of the season.  If we plant only by our desires, our personal human agenda, we will end up with weeds.  If we plant in response to God, we will end up with a bumper crop, a crop of real life that lasts.

The farmer’s almanac has a long, long tradition of providing valuable information for the year round work of farming.  It is an insider’s handbook Continue reading “Sermon: “Farmer’s Almanac”” →

Delivered by Moderator James Parks,  Ruth 1:1-17

In a famous scene from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Indiana comes to the precipice or the edge of a steep cliff deep in the cave he’s exploring. He’s standing inside a formation called the Lion’s Head. Nazis have shot his father and he is trying to retrieve the Holy Grail to use its power to heal his father. But the Grail is on the other side of an impossibly wide chasm. The ancient text he’s following gives him just one clue of what to do:  “only in the leap from the lion’s head will he prove his worth.”

Meanwhile, his father lies hurt behind him and the others are imploring him to hurry.  His father keeps saying “you must believe, boy, you must believe.” Indiana has a choice—go back to care for his father or jump to what could be a certain death. Finally, after several agonizing seconds he realizes the text is telling him to take a leap of faith. So he takes a deep breath, probably says a silent prayer, then steps into the abyss. Miraculously, a pathway forms under his feet and stretches all the way to the other side.

In our scripture today, Naomi and Ruth are standing on a precipice and they too must decide what to do. The Jewish faith celebrates the festival of “Shavuot” each year in which the entire book of Ruth is sung or read out loud. The Book of Ruth is only four chapters, but it is filled with so much that you could preach a series of sermons on it for a month. It has love, loyalty, faith, integrity, kindness to strangers, compassion for the poor, patience—all that in four chapters. It could easily be a movie. Continue reading “Sermon: Standing on a Precipice” →