Category: Sermons

Col. 3:12-14

You have heard some of the positives of pulling together more than 200 middleschoolers to sing and act crazy, to learn and to play, to listen, to pray and to be silent before God.  New friendships are made, new ideas are sparked, old truths are given new meaning, a new tradition is born for Hunting Ridge!  I am grateful to Rodney, Maia and Mekhi for being willing to be the pioneers, the first ones to attend this conference from our church family, and now they can be the guides for others who will join us in the future.  I am grateful for your commitment to Christian education and spiritual nurture, enabling HRPC to fund 50% of the cost for all 4 of us!  Not every church does that.  It would be so great if we could keep that commitment up in the years ahead!

We have a tendency to keep matters of our personal belief to ourselves, and perhaps do not even talk about them with others at home.  Like politics, we steer clear of discussions about religion or faith with the people we do not agree with, just to keep relative peace and harmony in our relationships.  So to have a place and time to openly reflect on matters of faith, to share thoughts and hopes and fears, is a real gift.  Continue reading “Sermon: You Are What You Wear” →

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…”” →