Faith is personal, but never private.  How do you react to that statement?  Are you someone who thinks that your faith is between you and God and that no one else needs to know the details or are you someone who believes that faith has a social dimension that cannot be ignored? Read more →

I remember being at a conference addressing the decline of our denomination. It seems that we’ve been having these kinds of conferences for a long time now. Read more →

Today we mark All Saints Sunday in the church calendar.  The date of All Saints is actually November 1, but most Protestant churches that celebrate All Saints mark it on the Sunday following November 1. You don’t hear a lot of sermons for All Saint’s Day in Presbyterian churches. Read more →

Stories invite us to identify with a character and parables are no different. When we hear a parable, our inclination is to identify with someone, some character, in the parable. It might be the Good Samaritan, or the Prodigal Son, but we tend to identify with someone. This morning we hear the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and our identification seems a foregone conclusion. Read more →

We just read three scripture readings according to the lectionary. Those texts share one theme in common: God’s protection. Read more →