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Charge to the Congregation on the Installation of the Rev. Dr. Kori Phillips McMurtry

Christian Community Presbyterian Church  Bowie, Maryland  October 29, 2023  Charge to the Congregation on the Installation of Dr. Kori Phillips McMurtry as Pastor   P resbyterians have spent a lot of time determining the qualifications for pastors. Yet we have not spent an equal amount of time describing the qualifications of congregations.  Father Victor Pax, my Roman Catholic colleague during my first pastorate, said that he had a lot of parishioners whom he saw three times during his ministry and every time he saw them he threw something at them: water at their baptisms, rice at their weddings, and dirt at their burials.  Often the average church member sees a pastor as the in-house religious professional. By that I mean that pastors are seen as surrogates: they are supposed to “do church” for everyone else. They are the designated students of scripture, proclaimers of the Word, prayer-makers for people and events, and blessers of rituals ecclesiastical and civic. The church which h
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Jesus the Storyteller: Parable of the Two Sons

Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland October 8, 2023 Jesus the Storyteller: Parable of the Two Sons Matthew 21:23-32 [Video can be found at  https://youtu.be/1lZppmfr3Wo? si=R3d34fMITdAYJMZe ] A pastor visited a parishioner who lived by herself in the family home where she had been born 97 years earlier. They had a pleasant talk about things she had experienced in her near century of life: births and deaths, disappointments and celebrations, leavings and returnings. The conversation turned to the church and its history. Seeking a sense of the woman’s faith, the pastor asked if she ever thought about the hereafter. She replied, “I think about it all the time. Every time I go into a room I ask myself, ‘What am I here after?’” I see heads nodding. She’s not alone, is she? I can remember details of things that happened decades ago. But if you were to ask me what I had for dinner Friday night or what I did on Thursday, I would be hard pressed to tell you. You’ve been the
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Go Where? Do What?

Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland June 18, 2023 Go Where? Do What? Matthew 10:1-9, 16-20 [Video may be viewed at  https://www.facebook.com/ChristianCommunityPresbyterianChurch/videos/924549221978937   Scripture and Sermon begin at 42:15] O ne of the top ten words of scripture is the end of Matthew’s gospel: Jesus’ Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). His words are a clarion call to missionary activity. The congregation I last served included retired mission workers who had worked in India, Nepal, China, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Egypt, Iran, Sudan. Their wealth of faith and knowledge was a treasure trove.  Before the age of Zoom meetings, before audio reco
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Have We Forgotten How to Dare?

Colesville Presbyterian Church Silver Spring, Maryland April 23, 2023 Have We Forgotten How to Dare? Luke 24:18-35 ; 1 Peter 1:17-23 Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kauiv3byQk0 ;  (Scripture and Sermon start at 34:14) I n the 1980s (do any of you remember that far back?) there was a weekly syndicated newspaper column titled “Thanks a Million,” written by millionaire Percy Ross. He had decided to give away his money while he was still living. Each of Mr. Ross’ columns featured several requests and his responses. At one point he was receiving over 10,000 letters a week. Here’s one he received, postmarked Newark, New Jersey: “Dear Mister Percy Ross: You are so generous to help so many people. I am poor too but I get bye. I don't need money. I live under a bridge and it has a steam pipe under so I am warm in winter. There is a diner close bye and the dumster is always got food in that trukers don't eat. So I got every thing and don't need money. But I see you in the
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More Than a Name

More Than a Name Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland April 16, 2023 D id you know that Presbyterian Christians have a tendency to keep their faith in our heads. Yes, most of us are more intellectual than emotional about our faith. When was the last time you saw a Presbyterian hot and bothered about Jesus Christ? Hot-and-botheredness usually has to do with someone moving the chancel furniture or changing the font on the bulletins.  If intellectual faith—head faith—and emotional faith—heart faith—were riding the playground seesaw most of us Presbyterians would be sitting on the end of the seesaw on the ground. Faith communities that are heavy into an emotional faith would weight the seesaw in the other direction. Head faith and heart faith need to be in a balanced tension where each aspect of faith—each rider on the seesaw—has an equal chance. When we come to church, we don’t leave our brains or our hearts at the door. God calls us to be complete p
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Time to Go to Work

Time to Go to Work  Ephesians 1:3-14 ;  John 1:1-18 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland January 1, 2023 I  was always on task for Christmas Eve and in some years Christmas Day, too. Our family was never not home for Christmas. When our children were still school-age, we would pack up on the day after Christmas to travel to the grandparents’ home for a second Christmas. We often wended through small towns, where, on December 26th, there were once homed and now homeless Christmas trees huddled at street curbs seeking shelter from the elements.      Nothing packs up and leaves town quicker than Christmas. The world is worn out celebrating Christmas. It’s been almost two months since Halloween witches and goblins were pushed off the stage by Santa’s reindeer. Poinsettias and holly are already replaced by Valentine hearts (any maybe even Patrick’s shamrocks). Once-welcomed carols and songs have been muzaked too many times. The child in the manger is probably walking by n
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Focus, Focus, Focus

Focus, Focus, Focus Hosea 11:1-11 ; Luke 12:13-21 Colesville Presbyterian Church, Silver Spring, MD July 31, 2022 Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ang-VgqERI (Sermon starts at 30:17) S cripture often confronts us with the reality that God’s people have grown tired of God’s love. It’s like the air we breathe; we just do it. Losing the focus of being in God’s love, we wander off to seek other reasons for our being. We search for our focus in a host of distractions, forgetting that our whole being desires, hungers and thirsts after God. That’s what we were created for – “nothing else can satisfy our restless hearts, until they come to rest in God,” in the words of early 5th century North African theologian Augustine. Hebrew prophet Hosea, whose words were read earlier, had been instructed by God to marry a sex worker, a lover who had no abiding love, but loved whoever was at hand to meet their mutual current desires and needs. Hosea contrasts the rent-a-sex-partner life-styl
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