Occasional Sermons

Christ’s Peace Is Disruptive Mark 10:2-16 Christian Community Presbyterian Church, Bowie, Maryland 3 October 2021 Our Presbyterian theological tradition lifts up the link between pulpit and table. Our formative documents talk about Word and Sacrament. One of our three ordained offices is minister of Word and Sacrament (often called pastor). Ministers of Word and Sacrament, serving as preachers and teachers of the Word, “shall preach and teach the faith of the church, so that the people are shaped by the pattern of the gospel and strengthened for witness and service [and] when they serve at font and table shall interpret and ‘show forth’ the mysteries of grace in word and action.” (G-2.0501)     John Calvin, our Presbyterian spiritual grandfather, considered the font and table as equally important as the pulpit in worship. Much to the horror of many Presbyterians since, Calvin thought that the table should be used weekly, not monthly, or quarterly or, as some of our dour S...

Water Mark 1:4-11 Christian Community Presbyterian Church, Bowie, Maryland 10 January 2021 Water...     What’s your first memory of water? When were you cognizant that water was something more than what went in a sippy cup or a bath tub?     Water can be described in many ways beside wet. Water is dangerous, fun, cleansing, comforting, scary, powerful, useful, purifying, vast, simple, complex. Water is used in so many ways that we don’t really notice it. Water...     Water is dangerous. In 2017 Hurricane Harvey deposited more than four feet of water on some eastern Texas communities. A 50 foot tsunami wall of water caused a meltdown at the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power plant in 2011. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina breached levees and flooded much of New Orleans.     Water...dangerous...destructive...deadly. The waters of baptism are also dangerous, destructive and deadly.     Two boys, walking through the woods alon...

The Other Matthew 15:10-28 Christian Community Presbyterian Church, Bowie, Maryland 16 August 2020 Let’s be blunt from the outset. Today’s gospel reading offends hearers. The first part offended the Pharisees. While the Pharisees seethe, we cheer because Jesus puts them – the bad guys – in their place by his actions or words. Then we get shocked at Jesus’ attitude and language toward the Canaanite woman and the Pharisees say, “Aha!” as nice Jesus gets dressed down by the Canaanite woman and is taught a lesson about inclusiveness and love.     In a passage in Romans 11, which I will use later as the call to congregational confession, Paul goes after his own people for their obstinacy and disobedience. He says that God has benched them while the second team – the Gentiles – get their chance to play God’s game of gracious life.     In the same vein, Isaiah, years before either Jesus or Paul, in the words we used as this morning’s call to worship, says that mai...

Wheat Privilege Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland July 12, 2020 How many of you have not heard this two-part gospel reading before? Raise your hands. Hmm. That’s what I expected, I don’t see any. The first part is usually called the “Parable of the Sower.” It’s one of the more familiar of Jesus’ parables. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have versions of it. It is immediately followed by the disciples asking why Jesus spoke in parables. Jesus responds and then offers an explanation of the parable, the second part of this morning’s reading. The curious thing is that this is the only parable that Jesus ever explained. In Mark’s and Luke’s telling Jesus then offered a purpose for parables:     “No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become kn...

Ascension Is for All Time Luke 24:44-53 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland May 24, 2020 This is the seventh Sunday of Easter. It is also Sunday after the Ascension. We don’t think much about Christ’s Ascension, except when we recite the Apostles’ Creed: “he ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God.” Tradition tells us that the Ascension was forty days after the resurrection, which would have been last Thursday.     What’s so special about the Ascension? After all, the resurrection wins as the most important event in Jesus’ life, Christmas places second, and Pentecost shows at a distant third. We forget that the Jesus event is a package deal. We don’t get to cherry pick Jesus’ life or teachings.     Luke thought that the Ascension was important. He told the story twice: at the end the Gospel and at the beginning of the Book of the Acts, emphasizing different aspects of the story in each telling. The Ascension concludes...

It Takes a Wilderness to Declutter Your Soul Matthew 4:1-11 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland 1 March 2020 Listen to the sermon Lent is a lot like New Year’s. Both begin the day after the night before. Mardi Gras is just a ramped-up New Year’s Eve. Instead of holding glasses of champagne and singing “Auld Lang Syne,” we eat King Cake washed down with Cajun cocktails. Both New Year’s and Lent occasion a lot of resolutions, nearly all of which quickly get broken. So, with only four Lent days behind us, has your Lenten discipline fared as well as your January get-fit resolution? Last Sunday Dick Neff talked about giving things up or taking things on for the Lenten season. Like Dick’s friend who gave up parsnips and turnips, a child at the dinner table told her mother, “These are vegetables. You don’t want me to eat something I’ve given up for Lent, do you?” Dick urged us to take up something new for Lent. I’m all for that, but taking on something new is...

Work in the Realm of God   Luke 14:1, 7-14 Christian Community Presbyterian Church Bowie, Maryland 24 September 2017   Formal table fellowship is complicated. A lot of us have faced the perplexity of the extra forks and spoons in a formal table setting: Which one do I use with which course? (Basic rule of thumb is to use the fork or spoon on the outside first.)   I suspect, however, that few of us have dealt with the often very diplomatic problems of seating people. It is supposedly a social no-no to have an odd number of persons at the table. That is because in a formal setting people are to engage in conversation with their neighbors. Gentlemen are supposed to speak first with the lady on the right, and then during the next course to converse with the lady on the left. This continues through the meal. Did you notice the underlying seating arrangement? Male, female, male, female, etc., with the honored male guest next to the female host and the honored female gues...