Tell It Like It Is

Texts on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006Isaiah 25: 6-9; Mark 16: 1-8 Mark probably ended his gospel like that. “Terror and amazement had them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” No stories of the appearances of the risen Lord, no...

Surely Not I

Texts on Maundy Thursday, April 13, 2006Matthew 26: 17-30 You have probably heard about the “Gospel of Judas” this last week. A very old tattered parchment tells the story of Jesus’ betrayal with a great twist. Taking Judas aside, Jesus warmly...

Conversion: Looking at Everything at Last

Texts on Palm Sunday, April 9, 20062 Samuel 15: 13-14, 19-23, 30-31& Mark 11: 1-11 When David the king crossed horseless and overthrown out of Jerusalem and down into the Kidron Valley, weeping with all his aides and retainers and their families, he imprinted yet...

Beyond Compare

Delivered at Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of Western New Yorkheld at First Presbyterian Church, WestfieldTuesday, March 28, 2006 Text: John 12: 20-33 I was talking recently with a former executive presbyter from the northeast who served a good long time in the...

Conversion: Guilt and Consciousness

Texts on Sunday, March 19, 2006Jeremiah 2: 9-13, 33-37; John 4: 7-24 This Lent, we are holding our focus on some of the painful, difficult emotions that afflict us on our way. Our purpose is not to teach psychology or do therapy but only to discern the light of the...

The Secret and the Wise

Christmas Eve 2005Text:  Matthew 2: 1-10 A funny thing about Christmas–there isn’t a holiday like it for looking back through memory’s lens. The pictures on our cards and in our minds fetch up scenes from England or Germany in the nineteenth century,...