freedom in Christ

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April 2019

“A Brief History of Time:/3. God Responds”/Rom. 5:1-11; Gen. 11:27-12:8/Rev. Rodger Allen/3-31-19

By |April 4th, 2019|Sermons|

Some of you may have noticed that there are a lot of books in this building. There are shelves of books in the Koinonia Kafe, available to be borrowed and read. There are books in the Pastor’s Office, which Laurie and I brought here with us. There’s a wonderful collection downstairs, a Children’s Library, available for you. Plus the Bibles and hymnals in the pews – lots of books. As I was rooting around through some of the books one day, I came across two books that have some very interesting stories in them, and I thought I might tell you some of those stories today. The odd thing about both books, however, is that they each seem to have some pages missing, because it appears that the whole stories aren’t in there, just pieces. And it gets frustrating, because they’re good stories, and we want to know the rest; we’d like to hear the whole thing. […]

July 2018

“Ephesians Chapter One: Who You Are”/Rev. Rodger Allen/Eph. 1:1-6; Eph. 1:7-16/7.8.18

By |July 16th, 2018|Sermons|

        I don’t know if this custom was ever practiced in this church, or if so, how long ago it was, but it used to be the practice, in many Presbyterian churches, of deciding what the topics for sermons would be in this way: The minister would select a book of the Bible, like Exodus or Acts or Hebrews, and in a series of sermons, week by week, preach straight through that book, chapter 1 to the end, as many Sundays as it took. They didn’t choose their topics by looking at a particular issue or development in the world or in the church, and addressing that. Or by following, more or less, a Lectionary or other schedule of Bible readings that allow the congregation to sample most sections of the Bible over the course of a couple years. Their series weren’t interrupted by special days or seasons like Pentecost, Advent, or Community Honeybee services, because they didn’t observe those days and seasons back then. Nope, straight through one book. I’ve heard accounts of 30 consecutive sermons on Romans, or Revelation, as they were analyzed paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, word by word. […]

May 2018

“Happy Anniversaries: Celebrating the Gifts of Women” Rev. Rodger Allen Acts 1:12-14, 9:36, 16: 14-15; Galatians 3:27-28; Luke 8:1-3; Rom. 16:1-6 5-13-18

By |May 15th, 2018|Sermons|

               The television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” depicts many scenes from Jesus’ life, as reported in the gospels . . . well embellished somewhat, Hollywood just can’t help itself, but mostly from the gospels – from Jesus’ birth to his resurrection. Among the scenes included is the one Luke 4 and Matthew 13 relate to us, where Jesus reads the Scriptures and preaches at his home synagogue, the church he grew up in, in Nazareth. And one thing I remember about that scene is how the synagogue was arranged: Jesus was up front, being a worship leader that day; the men of Nazareth were seated on benches in front of him; and then in the back of the synagogue, behind a screen, were the women and children, including his mother, Mary. The one person who knew most, at this point, about who Jesus was and what he meant; and the one who would feel most deeply his joys and sorrows the next years, along with her own; his mother: she could only look on from a distance, and only see dimly, through that screen. […]

February 2018

“Humor that is Divine” 2/11/18 Scripture: Mt 5:4-5; 7:1-5; 23:23-24; Eccl 3:1-8; Ps 52:1-8 by Rev. Laurie Williams

By |February 28th, 2018|Sermons|

            This is actually Part 1 of 2 parts, the second of which I will preach on next week even though it is the first Sunday in Lent.  I have a lot more research and fun stuff I want to share with you.           AliKay Wood posted this article back in the Fall:  “It was 45 minutes to my cousin’s wedding reception in Nashville, Tennessee, and my mom was driving. I had my cousin’s vanilla-frosted, two-tier wedding cake on my lap.  My mom made a sharp left turn, and the box went flying.  The cake was smashed against the dashboard. Frosting was smeared all over the inside of the rental car. […]

May 2016

Try Again Through Christ’s Newness 4/24/16 Rev. 21:1-6; 2 Cor. 5:14-19 by Rev. Laurie Williams

By |May 9th, 2016|Sermons|

         While this might show my age:  Have you ever started to write something only to erase it repeatedly over and over until you end up with the paper almost worn through?  You erase it so that you would be able to take another stab at writing what you really want to write- in other words, you try again- but you might have to throw away that piece of paper and start over.  I remember playing with an etch-a-sketch when I was a child.  It was one of my favorite possessions.  Perhaps you had or your child had an etch-a-sketch too.  I would create a picture or a word with lines using two control knobs that wouldn’t always do what I wanted them to do.  It was a very rudimentary contraption compared to any kind of technology we have now.  If I wanted to change my picture or something about the word or words I had created I would carefully shake the etch-a-sketch trying to only erase what I wanted to change.  Again, because it was so rudimentary that didn’t always work for me.  Sometimes, everything I had created was gone and I couldn’t merely try to correct my picture, I had to start all over again.  That was a bummer!  I simply wanted to try again not start again. […]