Guidance

/Tag:Guidance
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May 2018

“Can Anyone Withhold the Water?” Rev. Rodger Allen Acts 8:26-40; Acts 10:23b-28, 34-36, 44-48 4-29-18

By |May 29th, 2018|Sermons|

  Our first Scripture lesson this morning was a complete story in itself; you heard the beginning, the middle, and the end—the story has no other verses before or after: Philip, one of the seven first deacons of the church, appointed in the sixth chapter of Acts, was called by God to go to a road south of Jerusalem. There he met a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch, who was reading Old Testament scripture and looking for someone to explain it to him. Philip obliged, the Ethiopian professed his faith, and Philip baptized him into the early Christian church. A complete story. […]

February 2018

“About Stumblers/For Stumblers”/ I Corinthians 8: 1-13/Hebrews 5:11-6:1b/Rev. Rodger Allen/1-21-18

By |February 21st, 2018|Sermons|

The book of I Corinthians is a letter, written by the Apostle Paul back to the new Christian church he had started in the city of Corinth. In much of it, Paul is responding to questions the new Christians of Corinth had written to him: “OK, Paul, you’ve moved on, and now certain situations have come up here that we’re not sure how to handle; how do we deal with these things?” So Paul writes back and advises them. One of the questions they have asked has to do with the large number of temples to other gods in the city of Corinth. The new Christians knew, of course, that there’s only one true God, and that they’re not to participate in the worship of any other, false gods. Their question was: If you to the market and buy and eat meat that came from an animal that had been offered as a sacrifice to one of those false gods at one of those other temples, does that count as “participating in the worship” of that false god? Because that animal meat had been associated with false worship, should it be avoided by a faithful Christian? […]

August 2017

Jesus on Conflict Management/ 8-20-17/ Matthew 18: 15-17, 21-22; John 15: 1-5; Galatians 5:22-23/ Rev. Rodger Allen

By |August 22nd, 2017|Sermons|

  “The Lectionary,” as many of you have heard before, is a suggested schedule of Bible readings for Sunday worship services, designed to lead us to all of the most important passages of the Bible over a three-year period. Lately the Gospel part of the Lectionary has been walking us through the Gospel of Matthew. So lately we have heard: the sower and seeds parable from the beginning of Matthew 12, the wheat and weeds parable from later in Matthew 12, Peter’s statement of faith “You are the Messiah” in Matthew 16, and so on. And that’s why we are about to hear our next passage, from Matthew 18. It’s not because there is some kind of conflict in the congregation, or because I heard that two of you are quarreling, or there’s a big controversy in the Presbytery or denomination. No, it’s just that it is this passage’s “turn” now. So that being understood: “Jesus said…” (Matthew 18: 15-17, 21-22). […]

April 2017

“Events of Jesus’ Life: 16. Resurrection”/Matthew 28: 1-10, 16-20/Psalm 118: 14-24 4-16-17/Rev. Rodger Allen

By |April 18th, 2017|Sermons|

For fifteen weeks now, we have been looking at the events of Jesus’ life.  We started at Christmas, when we heard once again the story of his birth. We looked at his baptism, as an adult, by John the Baptist; and the temptations he faced in the wilderness as he tried to figure out, as [...]

February 2017

Events of Jesus’ Life: 5. Ministry Begins 1-29-17 Matthew 4:12-17; Matthew 4: 18-25 Rev. Rodger Allen

By |February 15th, 2017|Sermons|

There have been many movie and TV versions of the story of “Superman”—and there may be more  “reboots” in the works now: I have lost track. The one I know best starred Christopher Reeve and came out in the late 1970’s. Superman was born, says that movie, on the planet Krypton, in a society with [...]