Women of faith

/Tag:Women of faith
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November 2018

“Old Testament Women of the Bible: Rebekah”/10/7/18/Scripture: parts of ch. 24 and 25/Rev. Laurie Williams

By |November 1st, 2018|Sermons|

    For those of you who have heard all or most of my Old Testament Women of the Bible sermon series so far, you know that I have been rescuing some women in the Old Testament from their bad reputations.  True, there are some women who do terrible things in the Bible, yet even those who ought to be praised are often ridiculed for some reason or another.  In my first sermon, Eve was often spoken of being inferior to Adam even though she was the same status as a partner, and for having caused sin and humanity’s separation from God even though Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree right along with her.  […]

October 2018

“Old Testament Women of the Bible: Esther”/9/30/18/Esther 1:1-4, 7:1-20, 9:20a, 21, 22; James 5:13-16, 19-20/Rev. Laurie Williams

By |October 1st, 2018|Sermons|

          As most of you know, my past three sermons are a part of a series about Old Testament women.  To this point, I have been rescuing them from the bad rap they have received by some biblical scholars and commentators down through the ages.  We have heard of Eve, Sarah and Hagar, and Tamar.  Today I will jump way ahead in scripture and talk about Esther as it is also in the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday.           While there are no known documents of a historical nature concerning Esther, she is very important to the Jewish faith story and consequently our faith too.  This story tells of the salvation of the Jewish people, residing as refugees in Persia, from certain death.  The King in the story is Ahasuerus.  His Persian name was thought to be Xerxes who reigned from 479 to 465 B.C.  […]

August 2018

“OT Women of the Bible Part 2: Sarah and Hagar” 8/26/18 Scripture: Genesis 21:8-21; 18:1-15 by Rev. Laurie Williams

By |August 27th, 2018|Sermons|

         For those of you who were here when I started my sermon series of Old Testament Women of the Bible a little while back, you may remember I started with the figure of Eve.  The Genesis chapter 2 storyteller explains that Eve was with Adam in the Garden of Eden.  Genesis chapters 1-3 are [...]

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. […]

July 2017

Abraham and Sarah/ 7-2-17/ Genesis 12:1-7a; 15:5-6; Genesis 18: 1-14; 21: 1-3/ Rev. Rodger Allen

By |July 12th, 2017|Sermons|

  We have been celebrating a lot of special Sundays lately at Paris Presbyterian Church. Since the beginning of May, we’ve celebrated: Youth Sunday, Mother’s Day, Pentecost, Spring Fling, Memorial Day, Trinity Sunday, and Father’s Day. A lot of special Sundays. While we have been doing that, the Lectionary, in the meantime, the set of recommended Scripture lessons for our consideration in worship, has had as its Old Testament focus some of the stories of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Today we’re going to go back and catch up with a couple of those stories. […]