Presby-Musings

This week we are launching a brand new sermon series for the month of August--a sermon series entitled "#struggle: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World."   According to the dictionary, a "selfie" is a photograph that one takes of oneself with a smartphone or webcam that is then shared through social media.  The word "selfie" did not exist until ten years ago. But then again, neither did smart phones--at least the kind of smartphones that we have today that can take high resolution, professional quality selfies.   Most selfies aren't an individual affair, though.  More often than not when most of us take a selfie, it's of the group we happen to be hanging with in the moment.  I saw a video where Johnny Depp was obliging some young fans who were taking a selfie with him.  "Why do they call it a selfie," he asked them in his Jack Sparrow character, "when there's more than one of you in it?"     I have here today

This week we are concluding the sermon series that we've been working on for the past several weeks--a sermon series entitled "At The Movies."  Each week we have been using hit movies from the past year to serve as our inspiration and illustrations.   This week we will be relying on this summer's biggest hit, Jurassic World  to help us in our efforts to develop skills to experience God in the world around us.  I know.  That sounds like a tall order, doesn't it?  The fact of the matter is that God is all around us, and is still speaking and creating.  We just need to have eyes that are opened to the reality of God in the world.   Our little weekly conversations throughout this month have been exercises on how to practice opening our eyes.  If you can find the spiritual center of a movie, connect it to Scripture and then again to how you can live a life more fully integrated into the kingdom of God...  then you are on your way to be fully awake to God al

This week we are continuing the sermon series that will take us through the month of July, a sermon series entitled, "At The Movies."  Just like we've been doing throughout this series, we're going to be doing some exciting and imaginative things for the next couple of weeks. Sometimes, you just need to have some fun in church.   But, as I mentioned last week, there's a deeper reason why we are doing this--aside from the obvious fact that it's pretty stinking fun, which it is.  The idea is that you and I are constantly out in the world doing theology, whether we know it or not.  God is all around us--God's presence is all throughout creation, and we are aware of this at some level, even if we don't bring it to mind every second of every day.  Everything is spiritual.  We just have to be awake enough to see it.  This week we are using Disney's Cinderella as our inspiration and illustration for the sermon.  Now the clips that we'll be sh

Today we are going to be continuing the sermon series that we started last week--a sermon series entitled, "At The Movies."  This is a different kind of series for us because we're using movies each week of the series as our inspiration and illustrations for the sermons.   As I mentioned last week, there's a deeper reason why we are doing this--aside from the obvious fact that it's pretty stinking fun, which it is.  The idea is that you and I are constantly out in the world doing theology, whether we know it or not.  God is all around us--God's presence is all throughout creation, and we are aware of this at some level, even if we don't bring it to mind every second of every day.  Everything is spiritual.  We just have to be awake enough to see it.  This week we're going to be using one of my favorite movies from last year as our inspiration and illustration:  The Lego Movie.   Here's a video clip that tells a bit of the story:  So, for

All of the direct quotes for this blog are from "How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World."  by Steven Johnson  In the early 1600's, Galileo Galilei, made an observation in the Duomo of Pisa, when it shook with earth tremors.  The long swinging incense burners and lamps that hung from the ceiling all swung in a unified fashion according to the length of the chains that suspended them.   This observation would eventually lead Galileo to create the first pendulum clock.  It would also lead him to a fuller understanding of the universe, and the fact that Earth revolves around the Sun, and not the other way around   This assertion was believed to be heresy by the Catholic Church.  In his heresy trial in 1633, the following was read to Galileo following his conviction:  “We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo… have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed

This week we are launching a brand new sermon series entitled, "At The Movies."  July happens to be one of the leanest months of the year for church attendance.  It's a fact.  I think it's because it's hot.  I hate being hot, so I naturally apply it to most things.   July also happens to be a month when lots of people go to the movies.  I actually love going to the movies.  It's something you can do in July that isn't hot and won't make you sweat.  Unless you're watching a naughty movie like 50 Shades of Grey , and then you're probably sweating because you're afraid you'll see someone from church in the theater with you.   Although--if you are both in the theater than...  kind of a stand off.   Anyway, we thought that it would be awesome to do a sermon series that incorporated movies into the sermons--as inspiration and perhaps illustrations, too.  So over the next few weeks we'll be using some popular films as themes for