Presby-Musings

In the book of Revelation, at the end of the New Testament, we read these words:  9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” After this beginning, John the Revelator revealed an incredible vision that has confounded scholars and theologians for centuries.   The book of Revelation has been the source of countless misinterpretations, bad theology, fevered visions of the future, not to mention the foundation of many of the strange ideas and beliefs that many Christians hold about the end of the world.  John the Revelator's vision happened on the Greek island of Patmos, whic...

On my recent trip to Greece and Turkey, I returned for my second visit to the incredible archaeological site of the ancient city of Ephesus.   It's been well over a decade since my last visit to Ephesus, and I was amazed at how much more work had been done to uncover even more of its history.  Ephesus was one of the many cities in the Roman Empire where the Apostle Paul not only visited during his missionary journeys but also worked to establish a church that would continue to grow long after he left.  Paul's Letter to the Ephesians in the New Testament contains some specific information about the church and its congregants but is generally believed to be a cyclical letter, one that was copied to be distributed to several churches.  The tour I was on was billed as a journey in "The Footsteps of Paul," However, there were very few places on the tour where we could firmly say that we were walking where Paul most likely walked.  Ephesus was one of those places...

Today we are going to be concluding the sermon series that we've been working on entitled, The Wilderness Wanderer - Lessons from the Life of Moses We are exploring some key texts from the life of Moses. We’ll learn what it means to trust God, live in faith, and journey toward God’s purposes.   Today, we are going to be reading the story of Moses passing.  And we’re going to be learning about how the roles we play in life are more important than we think—even the ones where we can’t see the ending.  I want you to think of at least three people in your life who incredibly affected you—but they never really knew how important they were to you.   Let's have a couple of people share their story.   What did they say or do that impacted your life so much?  Have you ever felt like you’ve been that person? WE ARE ALL PART OF A BIGGER STORY GOD IS WRITING 34 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jerich...

Mykonos, Greece, is easily one of the most beautiful and picturesque islands in all of Greece.   In my recent journey to Greece and Turkey, I had the chance to visit Mykonos for the second time in my life, but the first time I visited in the evening.   I was enchanted by the beauty I discovered on a walking town tour and absolutely blown away by the spectacular sunset that evening.   The narrow streets of Mykonos are filled with shops, restaurants, and chapels as they twist and turn, revealing even more beauty after every bend.  The town's sights, sounds, and smells filled me with wonder, and I did not want to leave.   Isn't it interesting how we often find ourselves overcome by the beauty in the world?  Even the most jaded among us have moments when our breath is taken away when we encounter beauty.   With how the world seems right now, it's easy to forget its beauty.   And there is good reason to be distracted becau...

Outside the spectacular views of Holy Meteora in Greece, there is a non-descript workshop and shop embedded in what can only be described as a strip mall on the side of the road.   The Pefkis Workshop of Byzantine Icoons lies within, and it was one of the most fascinating stops on my recent journey through Greece.  Father Theodore Pefkis (a Greek Orthodox Priest), his wife and sons, and various other family members are the principal artists, and with a host of woodworkers, they create their icons by hand right there on the premises.  Their icons have become so sought after that the Vatican has commissioned them to create an altarpiece.  Each frame is hand-carved from local wood – cedar, walnut, linden, or beech – then covered with a canvas made from cotton fabric and coated with a thin layer of plaster. Unlike other religious icons, those produced at the Pefkis workshop are painted on canvas rather than wood. I got to see Father Pefkis at work alongside his wife...

One of the most dramatic locations I visited during my recent visit to Greece was an area known by the locals as Holy Meteroa, near the village of Kalabaka.  The word meteora  means "suspended in air," which essentially describes the six monasteries built on top of the impressive towers of stone that rise majestically from the foothills.   These monasteries were all founded from the 12th to the 14th centuries, but there had been Christian hermits living in caves on the side of the cliffs for centuries.   Each community that occupied these isolated and largely inaccessible monasteries chose the locations because they were isolated and inaccessible.  They wanted little to do with the outside world and desired only to focus on worship, work, and devotion to God.  But over the centuries, villages and communities began to spring up beneath them, and the monks and nuns began to serve and be served by the people in them.   Now, their primary s...

In the Acts of the Apostles chapter 16, we have the story of how the Apostle Paul came to start a church in Philippi, the most important city of Macedonia, centuries before Christ.   Macedonia is now part of Greece (or, officially known, The Hellenic Republic), but it was under Roman occupation and rule then.   The city, founded by King Philip of Macedonia (father to Alexander the Great), had become, under Roman rule, a metropolis filled with loyalists to the Empire.   The Romans granted land rights to retired soldiers, so there was no shortage of the cult of the Emperor---meaning Caesar was worshipped like a god there with great enthusiasm.  There was also no synagogue in Philippi, which made Paul's mission there even more challenging.  In every city where Paul would visit to share the Good News of Jesus, he would always start at the local synagogues. So when he and his companions arrived in Philippi, they decided to go to the river near the city...

Recently, I had the opportunity to journey to Greece and Turkey as part of a Footsteps of Paul tour with members and friends of my church.  As part of that journey, we went to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, located in the country's northern region.  It's also the city where the Apostle Paul visited and helped start a church during his missionary journeys.  Thessaloniki experienced a rapid surge in churches built during the Byzantine Empire, including the impressive Church of Saint Demetrios, refurbished and expanded from earlier constructions. There had been a church on the site since the early 4th Century dedicated to St. Demetrios (patron of Thessaloniki), a young man who was executed there for defending his Christian friend against persecution by a Roman soldier.   Demetrios was not a Christian but was later afforded legendary stories that included a conversion to the Christian faith.  During the Ottoman occupation of Greece, most churc...

Today, we continue our sermon series "The Wilderness Wanderer: Lessons from the Life of Moses." We are exploring some key texts from the life of Moses. We’ll learn what it means to trust God, live in faith, and journey toward God’s purposes.   Today, we will focus on how God showed Moses God’s “hind parts.”  You can’t make this up.  And we’re going to be learning how sometimes the glory of God in the world is almost more than we can handle—but it only takes a little to make us shine.  Think of a time when you knew that whatever you were experiencing was beyond your ability to describe it…  What was it about that moment that affected you so?  Doesn’t some part of you long to feel that again? Some of the places where I've experienced the glory of God...  Christ Church Meadow, Oxford, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Peter's Basilica, The floor of a Pentecostal Church in Nashville Why does it feel like we only get a glimpse?  What can we do to hol...

Today we are continuing our sermon series entitled "The Wilderness Wanderer: Lessons from the Life of Moses."   In this installment we will focus on the "Shalls and Shall Nots" of the Ten Commandments.  And we're going to be learning that sometimes the bar that is set by religious guidelines can be simultaneously too high, and extremely low, depending on where you're at in terms of your faith journey.  Let's talk for a bit about the Ten Commandments.   There's been a few cinematic depictions of the story that we're going to be reading:  Charlton Heston, and his big old beard.  Mel Brooks, and the 15--no 10 Commandments.  Prince of Egypt.  They have also been the subject of some controversy as battle lines have been drawn about where these commandments should be displayed.  Images of Ten Commandments in public spaces - protest  The problem with the Ten Commandments is that it's not really only "ten commandments." There ended up ...

One of the best books I've read over the past five years is Peter Enns' The Sin Of Certainty.  This book was instrumental in developing my own theology and provided me the language I needed to articulate it better.  The book's thesis is simply this: Many Christians "mistake 'certainty' and 'correct belief' for faith when God really desires trust and intimacy." Enns provides space for the reader to wrestle with the notion that doubt and skepticism are not the enemies of the faith but rather provide us with the opportunity to deepen our faith if we are courageous enough.  But for many Christians, the fear of what might be on the other side of doubt and skepticism is too much to bear, so they double down on the perceived safety of certainty.  According to Enns, the refusal to move past the safety of certainty when it comes to our beliefs falls short of what God desires.    We also fashion a faith that clearly delineates lines between who is allowed in...

One of the many things humans long for (even if we don't know how to articulate it) is to live in wholeness.   We long to live as whole people---the kind of people who know what it means to have peace within, to do work that we love, to live out of abundance rather than scarcity, and to be fully known by others.  You might think, "I can name at least ten people I know who don't seem to have that longing."  It could be that these people on your list appear to be angry, dissatisfied, morose, destructive, and perhaps even toxic.   But I would argue that the fear of never realizing our longing for wholeness drives us to become the sort of people who seem to pursue anything other than wholeness.  And more often than not, that fear is grounded in the mistaken notion that wholeness somehow means perfection.   It is hard to accept the idea that our lives will never be perfect. In fact, it's so hard that most of us tend to look outside ourselves for s...

Recently, I saw a wonderful interview with Diana Butler-Bass, one of the prominent public theologians of our time.    Butler-Bass was asked to identify the most important question we should ask about God and faith today, and she cited the work of the 18th-century preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards.  Edwards is most famous for a sermon that he preached during what was commonly known as The Great Awakening in American history.  The sermon was "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God."  It was said that Edwards preached in a monotone speaking style that lacked the bombast of revivalists like his contemporary George Whitfield, who could enthrall large crowds with his oratorical skills.  But when Edwards read "Sinners" in public, people would faint at his imagery of the human soul dangling over the precipice of Hell like a spider hanging by a thread over a fire.  Hey, it was a different time, to be sure.  When you don't have Netflix, I guess it does...

There's a decided lack of kindness in our society today.   I don't want to say it doesn't exist because it does.  There are warm and beautiful moments when people act beyond their own self-interests for the sake of others.  We can find them if we are looking for them. And we often experience it ourselves.  But in general, kindness has taken a backseat to outrage, suspicion, fear, and pure hatred in some cases.   As you might imagine, social media has played a huge role in this.  In our current culture, it's far too common for some to use social media to bully, ridicule, and cancel other people than it is to show them kindness and grace.  The political landscape has become absolutely toxic, often serving as the worst example of what has become acceptable regarding how we disagree with one another. Sadly, far too many people in our society claim to be Christian, attend church regularly, and spend an inordinate amount of time ridiculing and deni...

The multitude of studies that have been done over the past few years to determine the cause of so many people identifying as having "no religion" reveals that one of the main reasons is that religion (and Christianity in particular) is "anti-science."   There's some truth in that assessment, to be fair.   Because I travel in the Christian lane of religious thought, I can speak with some authority about what I have observed firsthand, and the anti-science voices within Christianity speak loudly and frequently enough to verify that assumption.  Many Christians assume (because that's what they've been taught) that the Bible should be taken literally, even the parts that weren't taken literally by the originators who passed them down thousands of years ago.  Perhaps unknowingly, Christians who adopt this stance have entered into a centuries-old debate that goes back to St. Augustine, who wrote about this in 415 AD.   Augustine wrote that to believe th...

Today, we are launching an October sermon series entitled "The Wilderness Wanderer: Lessons from the Life of Moses."  We are exploring some key texts from the life of Moses. We’ll learn what it means to trust God, live in faith, and journey toward God’s purposes.   To start this series, we will focus on how God can heal our fractured relationships when we feel they are beyond healing.   The story we’re exploring involves a desert, angry, thirsty people, and a leader without answers.   Every single one of us has been at a place where we find ourselves in crisis over something that has been said or done to jeopardize a relationship.   Here are some tips on what not to say.  Worst things to say to a wife/girlfriend:  You ate that whole thing? You're right; Heather did look hot tonight. Calm down. (Also, Relax) You should smile more.  You look tired. Let me explain it better; I don't think you understand.  You sound like your ...