Where will you go when your Kingdoms lay in ruins? In the history of higher education in America two aspects of education were initially fused in the social function of education: (1) personal piety and discipline buttressed by Calvinist and Puritan theological systems; and (2) the overwhelming social structural foundations created by the various denominations [...]
Posts under ‘Sermons’
Sermon: Love Ain't That Easy
(This was about twice as long as typical for me, but I think people kept their attention up!) Love Ain’t That Easy Texts: Deut. 6:4-7; Lev. 19:13-18; Mark 12:28-34 First Presbyterian Church of Hollidaysburg Hollidaysburg, PA The title of today’s sermon sounds a bit like a country song or a blues riff doesn’t it? You [...]
Discomfort in Preaching
I have never been comfortable after preaching. I have never thought for once that I did a "good job". It's an elusive cycle. If I am affirmed too much by the congregation, I feel that something was missing in the message because none of it is to make the congregation feel particularly good, but reveal [...]
The Radical Love of God
So follow the logic here. All have sinned and all fall short, Christ died for the ungodly while they were still sinners. This means that Christ did not die for a few people or any particular group of people, but all people. And as the Cross is a decisive moment in history where the eternal love of God meets the fragile limits of what it means to be human, it is also the decisive moment for our history, for our moment in life right now. So why is it so radical? Why is this so hard to fully comprehend, it seems obvious enough right? Let me give you a couple of thoughts as to why this is so radical and so decisive.
