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Sermons
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Below is an index of the past messages from the pulpit at Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church with introductory text and scripture references. All sermons are by The Reverend Dr. Randall Tremba unless otherwise noted. Each sermon is available in PDF format by selecting the sermon date and title heading shown in color. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, please  click here to obtain the viewer.

Please check out our newest feature:  Sermon PodCasts (updated August 2009!) featuring the lastest audio versions of weekly sermons. In addition to listening on-line, for those with iTunes, you can subscribe to the weekly podcast and have them downloaded to your music/podcast library. Please contact the  office if you have any questions or need assistance.
  • March 17, 2013 Bind Your Heart
  • October 14, 2012 Light Out of Darkness
    • It may be dark, rainy and cold. But you can count on this: the sun will rise again. Light will arise out of darkness.
  • October 7, 2012 Green Bean Stew
    • What are you going to do when people are suffering right in front of your eyes? What can one person do?
  • September 30, 2012 House of Peace
    • One hundred fifty years ago something holy arose from the floor of this Meeting House. It is our privilege and responsibility to embody that spirit of peace and healing.
  • September 23, 2012 Peace Beyond Our Fears
    • One hundred and fifty years ago this very day, wounded and dying young men lay upon the floorboards of this Meeting House.
  • September 16, 2012 Wisdom Cries
    • if wisdom is the source of fullness of life, compassion is the way, which is to say, the means, the measure, and the fruit.    
  • September 9, 2012 Cultivating Kindness
    • We can’t always feel love or feel loving toward another, but it is still possible to act kindly.
  • September 2, 2012 Be Kind
    • This morning I’m going to do something that Jesus apparently couldn’t do and that is: be kind to hypocrites.
  • August 26, 2012 Building a House
    • This congregation is blessed to be building on a tradition that is reformed and always reforming.
  • August 19, 2012 Getting to Forgiveness
    • To be human is to get hurt. So if you’re going to live in this world, you’re going to have to get to forgiveness sooner or later.
  • August 12, 2012 Facing Our Darkness
    • We can’t eliminate the darkness in the world or in our lives. But we can face it knowing that light arises out darkness time and time again.
  • August 5, 2012 What Good Is Guilt
    • It’s no good at all if you allow it to cripple or destroy you.
  • July 29, 2012 Act with Wisdom
    • In case you hadn’t notice, your own wit is really just a half-wit. So if you consult that wit only, you can end up making foolish decisions.
  • July 22, 2012 Cultivating Compassion
    • Listen now with new ears, as the Beloved says: you are blessed.  All you who are struggling, sad, hungry, hurting. All you who long for healing and peace, you are blessed, because God is already in and with you showing you the way, the way of compassion. You, my friends, are the light of the world
  • July 15, 2012 Reflections
    • By Joshua Nolan and Kari Edge
  • July 8, 2012 "Lacunas"
    • The fastest growing religious status is “none.” Is that because we are not being honest in our God talk?
  • July 1, 2012 Get Up
    • Not only did our youth get up, they got up and out of themselves in order to get into the suffering of others—in this case, a young family.
  • June 24, 2012 Wake Up
    • No one gets a storm-free ride across the sea of life.
  • June 17, 2012 Light for the Kingdom
    • One year ago I was getting mail and phone calls from people all across the country. A few were negative. But by far most were positive.
  • June 10, 2012 Rebuilding Common Life
    • Much is in ruins in our nation. But all is not lost. We can rebuild. It’s time to stop shouting at each and start listening to each other.
  • June 3, 2012 The Way of Compassion
    • The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
  • May 27, 2012 The Spirit of Peace
    • People filled with the spirit of peace are crying out in every tongue, in every language and in every place: Let there be peace.
  • May 20, 2012 Sent
    • This morning I’d like to speak specifically to our three high school graduates (Kate, Justin, and Katya). Of course, the rest of you are welcomed to listen in.
  • May 13, 2012 Fire of Love
    • The way of Jesus is not a way out of this world but a certain way of being in this world, of being in love, of being on fire with love. And that includes loving those whom the world, societies and churches exclude or stigmatize.
  • May 6, 2012 Servant Leadership
    • I will be eternally grateful for Verle Headings and the way he showed us and me how to answer the call of love.
  • April 29, 2012 Letting Go
    • Twenty three years ago today my life shifted course
  • April 22, 2012 Amazing Surprises
    • The Resurrected Christ made an appearance last month on the Eastern Shore
  • April 15, 2012 This is my Body
    • Who isn't part of Mother Earth's family?
  • April 8, 2012 Roll Away the Stone
    • There are times when all you want to do is crawl in a hole, curl up and die.
  • April 1, 2012 Walking to Jerusalem
    • If you dare, take the hand of Jesus and go with him to Jerusalem.
  • March 25, 2012 Call from Tomorrow
    • Things change. People change. One world dies; another is born.
  • March 18, 2012 People So True To Love
    • Hate is easy. Love is hard. Revenge is easy. Forgiveness is hard. Despair is easy. Hope is hard.
  • March 11, 2012 The Grace of the World
    • "The Grace of the World"
    It's a beautiful thing.
  • March 4, 2012 Hope for the Hopeless
    • Yes, there is
  • February 26, 2012 Wilderness Way
    • The journey toward wholeness...invites us, again and again,  to let go of our expectations, our carefully constructed images of ourselves and of God, and to be willing for wilderness, where a self centered orientation can be broken down and an other-centered life made possible.
  • February 19, 2012 Live in the Light
    • Let's listen to what the Beloved says.
  • February 12, 2012 Healing Prayer
    • Caring for the sick and dying is a gospel mandate.
  • February 5, 2012 Prayerful service
    • Let's keep both together.
  • January 29, 2012 Unclean Spirit
    • Can we clean up our discourse?
  • January 22, 2012 Called Out
    • Watch out for those interruptions
  • January 15, 2012 Know Yourself
    • We are fearfully and wonderfully made
  • January 8, 2012 Servant Community
    • Baptism is the first ordination to service in the world.
  • December 18, 2011 Born In Us
    • We, too, bear the divine into the world
  • December 11, 2011 Repair the Ruins
    • Where will you begin?
  • December 4, 2011 Mighty Be Our Powers
    • Pray the Devil Back to Hell
  • November 27, 2011 Awake
    • Keep your eyes and hearts open to wonder.
  • 11/20/11 Communion Announcement
  • November 20, 2011 The Least of These
    • What does the Lord require of you?
  • November 13, 2011 A Force More Powerful
    • Was Jesus really onto something?
  • November 6, 2011 Practice Peace
    • The way of non-violence must be taught.
  • October 30, 2011 Practice Love
    • We know how. Now what?
  • October 23, 2011 reflections
    • Reflections by Esther Murphy and Joshua Nolen
  • October 16, 2011 Giving Back
    • So what belongs to God? One might reasonably ask, "what doesn’t?"
  • October 9, 2011 Habits of the Heart
    • Each of us is troubled or anxious in one way or another. In just a few minutes we will practice a habit of the heart that can open us to a peace that surpasses understanding.
  • October 2, 2011 Peace in the World
    • Today is World Communion Sunday. Yes, we have domestic violence on our mind. But we mustn’t overlook the world and the violence within and between nations, peoples and tribes. It’s everywhere. Who or what can stop it?
  • September 25, 2011 The Mind of Christ
    • Next Sunday evening we will gather here for PEACEFEST. And before the night is over we will offer a blessing to those who work with and for victims of domestic violence. I’m pretty sure it’s what Christ has in mind for such peacemakers.
  • September 18, 2011 Inventive Powers
    • Yes, times are gloomy. Economic forecasts are grim. Jobs have vanished. Yes, there are reasons to be discouraged and afraid. But there are reasons to be hopeful.
  • September 11, 2011 Song of Peace
    • Ten years ago on Sept. 11th enemies of our nation danced for joy as we reeled from a devastating attack. They weren’t the first or last to dance upon the grave of an enemy.
  • September 4, 2011 Day of Remembrance
    • Next Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, will be a Day of Remembrance. What will we remember?
  • August 28, 2011 - Stony the Road
    • Martin Luther King’s dream for a better America did not end with that speech on Aug. 28, 1963, or with the Civil Rights achievements. Soon thereafter King spoke out against war and poverty, against escalating militarism and insidious materialism in our land. And for that he would be roundly criticized and ostracized by many who once walked with him.
  • August 21, 2011 Saving Paul
    • Pay attention, Paul is saying: don’t allow yourselves or your communal lives to be shaped, formed, de-formed by the broken values of the empire. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds. 
  • August 14, 2011 Reflections by Terry Lindsay & Kay Schultz
    • Reflection on Genesis 45:1-15 by Terry Lindsay. Reflection on Matthew 15 by Kay Schultz
  • August 7, 2011 Step Out
    • These days the world is tking a beating like a boat twisting in a turbulent sea, battered by a storm packing fierce winds and ferocious waves. Our nation is taking a beating in more ways than one. And maybe you know a friend or neighbor taking a beating unable to get their head above the water, overwhelmed by fear, poverty, grief, bitterness, or just bad luck.
  • July 31, 2011 A Hungry World
    • The world is hungry for some good news because the bad news feels so overwhelming.
  • July 24, 2011 The Rule of Love
    • One hundred years ago a young man left Japan on a ship to unite with his brother in England. On the way he lost all his money and his passport. He had to disembark in San Francisco. His life was suddenly in jeopardy. But a small seed of kindness was about to enter his world that would lead him to West Virginia.
  • July 17, 2011 Wheat and Weeds
    • This morning we have before us a parable about good seed and bad seed which is timely because everywhere we look these days there seems to be more weeds than wheat, more bad seed than good. Things are looking pretty grim these days.
  • July 10, 2011 Seeds of Justice
    • At our “Storied Evening” last Wednesday, Davitt McAteer, lead investigator of the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, told a riveting story, a story of crime, sin, greed, death, and sorrow with a glimmer of hope at the end: life is not predetermined. Choices matter.
  • July 3, 2011 Thoroughfare of Freedom
    • This morning I have sex, marriage, America, and the Presbyterian Church on my mind. I’ll start with America and get to each of the others in turn.
  • July 26, 2011 Keep Listening
    • The lesson before us this morning is a complicated and troubling story. But there is one very simple lesson to take from it: When you think you really got a grip on the truth, keep listening.
  • June 12, 2011 Living Peace
    • The creative power of peace was the passion of Jesus and is the power of Christ, somehow risen, living, pulsing with possibility, within a certain community yes, and spreading like wildfire beyond it, in and through each single life where an opening is found. Then and now.
  • June 5, 2011 Witnesses
    • Is it possible that a dramatic change in the human brain or consciousness was discovered or revealed within the death and Resurrection of Jesus? Did evolution make a quantum leap that we are still trying to sort out?
  • May 29, 2011 An Unknown God
    • The question of “god” is a big one. But for us these days “Jesus” is the bigger question.  Who was and is Jesus really? In case you hadn't noticed, we live in a “Jesus haunted” culture.
  • May 22, 2011 The Only Way
    • Indeed, love is the way—the only way. There is no other way of living in this world that leads to authentic and abundant life. Love one another as I have loved you. The one and only way as it turns out is full of many different ways to love others.
  • May 15, 2011 Reforming Policies
    • In case you hadn’t heard, SPC was mentioned on NPR’s “Tell Me More” program Friday morning and today we are highlighted in an op-ed piece in the LA Times. How did that happen?
  • May 8, 2011 Reforming Practices
    • For the past three years, at the request of the Presbyterian Church’s Office of Worship and Theology and with our own Session’s concurrence, we have communed more frequently than any time in the history of this church. This morning I’d like to offer some historic background to put this experiment in perspective. So, here’s a little lesson on the history of the Presbyterian Church in general and this church in particular.
  • May 1, 2011 The First Day of the Week (Again!)
    • This afternoon at 4:30 eleven of our youth will declare themselves ready to stand within the Presbyterian tradition of Christian faith and to continue a spiritual adventure with this congregation.  Do you know how extraordinary that is?
  • April 24, 2011 Grace Abounds
    • The way of Jesus before and after the Resurrection was not—and is not—a way out of this world into another; rather it is a certain way of being in this world. It’s the way of love. It’s the way that never dies out.
  • April 17, 2011 Forsaken
    • Once upon a time, when Jesus was but a child he woke up screaming, terrified by a nightmare. In the darkness, he felt Mary’s hand cup his head to her breast. It’s OK my son. It’s OK. I’m here with you.
  • April 10, 2011 Reflections by Rob Glenn & Phil Baker-Shenk
  • April 3, 2011 The Only Thing That Matters
    • Like the rest of scripture, Psalm 23 is not so much about dying, or what happens after we do so, as it is about living…a certain way of living, with God, or perhaps we could say Goodness (with a capital “G”) as our Guide, our Center, the Ground of our Being. Its about  “dwelling in the house of the Lord”, or we might say, abiding in the Presence of Love, the whole length of our days, as the Hebrew implies.  It is a powerful statement not just of comfort but of identity, and even resistance—because if the Lord is my Shepherd (if Goodness is my Guide) then Caesar is not.  And I, therefore, lack nothing and need not fear, no matter what my TV tells me.
  • March 27, 2011 Thirsting
    • I’m not sure what you’re thirsting for these days. But let me ask you: is it enough?
  • March 20, 2011 Tsunami of Compassion
    • So, what are we to make of the apocalyptic nightmare hanging over Japan? Much, I suppose. But I’ll suggest just two lessons.
  • March 13, 2011 Being Human
    • Unlike humans, our new puppy Lucy has no devil inside nagging her to get more, do more, or be more than she is. Which is one way of seeing the temptations of Jesus.
  • March 6, 2011 Seeing Jesus
    • You see, it’s not just Jesus that radiates light. It’s you as well. You are one amazingly beautiful person. So, don’t be afraid. Let your light shine. Not only on the mountain but also in the valley below.
  • February 27, 2011 Trust
    • Yes, Jesus said, consider the lilies of the field but that was before DDT.
  • February 20, 2011 Love Without Limits
    • On Valentine’s Day we contemplated and celebrated romantic love—the easiest kind of love. Today we contemplate and celebrate the hardest and toughest kind.
  • February 13, 2011 Matters of the Heart
    • Tolerance is better than intolerance. Being nice is better than being mean. But allowing the Spirit to transform your heart inside out is the way of Christ, which is to say, the way of love.
  • February 6, 2011 Salty Presbyterians
    • This afternoon Youth Director Joshua Nolen and I will gather the 9th and 10th graders of our tribe and lead them on an exploration of their inherited faith tradition. Our invitation to these young people, and my invitation to you this morning is this: as long as you’re Presbyterian in some sense of the word, why not be salty?
  • January 30, 2011 Blessed Fools
    • If you’re going to follow the way of Jesus, let’s face it, you’ve got to be a little crazy. You’ve got to live upside down in this world.
  • January 23, 2011 Be The Light
    • Jesus did not run away from the gloom and despair of the world. He walked right into it bearing the light of God’s love. And now in this moment of grace Christ is standing beside you with an invitation.
  • January 16, 2011 Beloved Community
    • When we were baptized we were initiated into a worldwide community of light, a light that shines in darkness. It doesn’t and can’t eliminate the darkness. But it can shine in the darkness—the way Martin Luther King’s words shone for America in a dark and disturbing time.
  • January 9, 2011 Be The One
    • Baptism is an initiation into a community, an evolving and growing community devoted to claiming and living the Two Great Commandments, or what someone called, the Two Great Possibilities: to love God and others wholeheartedly.
  • December 19, 2010 Let Every Heart Prepare
    • Joseph had made room in his righteous heart for mercy. Where you’d expect only hatred and condemnation, grace had prepared a room for love.
  • December 12, 2010 The Work of Christmas
    • Was Mary the blessed mother of Jesus political? Absolutely. How could you be a mother living under the bloody heel of an occupying force and not be political?
  • December 5, 2010 The Way of Peace
    • Under the banner of prosperity and peace, we are being propelled toward insolvency and perpetual war.
  • November 28, 2010 The Darkest Night
    • Don’t look now but are you looking for Christ to return? And, if so, what would that look like?
  • November 21, 2010 Image of God
    • This may be Christ the King Sunday on the church calendar but to tell you the truth, I am reluctant to make a big fuss about it since in that name wars have been waged and peoples subjugated.
  • November 14, 2010 Humming in the Darkness
    • This past week one of our town’s shopkeepers told me about a certain customer who recently accosted her with a disturbing question. Do you believe the End of the World is near? The shopkeeper told her it wasn’t something she’d thought about. The customer fired back. Well, you’d better start because the signs are all there!
  • November 7, 2010 Children of the Resurrection
    • There are a lot of ridiculous things about religion.
  • October 31, 2010 To Seek Justice
    • Jesus had little to say about sexuality but a lot to say about money and the pursuit of wealth.
  • October 24, 2010 Reflection by Bill Kaplin
    • Reflections on Luke 18:9-14
  • October 24, 2010 Reflection by Charlotte Baker-Shenk
    • Reflection of Psalm 65
  • October 17, 2010 Praying Always
    • I suspect that many of us are intrigued by the possibility of prayer, but have trouble thinking through what it could possibly be about in our postmodern, post literal lives.  As Marcus Borg puts it early in our Saving Jesus study: If God is not some supernatural interventionist being, then what is prayer really all about?
  • October 10, 2010 Keep Building
    • The bullying of homosexuals in the name of Christ and the church is in the news again. It breaks your heart that such ugliness is done in the name of Christ.
  • October 3, 2010 From Hatred to Love
    • Who or what will stop the vicious cycles of revenge?
  • September 26, 2010 Saving Souls
    • Compassion is the one practice all religions advocate. Everything else is pretty much scaffolding or dressing or sideshows.

  • September 19, 2010 Saving Jesus
    • Over the past hundred years or so, Jesus and the Bible have been flat out ruined for many people. It’s enough to make us weep. But weeping time is over. It’s time to stand up and get to work.
  • September 12, 2010 Fnding the Good in the Good Book
    • I’ve never been tempted to burn the Qu’ran, in part, because I know our own Bible contains vitriolic passages and I’ve learned to live with that.

  • September 5, 2010 Follow Love
    • As we approach another 911 anniversary, we should keep something in mind. It’s one thing to be an American. It’s something else to be a Christian, although in some churches and at some rallies it’s hard to tell the difference.
  • August 29, 2010 Becoming Real

    • Humility and humanity (not to mention humor) all come from the same root word humus—earth.  To be humble, to be human at its most basic, is to be earthy, grounded, to be real

    Reflection by Joshua Nolen
    Stand Up For Them

    Reflection

  • August 22, 2010 Building on Sacred Ground
    • Ground Zero may be the perfect spot for building a mosque unless we’ve forgotten what makes America holy ground in the first place.
  • August 15, 2010 Reflection by Dave Scott

    • Song of the Vineyard

     

  • August 8, 2010 Endless Journey
    • In case you haven’t heard, the end of poverty is in sight, perhaps as soon as 2025.
  • August 1, 2010 Curing Greed
    • Seeing the world as God sees the world may be the best cure for greed.
  • July 25, 2010 Simply Pray
    • Simply pray and see what happens. Pray simply and see what happens. And did I mention: prayer requires patience, persistence, perseverance and practice?
  • July 18, 2010 America Under God
    • I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and his justice will not sleep forever. What about his country made Thomas Jefferson tremble?

  • July 11, 2010 Can America Be Christian?
    • Can America Be Christian?
    The short answer is, yes and no.
  • July 4, 2010 God of All the Nations
    • "God of All the Nations"
    by Randall Tremba

    Twelve years ago, in one of the biggest surprises of my life, Sen. Robert C. Byrd personally invited me to tell him my views on the so-called “flag burning” amendment.
  • June 27, 2010 Freedom
    • "Freedom" by Ethel Hornbeck

    ...freedom to choose is at the heart of human identity; God created each and every human person with the capacity for love and the freedom to choose it or not.  It's a freedom way bigger than individual liberty and way more powerful than all the forms of slavery we humans can devise.  Indeed in lives like Mandela, Ghandi, King, Jesus and countless others—we see that power grow right in the midst of oppression...
  • June 13, 2010 Justice & Mercy
    • We belong to the Christian tradition, which inherited from Judaism a keen eye for and powerful witness against social and economic injustice.
  • June 6, 2010 More About Jesus
    • The Gulf of Mexico is a mess and getting messier by the minute. Where’s Jesus when we really need him?

  • May 30, 2010 Reasons to Hope
    • Oil is pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a growing catastrophe with no end in sight. Are there reasons for hope?
  • May 23, 2010 People Arise
    • One hundred forty eight years ago blood ran thick on the floorboards under this carpet, by some accounts blood was ankle deep. It was Sept. 1862 and the people of this church had removed the pews and opened the doors to the sons of this nation, wounded in what we now call the Battle of Antietam.
  • May 16, 2010 Becoming One
    • “One,” you see, is not just a numeral; it’s a relationship of harmony—the way two dancers become one fluid body or the way a choir becomes one voice or a rider becomes one with the horse. Not less, more. Not reduced; glorified.
  • May 9, 2010 "Calling"
    • This homily is especially for our high school graduates: Michael, Joe, Dion, Stephen, Charlie, Tessa, Will, and Tim. The rest of you, of course, are welcome to listen.
  • April 25, 2010 New Vision
    • Here's some good news--we are not ancient Hebrews, third century Greeks or 13th century Europeans (nor, I should add, 16th century Genevans). While we share common DNA with all of them, we are 21st century, scientifically savvy, historically aware citizens of planet earth. We are heirs of a deep and rich tradition that we can, and indeed must, receive with both gratitude and a critical contemporary perspective.  But for our faith to remain alive, we must reflect anew on the mystery of Christ in our time, place, culture and experience
  • April 18, 2010 Blinding Light
    • The Resurrection isn’t so much about God raising our bodies from the earth or sea in the future; but rather raising us up now.
  • April 11, 2010 Peace Be With You (Again)
    • “The proof of the Resurrection is not the empty tomb; it’s the spirit filled community.”
  • April 4, 2010 Uprising
    • We don’t follow Jesus or bear the cross in order to be crucified but in order to live and love fully without fear.
  • March 28, 2010 Bearing the Cross
  • March 21, 2010 - A New Day
  • March 14, 2010 Free to Be... by Rev. Kris Haig
  • March 7, 2010 Listen Carefully
  • February 28, 2010 Homily to Barbara King
  • February 21, 2010 Spirit of Wilderness

    • SPIRIT OF WILDERNESS
    February 21, 2010

    This is not the wilderness and you are not Jesus. But for the moment let’s say this sanctuary is the wilderness and you are Jesus. So, if this is the wilderness and you are Jesus, then, what does that make me? Pleased to meet you. Won’t you guess my name? That’s right. I’m the devil.
  • February 14, 2010 Into the Deep
    • "Into the Deep"

    Luke 5:1-11
    When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

    * * *
    I’m not absolutely sure but I’m pretty sure that “catching people” in this gospel lesson (Luke 5:1-11) means drawing others into the new community, into the Body of Christ, which is to say, into the community of the Beloved. It also could mean drawing more of yourself out of the unconscious world and into the light of love. Just how we do that is something to be learned in the school of love. Along the path of discipleship there’s much to learn.
  • January 31, 2010 Greatest of These
    • THE GREATEST OF THESE
    Randall Tremba
    January 31, 2010

     * * *
    God is love, we say. And those who abide in love abide in God. That’s one way to define the ineffable, indescribable, infinite mystery we call "God." God is love. But then that begs the question: what is love?
  • January 24, 2010 The Body of Christ
    • THE BODY OF CHRIST
    Randall Tremba
    January 24, 2010

    Luke 4:14-21
     "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

    * * *
    There are many ways to be poor, imprisoned, blind and enslaved. There are the obvious ways and then all the other ways.

    A week ago I was here talking with a couple of our members. Their four-year old child sat waiting on the first pew. After talking with the parents I looked over at the child, spoke his name, and then stepped away to get on with important things I had to do that day. What a lucky kid, I might have thought as I walked away from the child. What a lucky kid, his pastor knows his name.

    And then something happened.
  • January 17, 2010 For the Comon Good
    • FOR THE COMMON GOOD
    Randall Tremba
    January 17, 2010

    * * *
    This morning my friend Tracy Boyer who died this past Thursday is on my mind. The people of Haiti are also very much on my mind as well as the budget crunch our Session faced Thursday evening. Tracy would be pleased with the sermon this morning because he once told me—after I told him how much I disliked talking about church finances in a sermon—that every sermon he preached was about stewardship in one way or another. So here goes. A sermon dedicated to Tracy. I begin with Haiti and end with our own financial predicament with a passing reference to the popular movie Avatar just for kicks.

  • January 10, 2010 Embodying the Promise
    • EMBODYING THE PROMISE
    Randall Tremba
    January 10, 2010
    Baptism of Lord Sunday
    * * *
    No, we can’t change the whole world. After all it’s beset by enormous, intractable problems. But we can do our part to mend creation one person, one deed at a time. No act of love is wasted in the evolving web of life. We don’t have to do great things. It’s enough to do small things with great love. I’ve seen those things.
  • December 13, 2009 Not What, How
    • NOT WHAT, HOW
    Randall Tremba
    December 13, 2009
    Third Sunday in Advent

    Luke 3:7-18
    John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor' — or as we might say: Muslims should repent but not us, hey! we’re Christians! or, as we might say, Iranians should disarm but not us, we’re Americans!

    * * *

    Apparently, it’s not your reputation or what you say that matters but how you live. It’s not what you do but how you do it. It’s not what you have but how you have it. It’s not what you give but how you give it.

  • November 29, 2009 Longing for a New World
    • LONGING FOR A NEW WORLD
    Randall Tremba
    First Sunday in Advent
    November 29, 2009

    In today’s gospel lesson (Luke 21:25-36) Jesus seems to portend the end of the world, including the planet and the solar system. He also seems to say that the “Son of Man” will show up in the nick of time to rescue true believers. If you didn’t know better you might also assume that the Son of Man is Jesus of Nazareth who left this planet and is waiting somewhere to return in bodily form. Many Christians read or hear it that way. 
  • November 15, 2009 Broken Hearts, Broken Dreams
    • BROKEN HEARTS, BROKEN DREAMS
    Randall Tremba
    November 15, 2009

    Earlier this year I met with a couple whose world had fallen apart. The baby they anticipated did not arrive. The life they envisioned collapsed. Over night their hearts and dreams were broken. The light in their world went out. The earth beneath their feet crumbled. Grief and anger overwhelmed them. It felt like the end of the world.

    It’s true: things fall apart. Hearts break. Hopes are dashed.
  • November 8, 2009 Beware of Economic Piety
    • I believe alcohol and casinos should be available in a free society. But I also believe people should be educated about the consequences of certain behavior and warned against seductive lies perpetrated by advocates of drinking and gambling. This sermon is such a warning.
  • November 1 2009 A Dawn in Every Darkness
    • Lately I have had to conduct quite a few memorial services. A memorial service is not only a time to remember the life that has passed; it’s also a time to remember the lives of those left behind who often flounder in a state of despair. We can’t resuscitate the deceased; but sometimes we can breathe life into dispirited survivors. At least, that is my hope when I conduct a memorial service.
  • October 25, 2009 Where Job and the Wild Things Are

    •  Where Job and the Wild Things Are
    William P. Brown
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
    October 25, 2009

    I know you have been wrestling with the book of Job for most of this month, and now we’ve come to its conclusion.  Finally.  So ends the painful, thrilling, exhausting, turgid and turbulent story of Job.  Job the patient, Job the impatient. Job reduced to stunned silence, Job provoked to explode with words of blasphemy. Devastated, bitter, traumatized, Job is now restored, and with a new family no less. 
  • October 18, 2009 Praying in the Dark
    • The Lord answered Job. Job does not exactly get what he came for—answers to the eternal question of human suffering.  What he gets is a whirlwind. More questions.
  • October 11, 2009 Unconventional Wisdom
    • We don’t know why bad things happen to good people or to anyone. But when trouble is near we can be there. It may not be everything. But often it’s enough.
  • October 4, 2009 Stunned Silence
    • Glacier, Bryce, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Petrified Forest, Mt. Desert Island, the Great Smokey’s, the Florida Everglades and, of course, the Grand Canyon have transfixed millions upon millions of people in stunned silence. But there’s another side to life on this planet and that is suffering—horrific suffering at the hands of nature. Is it fair that some suffer more than others?
  • September 27, 2009 A Time Such As This
    • Are we in a position to save lives—if not in a big and dramatic way perhaps in a small and inconspicuous way?
  • September 20, 2009 Marry Wisdom
    • Marry Wisdom
    In the world the soul will be lured and enticed in many directions but they boil down to two ways—the way of wisdom and the way of folly; the way of life and the way of death. To what will you marry your soul?
  • September 13, 2009 Mother Wisdom´s Call
    • MOTHER WISDOM'S CALL
    Proverbs 1:20-33
    Mother Wisdom is screaming her head off to get your attention.
  • September 6, 2009 Health of a Nation
    • HEALTH OF A NATION
    Randall Tremba
    Sept. 6, 2009

    * * *
    Two Sundays ago my sermon on death and dying comforted many but disturbed several who were not in a mood to face the grim side of life that particular Sunday. Last Sunday my sermon on love, sex and marriage delighted many but troubled quite a few. That’s bound to happen from time to time. After all, we are a congregation of diverse people. We come from diverse childhoods, from diverse backgrounds, with diverse experiences, convictions, scars and wounds. We are not all the same. We don’t agree on everything and never will.

    A preacher’s job, or so I was told, is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. If you find yourself getting too much of one and not enough of the other, please let me know. It is not my intention to trouble anyone constantly.

    Anyway, this morning I thought I’d play it safe and address healthcare in America! (Lord, have mercy.)

    So, as one of you put it an email to me this week, who would Jesus heal? Apparently, not everybody. Like some Americans, Jesus at one time in his life thought health care was for “me and my people” only. Listen to this.
  • August 30, 2009 Call of the Wild
    • CALL OF THE WILD
    Randall Tremba
    August 30, 2009
    22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Song of Solomon 2.8-13
    "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
     
    The lesson appointed for this Sunday is, on one level, an erotic love poem. It’s about three thousand years old. Obviously some things never go out of fashion. The Song of Solomon (also know as the Songs of Songs) barely made it into the Bible. I could tell you why but I’m sure you can figure it out.

    WARNING: This steamy little love poem may stoke your passion for love and intimacy. Please remain calm in your pews. And let me say right now before it’s too late: there’s more to intimacy than body heat. Of course if you’re 15 or 16 years old and your body is on fire, bustin’ out like springtime every hour of the day and night, you can hardly contemplate any other form of love. Remember: the Beatle’s popular anthem isn’t all you need is sex; it’s all you need is love. There is a distinction but at certain times in life it’s easy to get the two confused.

    Anyway before I say something I shouldn’t I’ll shut up and let the poem speak for itself.

    The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
  • August 23, 2009 Dwelling Places
    • DWELLING PLACES
    Randall Tremba
    August 23, 2009

    I King 8 (selected verses paraphrased)
    Then King Solomon assembled the elders and chieftains of the tribes of Israel to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD to the Temple. The priests brought the ark into the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. And when the priests came out, a cloud filled the holy place so that the priests could do nothing because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD and spread out his hands to heaven and said, Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!

    New Testament verses
    God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God. (I John).
    In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. (John 14)
     
    * * *
    It’s been a rough week in the parish. Several members of our parish are looking death right in the eye. Some received grim news a while ago; others just recently. I can’t remember a week quite like this when one grim notice followed another and another and another. In life and death we belong to God, we say. But just where is God at times such as these?

    Death, of course, has a grip on all of us. Sometimes we feel it. Most times we don’t. But at certain times there’s no denying it.
    News of our impending death, or the impending death of a loved one, concentrates the mind like nothing else—although our practice of daily morning prayer could and probably should include at least a brief acknowledgement and acceptance of our mortality.

    Yes, I will die. Maybe today. How, then, shall I live?
  • August 16, 2009 Pondering Time
    • PONDERING TIME
    Randall Tremba
    August 16, 2009
    20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

     
    Ephesians 5:15-20
    Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time

    * * *
    In case you haven’t noticed I’ve been away for a while. Twelve weeks and twelve Sundays to be exact. Absence, they say, makes the heart grow fonder and I have indeed grown fonder of you. I missed being here and being with you.
        
    This sabbatical leave, my second in 34 years, was intended to release me from the grind of a long-term ministry. I use the word “grind” loosely since most of what I do around here is fun and joyful. But a break like this after so many years in one place is truly refreshing and re-energizing.

  • August 9, 2009 Bread of Life

    • BREAD OF LIFE
    Ethel Hornbeck
    August 9, 2009
    Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    John 6:35, 41-51

    35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty….

    47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

    48 I am the bread of life….

    I grew up in a family where bread was a very big deal.  I don’t remember a lot about my grandmother, but I sure do remember her bread and bread baking days, at least 4 loaves at time. It was a major production and an unfolding a feast for the senses-- touch, smell, taste.  My mother passed on to me what she learned from her mother, as she did to my girls in grandmotherly rituals known only to the participants, but involving both full loaves and mysterious child sized ones as well. My mother translated a received oral tradition in order that it could be passed on.  She took the wisdom of  “a handful of this, a pinch of that, mix until it feels right” and created the Grandmother’s Bread recipe.  Which is now being adapted as knowledge, experience and circumstances change--even finding its way to a bread machine version (but please don’t tell…).  Bread in my experience was (and is) way more than a side dish, its the main event, love embodied.
  • August 2, 2009 Something Stronger, Please
    • SOMETHING STRONGER, PLEASE
    Patricia A. Donohoe
    August 2, 2009
    Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    Matthew 6:9-14
    When I was in my twenties, I used to look at a glass and see it as half empty. There was so much I hadn't gotten out of life yet. I wanted to do so much and accumulate a lot of stuff.

    When I was in my forties, I began to see the glass as half full. I had done many of the things I wanted to and was beginning to realize that I had more than enough stuff, especially when it came time to move.

    Now that I'm in my sixties, I definitely see that the glass is not only half full, it's brimming over. But sometimes, when I look at that glass, I just want to say, "Got anything stronger?"
  • July 19, 2009 It´s Not About Us
    • IT’S NOT ABOUT US
    Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach
    July 19, 2009
    Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    Mark 6:30-56
    As you heard, I went to a Mennonite seminary and now work for a Mennonite agency, so forgive me if I start with a Mennonite example. I recently read a piece written by the head of the Mennonite Church, who is retiring after many years as a pastor and church administrator. He was sharing his learnings from his years in the church. The one that he concluded with? “It’s not about us.” After all of the work he has put into the church, and all of his learnings, he finally concludes, it’s not about us? If it’s not about us, who is it about?
  • July 5, 2009 What I Learned About Faith While Trying to Learn to Dance
    • WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT FAITH
    WHILE TRYING TO LEARN TO DANCE
    Paul Alcorn
    July 5, 2009
    Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    From the Bible:  Matthew 14: 22-32
    You need to know this about me to understand the seriousness of the story that I am about to share with you. I am rhythmically challenged. One Sunday morning at Bedford Presbyterian Church we had two gospel singers add their musical gifts to our worship service. Even staid Presbyterians were seen tapping their feet and clapping their hands in time with the music.  Following the service I went up to thank the singers and the young man from our congregation who had helped to arrange for them to be with us. After saying thank you I turned to Frank and asked how people knew when to clap. His response was, “You clap on 2 and 4.” I didn’t have the heart to ask him “How do I know the difference between 1 and 3, and between 2 and 4?”  
  • June 28, 2009 Measureless Love
    • Measureless Love
    Ethel Hornbeck
    June 28, 2009
    Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church


    Mark 5:21-43
    We are, it seems, infatuated with power these days--everywhere you turn: humvees, missiles, armies… transformers, phasers, and wizards. We cultivate physical strength, seek after wealth, health and beauty—attributes that confer power over another-- a nation, a person, a situation …power over that creates a sense security, well being, control.

    There is a very different kind of power at work in our story today with a very different dynamic. Jesus is just back from a flashy exorcism on the Gentile side of the sea, and he’s pursued by a huge crowd, following and pressing in on him. In this mass of people, a woman severely afflicted with some chronic bleeding disease, makes her way through the crowd, approaches him from behind, and covertly reaches out to claim his healing power. "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well" (the word here is actually saved) and “immediately, her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately, aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said ‘who touched my clothes?’”

  • June 21, 2009 The Voice of Truth
    • The Voice of Truth
    Brandon Dennison
    June 21, 2009
    12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    —it is an honor.

    —the love I have in my heart for this place and for this congregation is just immense.
    —Especially for the youth of the church. Each one of you are a special gift to me from God. Your spirit, your creativity, your thoughtfulness, your love will change this world. It has certainly changed me. The times we have shared, in all of their craziness, will stay in my heart and I will ponder them from time to time for the rest of my life. 

    On that day, when evening had come, he said to them “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the se, “Peace!  Be Still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” 
  • June 14, 2009 Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above!
    • Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above!
    Rev. Dr. James G. Macdonell
    June 14, 2009
    Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church


    I Chronicles 15: 25-29; Acts 16: 16-25

    Even a cursory study of scripture reveals the undeniable fact that music has always played a central role in the worship-life of the people of God.

    In the Old Testament we learn that even when he was a young boy, David was a gifted musician who loved to sing, play the harp and to write songs of praise. The poetic Psalms he wrote remain to this day, some of Judea-Christianity’s most beloved expressions of belief!

    Shortly after becoming his nation’s most famous monarch, David and the Elders of the newly-united 12 tribes of Israel, celebrated the establishment of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, by bringing Israel’s most important religious symbol, the Ark of the Covenant, to the new capital, from the secret place where it had been hidden for sake-keeping.
  • June 7, 2009 From Cross to Cup
    • FROM CROSS TO CUP
    Patricia A. Donohoe
    June 7, 2009
    Trinity Sunday
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church


    John 3:1-17

    CAN one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?

    That's the question that Nicodemus wants answered. It would certainly be a stretch of the imagination—not to mention the mother—to think that it could literally be true. Isn't that what Jesus is trying to show Nicodemus—that you can't approach everything with a literal mind? Sometimes we just have to let the wind blow through us and take us where it will. Even if that means letting go of what we've always assumed to be true.
  • May 24, 2009 May We Be One
    • May We Be One
    Ethel Hornbeck
    May 24, 2009
    Seventh Sunday in Easter
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church

    John 17:6-19

    You/we are never alone no matter how weak, wounded or lost you/we might feel at times.  We are so in this together, and if I didn’t believe that, I would not, could not stand here today. When you lose hope, I/we hope for you.  This also works in times of joy and delight…it spills over, into our life in the Spirit, always shared…which is not to say easy.  “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams,” wrote Doestoevsky.  There is a reason that reconciliation—with God and one another—is an ongoing and nonnegotiable dimension of our life together.  Which is not about our personal comfort or our individual salvation. Its about, as Jesus’ prayer concludes, being one for the sake of the world. “As you have sent me into the world, so I send them.” Whatever that might mean, it is at least an invitation to incarnation, to bear the light of Christ, to carry a new possibility and a new center, with us into every relationship and every community in which we take part.  Jesus’ prayer is not just his last word to his disciples, it is also the ongoing prayer of the Spirit in us. Listen, listen, listen. May we be one.
  • May 10, 2009 Members of the Church
    • MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH
    Randall Tremba
    May 10, 2009
    Fifth Sunday in Easter
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
     
    John 15:1-8
    "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
    * * *
    This week we all made the national headlines. Did you see it? Churchgoers more likely to support torture. Thank you very much! It’s not the kind of headline you like to see if you’re a churchgoer. But there it was and here we are. Caught red-handed. We can’t hide. For whatever else we may think of ourselves we are in church this morning and thus are known as churchgoers.

    Of course we’d like to know which churchgoers for there are many different types. And, by the way, when will we see the headline: churchgoers more likely to feed the hungry and help the poor. Even though it is true, don’t hold your breath waiting for that headline
  • May 3, 2009 The Untiring Good Spirit
    • THE UNTIRING GOOD SPIRIT
    Randall Tremba
    May 3, 2009
    Fourth Sunday in Easter

    John 10:11-18
    "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

    The world is possibly on the verge of a swine flu pandemic. Human life is threatened once again by a microscopic enemy. If it’s not one thing it’s another.

    Where’s the Good Shepherd when we need one?

    “Wolves” of one kind or another are prowling within and without. And let me hasten to add an apology to wolves. It’s not that wolves are more sinister than any other creature. It’s that everyone and everything lives among predators of one kind or another. If you’re a sheep, beware of wolves. If you’re a wolf beware of bears (and Alaskans in helicopters). If you’re a human beware of fear, greed, grudges, resentment, hatred, and arrogance.
  • April 26, 2009 Understanding Scripture
    • UNDERSTANDING SCRIPTURE
    Randall Tremba
    April 26, 2009
    Third Sunday in Easter

    Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures. (Luke 24:36-48)

    Consider this: if those disciples had trouble understanding scripture, what about us? They at least understood Hebrew, the written language of their Scripture. Plus they were only a few centuries removed from Scripture’s formative stories and events. We, on the other hand, are at least 2000 years, a continent and an ocean removed.

    But not to worry. Understanding the Bible is important but not essential for Christian faith. Most Christians over the past 2000 years did not have much, if any, access to the Bible. Faith was nourished by preaching, teaching, daily rituals, and weekly practices, including the Lord’s Supper.

    Understanding the Bible is important but not essential for Christian faith. In fact, easy access to Bibles is fairly recent. Many Christians in the past and many now couldn’t read one even if they had one. But we do and can. Still it’s not easy to understand scripture. Let me suggest why that is so.

    This is the Bible as it looks now. [Show Bible] It once looked more like this. [Show a bunch of DVDs]. No, the Bible did not begin as DVDs. But it was once dozens of separate scrolls.
  • April 19, 2009 Jews and Christians
    • JEWS AND CHRISTIANS
    Randall Tremba
    April 19, 2009
    Second Sunday in Easter
    Meanwhile, standing near the cross were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. John 19:26-27

    Jesus couldn’t move his hands. He could barely move his head but he could move his eyes. He looked at his mother then toward his disciple and said, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ And then looking back toward his mother, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

    That disciple took the mother of Jesus home, beat her up and pushed her out into the cold, dark night where she and her children were bound, gagged, and dragged away to ghettoes and gas chambers.

    I know, I know. It doesn’t say that in the gospel pages. But that’s what happened. Not to Mary herself but to her people.

    Beat up and pushed out into the cold, dark night. Bound, gagged, and dragged away to ghettoes and gas chambers.

    In this gospel of great symbolisms, Mary, we might say, represents “Judaism”; and the beloved disciple, we might say, represents the fledgling community that arose in the wake of Jesus death and eventually became known as “the church.”
  • April 12, 2009 A Dawn in Every Darkness
    • Mark 16:1-8
    When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices to anoint the body of Jesus. And so very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"

    It’s Easter morning. The sun is shining. And yet for many of us it’s a dark time. The future is far less bright than it once was. A stone lies heavy on our hearts and it’s beginning to feel like nothing can move it.

    Early on the first day of the week, shortly after dawn, they went to the tomb with their heads down. Which is to say, they went to the tomb the way some of us go about our lives, with our heads down.

    They had been saying, "Who will roll away the stone for us?"     They were looking down. After all, they were realists. Death is death. Boulders don’t budge. The world is solid and predictable. Death is final. Empires keep crushing innocent victims. Nothing will change.

    If that sounds like you, then this day is for you. In case you hadn’t heard, or in case you’ve forgotten, this world holds more wonders than we can count. There are openings where you see none unless you look up.

    I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing some of you will leave here today in awe of what might be. For the Great spirit in the earth is the spirit of Christ. Which is to say, the spirit of the earth is the spirit of Love and that spirit is in, with, and for you and has been for fourteen billion years. Science has confirmed what poets could only surmise: we are stardust.

    In life and death we belong to the holy, wondrous web of evolving life. And nothing evolves us like love. (Hafiz)
  • March 29, 2009 Forgiveness of Sin
    • THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN
    Randall Tremba
    March 29, 2009
    5th Sunday in Lent

     
    Jeremiah 31:31-34
    The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
     
    John 12:20-33
    Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
     
    * * *
    Hi, I’m Randy and I’m a sinner. And if this were an AA type meeting, what would you say? (Hi, Randy!) We could proceed person by person, pew by pew but we don’t have time. You get the point.

    I’m a sinner; you’re a sinner. We are all sinners. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God or, we might say, we all fall short of love’s potential. There is none righteous, no not one, says the prophet.

    Let me ask you: do you know of even one perfect person? By the way, that’s a rhetorical question. Please don’t raise your hand like one man did in a certain church when the preacher asked that question. Has anyone ever known of a perfect person, asked the preacher? A man raised his hand. The preacher was incredulous but nonetheless asked the man who that perfect person might be. The man looked at the woman by his side and said, my wife’s first husband!

    Sure, we laugh but we also know better. We are all sinners.
  • March 22, 2009 Saved!
    • SAVED!
    Randall Tremba
    March 22, 2009
    Fourth Sunday in Lent

     John 3:16-17
    For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
    * * *
    When I was in high school I launched my own personal Billy Graham type crusade in order to save my classmates from eternal damnation. I often quoted John 3:16 to them. I was very sincere.

    Later, I would learn that sincerity isn’t everything.  As Charlie Brown often lamented after losing yet another baseball game: How can we lose when we’re so sincere?! Sincerity is not enough.

    I was a child of a fundamentalist church. I was absolutely certain that anyone who was not a born-again, Bible-believing, washed-in-the-blood-of-the-lamb Christian was doomed to spend eternity in an actual place called Hell where they would suffer torment forever—unquenchable flames, utter darkness, gnashing of teeth, relentless wailing, maggots, foul smells, and certainly no baseball, peanuts or cracker jacks. In a word: Hell.
  • March 15, 2009 House of Wisdom
    • John 2:13-22
    The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, the sheep and the cattle, too. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"

    * * *

    Whatever else Christianity may be it evolved out of Judaism. And whatever else Judaism may be it is an ancient wisdom tradition, which flowered about the same time as Buddhism and Taoism, approximately 500 BCE (Before the Common Era). Those three traditions have little or no interest in the so-called “afterlife.” Their focus is on living fully and well in the present, here and now.

    Judaism arose out of a few basic ideas none of which pertain to making a deal with God in order to gain heaven or avoid hell after death. That notion is invasive, not indigenous, arriving much later.

    The notion of heaven and hell gained prominence in the Middle Ages due to certain entrenched religious interests eager to exploit ignorant people and steal money out of their pocketbooks. Lots of money. Money for cathedrals. Money for bishops. Money for priests. A little more money, honey, and your aunt Metilda will waltz right out of purgatory.

    It still works today. People still think they have to make a deal with God. If you don’t accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, some Christians say, you will burn forever in Hell because Jesus is THE way, the truth and the life.
  • March 8, 2009 Following Jesus

    • Years ago I read a book by Latin American priest Jon Sobrino. One line from the book has stuck with me. “It’s one thing to say you believe in Christ; it’s something else to follow Jesus."

    No one has to follow Jesus. It’s not a matter of gaining heaven or avoiding hell after death. It’s simply a matter of how we choose to live here and now. If we choose to follow Jesus, it will cost us something but abundant life comes with it, too.

    Mark 8:31-38
    Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected, killed, and after three days rise again. He said this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

    * * *

    Blood stained floorboards lie under this carpet. They were soaked with the blood of young men mortally wounded in the battle of Antietam in 1862. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that some of the wounded died in this sanctuary. Deaths like that render a place holy.

    As far as I know, no one else died in this church until March 4, 2003. That was the day Martin Burr died here. It was the eve of Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
  • March 1, 2009: Between Wild Beasts and Angels
    • BETWEEN WILD BEASTS AND ANGELS
    Randall Tremba
    March 1, 2009
    First Sunday in Lent

    Mark 1:9-15
    Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

    * * *
    Some of you, I know, have stumbled into a wilderness haunted by beasts with no angels in sight. Take heart. Angels are nearby. In fact, the beasts themselves may be angels. Breathe deep, listen attentively, and let the wild transform your spirit.

    Perhaps you’ve noticed that we live between wild beasts and angels in more ways than one. We are little more than beasts and little less than angels.
  • February 22, 2009 What to Wear For That Special Occasion

    • ASH WEDNESDAY and the Season of Lent is upon us. We will gather this Wednesday evening at 7:30 for a service of lessons, songs, prayer, silence, and the (optional) imposition of ashes on forehead or back of hand. "From the earth we have come; to the earth we shall return. In life and in death we belong to God."

    DURING LENT we give ourselves more intentionally to the way of love. We relinquish things and practices that separate us from God and others. We listen for that still small voice bidding us give ourselves more fully to God and others in small, ordinary ways. "There are many small things to be done with great love."

    ONE SIMPLE PRACTICE Begin and end each day with five minutes of silence. In the morning offer a prayer like this: "help, help, help." Throughout the day pay attention for moments of grace and opportunity--surprise openings, surprising words of wisdom and gestures of kindness. At the end of the day offer a prayer like this: "thank you, thank you, thank you." Be mindful of good things that you noticed or experienced. Be mindful of the ways you messed up and resolve to do better tomorrow. Rest in the knowledge that there is nothing you can do to make God love you more; and nothing you can do to make God love you less.WE CONTINUE our customary Lenten practice of pruning our closets of clothing and shoes we don't need or don't use very often. Bring those to the church each Sunday during Lent and we will transfer them to the Rescue Mission.

    ON THE FIRST SUNDAY of each month (March 1), bring items for the Jefferson County Community Ministry's food pantry or the Hispanic Community food pantry (via St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Martinsburg.) During the week, our collection site is inside the King St. entrance. On Sunday, collection is in Narthex and office foyer.

  • February 15, 2009 Fresh Vistas
    • FRESH VISTAS
    Randall Tremba
    February 15, 2009

    Mark 1:40-45
    A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
     
    * * *
    This morning I’d like to tell you something about myself you may not know. It’s not easy being me. And I’m sure it’s not easy being you. We are all beloved children of God. Nevertheless we are all wounded, sick, and sinful. I am on the road to recovery thanks to Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, and Charles Darwin.

    I grew up scorning people of color as inferior to myself. I scorned homosexuals and found them repulsive. It was part of the culture, part of my household, and enforced by the Bible.
  • February 8, 2009 House of Prayer
    • HOUSE OF PRAYER
    Randall Tremba
    February 8, 2009

    Mark 1:29-39
    In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

    * * *
    You know and I know it’s terrifying for a homosexual to “come out” to his or her family and friends. This is a sermon about prayer but it begins in the closet where a lot of homosexuals pray with sweat dripping like blood from their foreheads. Many of us, homosexual or not, get stuck in closets of fear. Prayer is one way out.

    As we know it’s especially terrifying for a homosexual to “come out.” Many have and many have paid a high price. Many have been scorned. Many have been beaten, tortured, and killed. Many have killed themselves. You will hear a few such stories this evening in the film, For the Bible Tells Me So. You will also see redemption, grace and great celebration!

    A few years ago a youth in this parish referred her homosexual friend to me because her friend’s church loudly and persistently condemned homosexuals and homosexuality in Sunday School classes and from the pulpit. The Bible says, it is an abomination unto the Lord. The Bible says, it’s a sin and those who practice it are condemned to hell!

    Jesus hates me this I know for the Bible tells me so.
  • February 1, 2009 The School of Love
    • THE SCHOOL OF LOVE
    Randall Tremba
    February 1, 2009
    Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Mark 1:21-28
    They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

    * * *

    My twin granddaughters got their first taste of solid food last week. Paula and I saw that historic moment on a video clip. To tell you the truth, the stuff didn’t look very solid but for the first time nourishment was delivered to them on a spoon and not through a nipple. Parents and grandparents were so thrilled you’d had thought the twins had just graduated from Harvard.

    Paula and I replayed the two minute clip several times. In slow motion! One twin licked her lips deliciously. The other screamed bloody murder.

    The grooming of a human being, as you know, takes time and patience.
  • January 25, 2009 The Call of Love
    • THE CALL OF LOVE
    Randall Tremba
    January 25, 2009
    Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Mark 1:14-20
    Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."* * *

    This past Tuesday, President Obama waved goodbye to former President Bush, turned and strode into the U.S. Capitol, a temple of democracy. He ate lunch with 200 invited guests, a fair representation of men and women, black and white. They ate in Statuary Hall, a hall not unlike the Greek pantheon.

    Not surprisingly the 100 statutes in Statuary Hall are nearly all white men. I might not have noticed or cared about those statutes had Pat Donohoe not shared her reflections on the dreams still unfulfilled in this nation. (“I, Too, Have a Dream”) And, by the way, the demographics of Statuary Hall are not a digression from the path we’re on this morning.

    Tuesday our nation bid farewell to one president and welcomed another. We’ve seen it many times before.

    This time, however, for many people in our nation and around the world, it felt different. We don’t know if anything worthwhile or lasting will come of it, but it certainly feels like one of those rare transitional times, as much to do with these peculiar times as with any particular person. Transitional times arise infrequently for nations and individuals. But they do arise.

     

  • January 18, 2009 Reflections: Rev. Jim Macdonell and Brandon Dennison
    • Fulfillment of Prophecy?

    Thoughts on the Upcoming Inauguration of
    Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States
     
    By Brandon Dennison
    and Rev. Jim Macdonell

  • January 11, 2009 Baptized Presbyterian
    • BAPTIZED PRESBYTERIAN
    Randall Tremba
    January 11, 2009
    Baptism of Our Lord Sunday

     
    Mark 1:4-11
    In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
     
    Breaking news: Jesus was not baptized Presbyterian. He wasn’t baptized Christian either. He wasn’t baptized Jewish. He was baptized, which is to say, initiated into a certain aspect of Judaism, the prophetic tradition. It was a good place to begin but he didn’t end there.

    This morning Sallye Price is still very much on our minds and in our hearts. The loss of Sallye is not just another loss. Sallye was a vibrant and faithful member of this church for a long, long time. We won’t soon if ever get over missing her.

    It’s so very fitting that today we commissioned deacons and later today begin our confirmation class for youth. Sallye was proud to be deacon of the church and she was eager to learn all she could about the Presbyterian tradition.

    It case you didn’t know or hadn’t heard, Sallye loved this church and the Presbyterian tradition it embodies. She didn’t mind telling you that she was raised something else but with good luck married a man who on top of all his other charming qualities was also a Presbyterian. And not just any kind of Presbyterian.

    Jim is a Presbyterian from many generations of Presbyterians with roots through Ulster Ireland back to Scotland. It doesn’t get more Presbyterian than that. Or more scary!
  • December 21, 2008 The Wondrous Gift
    • THE WONDROUS GIFT
    Randall Tremba
    December 21, 2008
    Fourth Sunday in Advent
     
    The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

    But when you think about it, what child is not holy? What child is not a child of God? Does any child arrive without the promise of making the world a little brighter—if not the whole world at least one corner of the world?

    This week I’ve had children on my mind. Today we are in between baptisms—one last Sunday; two next Sunday.
    Paula’s and my twin grand daughters will arrive Tuesday from Albuquerque. In case you hadn’t heard, at their birth on September 17th the heavens sang. I’m sorry if you missed it! Maybe you weren’t tune into the same wavelength as us.

    I can tell you this: parents and grandparents and a host of others fell in love with those two bundles of flesh and bone that would be called Angie and Paula, wondrous gifts, so precious and so fragile. In an instant our hearts filled with joy and—though we dared not say so—our hearts filled with fear as well for we know how harsh and cruel the world can be.

    Love is never risk free.
  • December 14, 2008 Light of Light
    • LIGHT OF LIGHT
    Randall Tremba
    December 14, 2008
    Third Sunday in Advent

    May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. May those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves. Psalm 126:5-6
    * * *
    This past Monday a military jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood. The jet had lost both engines in flight. The pilot followed emergency protocol doing all he could to guide that disabled plane as long as he could to minimize impact. And then he ejected.

    The plane crashed into a house killing a grandmother, a mother, and her two daughters—every member of the family except the father who was at work. In a flash Dong Yon Yoon lost his entire family. One of his daughters was 15 months old, the other 2 months.

    None of us knows exactly what that feels like and most of us can’t come close to imagining such shock and horror. But some of us can get pretty close.

    Yoon’s world was devastated, not unlike the devastation that some of us have felt at certain times. His life, like some of yours, will never be the same. There will be days when he will feel, as some of you feel from time to time, as good as dead, the life and light drained out of body and soul.

    In such a time, who or what can help?
  • December 7, 2008 The Angel´s Voice
    • THE ANGEL'S VOICE
    Randall Tremba
    December 7, 2008
    Second Sunday in Advent

    Mark 1:1-8
    The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, ["messenger" is another word for "angel"]. I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

    * * *
    This past Tuesday evening I spent some time with a woman whose daughter had taken her life by hanging. It was a virtual visit, not an actual visit. I heard that woman’s story by way of a documentary entitled “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a film first shown last year at the Sundance Film Festival where it was a Grand Jury Award nominee.

    We know that song. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Yes, we know the song. But you know and I know that many people don’t hear “love” from the Bible. They hear hatred and condemnation.

    Hatred and condemnation are what that woman’s daughter heard most of her life. It took years but eventually she overcame paralyzing fear and shame and “came out” to her mother by way of a letter. Her mother responded with a blistering letter expressing condemnation of her daughter’s homosexuality—sentiments and convictions well honed by the mother's lifetime in a certain kind of church of which, sadly, there are many. That single letter sealed her daughter’s fate.
  • November 30, 2008 Things Fall Apart
    • THINGS FALL APART
    Randall Tremba
    November 30, 2008
    First Sunday in Advent


    Things fall apart. Sometimes gradually; sometimes suddenly.

    You know how it is: we go along thinking all is well when out of the blue on a sunny September morning, exploding airplanes shatter our towering illusions of invulnerability.

    You know how it is: We go along thinking all is well when out of the blue sea barbarians swarm into opulent temples and shatter our illusions of security.

    You know how it is: we go along thinking all is well when out of the blue rotten foundations collapse shattering our illusions of easy money.

    Things fall apart.
  • November 16, 2008 Investments That Count
    • Despite enormous problems, America faces a new day full of hope and promise. Change for the better is not inevitable. But it is possible in a way it hasn’t been before. This is no time to wait and see. This is no time to play it safe. This is a time to take risks with love. This is a time to invest yourself in ways that multiply love, freedom, health, and justice.
  • November 9, 2008 The Joshua Generation
    • THE JOSHUA GENERATION
    Randall Tremba
    November 9, 2008

    Joshua 24:14-15
    “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

    In a speech given in Selma, Alabama, in March 2007 presidential candidate Barack Obama asked this question: What’s called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill the legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those [of the Moses generation] who allowed us to be here today?

    By an eerie coincidence the Old Testament lesson scheduled long ago for this 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time is from the book of Joshua. "Joshua said, “Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve God in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

    Or as we might put it: do not give your heart to that which is unworthy of your heart.

    This is a time of change. This is a time to choose. This is a season of opportunity.

    As the Book of Ecclesiastes puts it: To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born; a time to die. A time to tear down; a time to build up. A time to cast away stones; a time to gather stones. A time to rip; a time to mend. A time to dance; a time to mourn. A time to laugh; a time to cry. A time to love; a time to hate. A time for war; a time for peace. And let me add one more: There is a time for partisanship; and a time for patriotism.
  • November 2, 2008 A Chosen Nation?
    • A CHOSEN NATION?
    Randall Tremba
    November 2, 2008

    Matthew 23:1-12
    The greatest among you shall be servant of all.
     
    * * *
     
    In case you haven’t heard by now (!), Tuesday is Election Day. Millions of votes will be cast and counted. Tuesday evening many tightly wound Americans will sit on pins and needles, some with bags packed and passports in hand like the ancient Israelites poised to flee the plagues of Pharaoh’s Egypt at the first sight of a hanging chad. Good luck. But remember what Buckaroo Banzai said: Wherever you go, there you are!

    Tuesday evening the sun will go down. Darkness will descend upon the whole land. In the morning—and here is my one and only prediction—no matter who has been elected President, the sun will rise. It will rise over America and every other nation in the world.

    Winds will blow hither and yon. Clouds will float in the sky. Birds will chirp. Dogs will bark. Leaves will fall. Squirrels will gather nuts. Dolphins will frolic in the sea. Mothers will nurse their children. Children will go to school. No matter who’s elected President.

    No matter the election outcome, the earth won’t miss a beat. The world will not disappear. Nor will the problems of the world.

    Many will still be poor. Many will still be hungry. Many will still be homeless. Many will still be friendless. Many bridges and schools will still be in disrepair. No matter who’s elected President.

    Wars will rage on. Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes will ravage communities. Refugees will search for shelter. Grudges will be nursed. No matter who’s elected President.

    Presidents come and go. Governments come and go. Empires rise and fall. But the works of love remain. No President, no government can do it
  • October 26, 2008 Love Your Neighbor
    • LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
    Randall Tremba
     
     Matthew 22:34-46
    Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

    This past week I received two requests from two different sets of ministers. The first request came from Vista, California. It asked me to denounce Barack Obama from the pulpit this morning, to denounce him for undermining “the sanctity of marriage” and for tolerating “child sacrifice.” It wanted me and other ministers to declare him—in so many words—un-christian and thus unfit to lead this nation. I was directed to a web site with a list of scriptures to be used in today’s sermon.

    Thanks but no thanks. I’m sticking with the appointed lesson for today from the Gospel according to Matthew. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

    Let’s read the excerpt [in the bulletin] from the "Presbyterian Study Catechism" pertaining to love of neighbor.

    Question 113. What is the ninth commandment? “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”

    Question 114    . What do you learn from this commandment? God forbids me to damage the honor or reputation of my neighbor. I should not say false things against anyone for the sake of money, favor or friendship, for the sake of revenge, or for any other reason. God requires me to speak the truth, to speak well of my neighbor when I can, and to view the faults of my neighbor with tolerance when I cannot.
  • October 5, 2008 The Law is Our Delight
    • THE LAW IS OUR DELIGHT
    Randall Tremba
    October 5, 2008
    27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

     
    Exodus 20:1-20
    Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

    * * *

    When I submitted my sermon title (“The Law Is Our Delight”) on Thursday I didn’t have in the mind the 700 billion dollar congressional rescue plan the President would sign into law on Friday afternoon. I am not ready to declare that law delightful. Better minds than mine will have to judge it.

    When I submitted my sermon title I had in mind the Ten Commandments and the claim in today’s Psalm (Psalm 19) that the law of the Lord is perfect, as delightful as the heavens and the earth.

    The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

    I’m not sure we readily think of the law or the Ten Commandments as our delight. We're more likely to think the Ten Commandments were invented to make us miserable. But, in fact, it’s just the opposite.
  • September 28, 2008 This Controversial Church
    • THIS CONTROVERSIAL CHURCH
    Randall Tremba
    September 28, 2008
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
     
    Matthew 21:23-32
    When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"

    * * *

    One week ago I received a signed letter addressed to the Editor of the Good News Paper. The letter said: Please do not deliver this rag of a liberal newspaper to my mailbox ever again!!! As long as you continue to print the Satanic dribble of the Rev. Randall Tremba—I think the writer meant drivel, not dribble, but it’s the adjective not that noun that matters here—As long as you continue to print the Satanic dribble of the Rev. Randall Tremba, I want nothing to do with the blasphemous, leftist trash this paper is willing to print! What a joke his parish must be to listen to this garbage every Sunday.

    That warmed my heart.

    After all, writers like to be read and love to get a response. And that was a response.

    Now you could dismiss that as a single voice from the lunatic fringe except for another voice that urged one of our members this past week through an email to get out of this church and get out fast because of the dangerous and false teachings espoused in and by this church.

    What a week we’re having. For better or worse, we are a controversial church.
  • September 21, 2008 America in the Wilderness
    • AMERICA IN THE WILDERNESS
    Randall Tremba
    September 21, 2008
    25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

     
    Matthew 20:1-16
    Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”

    * * *

    In case you haven’t heard or noticed, our nation is in trouble. For too long the hand of wickedness has been unrestrained in this land. It’s time again to strengthen the hand of righteousness. This morning I want to urge all of us, and especially the young people here, to give our hearts, minds, and souls to making America a wholesome nation again.

    America is in the wilderness. It’s a wild and terrifying place, unless you know the secrets of that place.
  • September 14, 2008 To Forgive or Not
    • TO FORGIVE OR NOT
    Randall Tremba
    September 14, 2008
    24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
     
    Matthew 18:21-35
    Then Peter came and said to Jesus, "Lord, how often should I forgive? Should I forgive someone as many as seven times?" Jesus said to Peter, "No, not seven times; seventy-seven times.”
     
    A woman once asked me if she should forgive her father, a father who had abused her repeatedly as a child. The daughter had eventually escaped his control and threats. But, apparently, the father felt no guilt or remorse. He was, as he proudly proclaimed, a born-again Christian. He maintained that God had forgiven all his sins through the death of Jesus. He had been, as he put it, washed in the blood of the lamb. So he didn’t need his daughter’s forgiveness.

    For a decade or more there had been no communication between father and daughter. But now the father was on his deathbed. He had come to his senses and was longing for forgiveness, not from God, but from a certain human being, from the daughter he had badly, badly hurt. His daughter was now happily married and as far as she was concerned her father could rot in hell.

    "Lord, how often should I forgive? Should I forgive someone as many as seven times?" Jesus said to Peter, "No, not seven times; seventy-seven times.”
  • September 7, 2008 Cycle of Violence
    • THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
    Randall Tremba
    September 7, 2008
    23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

     
    Exodus 12:1-14
    The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD.

    * * *

    This coming Thursday will be the seventh anniversary of 9-11. It will be a long time, if ever, before Americans forget the terrifying death and destruction wrought in this land on that date.

    I will pass through the land, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land. I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.

    With that declaration from 3000 years ago something new arose in the human mind. It was a new idea or we might say a new discovery. God, at least this One, was not on the side of the Emperor, not on the side of the king, the powerful or the privileged. God, at least this One, was on the side of the victims, on the side of the poor, on the side of insurgents.

    What?! God on the side of victims? Unheard of. Until then.

    Well, what do you think? Is that true or could it just be Jewish propaganda developed around and for the Exodus and, if so, could the Resurrection of Jesus, another victim of an Empire, also be propaganda? Perhaps.

    But what if it is true? What if the Exodus and the Resurrection are true? How, then, shall we who are coddled in the belly of an Empire think and live? Having read the Bible, American Christians should know some things about the divine spirit in this world. It does not tolerate injustice for long.
  • August 24, 2008 Quest for the Living God
    • QUEST FOR THE LIVING GOD
    Randall Tremba
    August 24, 2008
    21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Matthew 16:13-20
    “Who do you say that I am?”

    I am no scientist but I am a big fan of science and scientists. Scientists have discovered that every time they get to the bottom of anything tiny, such as cells, molecules, atoms, and quarks, or any time they get to the top of anything such as stars, clusters, galaxies, black holes, there always seems to be another layer beneath or above. Reality, as it were, continues to lure us in deeper and deeper. It’s why scientists say: today’s conclusion is tomorrow’s premise. Surprise and serendipity are inevitable in this world. The quest for truth is endless.

    Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"     (Matthew 16:13-15)

    Who do you say that I am?

    That’s one of many questions that might be asked on the quest for the living God.

    The Quest for the Living God is a book by Elizabeth Johnson. It will be the basis of a yearlong conversation beginning Sept. 10 (Church 201). Even if you can’t attend all or some of the 10 sessions, I hope you will read the book. It’s not easy reading but it’s not too difficult either.
  • August 17, 2008 Embracing the Other
    • EMBRACING THE OTHER
    Randall Tremba
    August 17, 2008
    20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Romans 11:1-36
    I ask, then, has God rejected his people?


    With hundreds of millions of other people, I watched the parade of nations in the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics on television. What a spectacular sight!

    In case you didn’t notice, Jews did not march in together. No one said: and now here come the Jews. Jews might have been among the Americans, the Poles, the Israelis or several other nations but Jews did not march in as a group. Nor did Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Confucians, Mormons, animists, pagans, atheists, or any other religious group.

    I ask, then, has God rejected his people, the Jews?

    That is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, the lesson for today. It’s a little bizarre but bear with it because it’s not unlike a revolutionary question confronting the church today. But for the moment, let’s stick with Paul’s question.

  • August 10, 2008 In the Eye of the Storm
    • In the Eye of the Storm
    Ethel Hornbeck
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
    August 10, 2008
    19th Sunday in Ordinary Time


    Our lesson for today comes from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 14: (22-33)

    Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

    Pause here and point out that the crowds being referenced are the 5000 men, and uncounted numbers of women and children who feasted on 5 loaves and 2 fish that Jesus blesses, breaks and invites the disciples to share. So now, before the dishes are even done, Jesus sends the disciples off the mountain and back out on the road.

    (Back to Matthew)

    And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.
  • August 3, 2008 No Dead Ends
    • No Dead Ends
    Patricia A. Donohoe
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
    August 3, 2008
    18th Sunday in Ordinary Time


    Genesis 32:22-31

    A friend from Colorado told me that a town there has removed all its street signs that say "Dead End." They've replaced them with ones that say "No Outlet."
    This didn't seem like much of a change to me, so I asked him why they went to all the trouble of substituting "No Outlet" for "Dead End."

    "Well, he said, they didn't want to offend the dead."

    That was a new way of looking at Dead End signs for me. I immediately started wondering about the people who made the decision to change the signs. How did they know that the dead were offended? Could the dead even be offended? And who says that a "Dead End" really is a dead end? After all, the view going down a so-called "dead end" street is different from the view coming back out, if for no other reason than we're facing the opposite direction.
  • July 28, 2008 Too Deep for Words
    • TOO DEEP FOR WORDS
    Randall Tremba
    July 27, 2008
    17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
     
    Romans 8:26-39
    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
     
    * * *

    A week ago Sunday we named each of the 24 souls on the Arizona Mission team, including Eli Apperson, Joe Hill’s best friend. While Eli and the team were in Arizona, here in Jefferson County Eli’s father died, suddenly and expectedly. A phone call at such a time would not be wise. So Eli’s stepfather John made the long, sad journey to Eli.

    No one had this in mind when the team departed a week ago Friday.

    Life is hard. Sometimes very, very hard. It just is.

    Eli was and is devastated. His 23 mission team companions were and are stunned.

    As fate would have it, or, we might say, as Providence would have it, among Eli’s companions were four other young people who have lost fathers to death—Jay, Sky, Andy and Sarah. In other words Eli was with companions who had walked that particular valley of the shadow of death. It didn’t make the terrible shock go away. Maybe, just maybe, it made the pain just a little less difficult to bear.
  • 07-20-08 Mission Quest
    • MISSION QUEST
    Randall Tremba
    July 20, 2008
    16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
     
    Genesis 28:10-22
    Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!"
     
    * * *

    Our mission team of 24 adults and youth arrived in Arizona Friday afternoon. They are being hosted by the historic First Presbyterian Church in downtown Phoenix.

    Later this evening our team will arrive at the reservation where they will stay until Friday working on house repairs and in a children’s program. In case you’re wondering, our team has not gone to proselytize the Apaches, that is to say, they have not gone to convert them to “our religion” as one of the team members fretted to me this past Tuesday evening.

    Our mission team has gone to our Apache brothers and sisters in love, to be servants not masters, to be humble, not arrogant. To discover Christ in others the way Jacob discovered out in the middle of nowhere that God was there. WOW, he exclaimed. God is in this place and I didn’t know it.

    And that is because where love is God is. Or, is it the other way around?
  • 07-13-08 Prison Break
    • PRISON BREAK
    Randall Tremba
    July 13, 2008
    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
    Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen!"

    * * *
    In case you hadn’t heard, I was in prison Tuesday. I went in reluctantly but came away blessed. For three hours I sat with inmates in whom the seeds of hope and love have blossomed mightily. Long before I got there someone had sown some powerful seeds in that place.

    Jesus once told a parable, a riddle of sorts. It went like this:

    A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

    Tuesday I took a break in prison. I spent time with a small cadre of people who are cultivating the seeds of love in the hearts of men convicted of crimes and sentenced to years of confinement behind walls. These men are in the kind of prison that few people ever break out of. But while in that kind of prison they have broken out of another kind of prison, the kind of prison some of us may be in—prisons of fear, hatred, self-loathing and hopelessness.
  • 07-06-08 Nourish Us In Peace
    • NOURISH US IN PEACE
    Randall Tremba
    July 6, 2008
    (14th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
     
    Matthew 11:16-30
    "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
     
    This is July Fourth weekend. Despite the fireworks and parades we know it’s not such a great time to be an American. It might not be the worst of times but it sure isn’t the best of times.

    I won’t recite the full litany of woes. It’s enough to know that our nation is hurting, that we have entered a dark time in more ways than one. Listen to the gospel lesson for today and you may hear Jesus calling out to America.

    "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
  • 06-29-08 A Cup of Cold Water
    • A CUP OF COLD WATER
    Randall Tremba
    June 29, 2008

    Matthew 10:40-42
    "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

    * * *

    Former mountain climber Greg Mortenson has devoted his life to building schools for the little ones in Pakistan. Mortenson wasn’t looking for rewards or awards. He undertook this mission because he was given a cup of cold water, not to mention many cups of tea when he was as good as dead. His story is told in the book, Three Cups of Tea.

    Mortenson set out to honor his deceased sister's memory. He set out to climb the world's second highest mountain in the Karakoram range of northern Pakistan. After more than two months on the mountain, he failed to reach the summit.

    He began his descent, lost contact with his group, became disoriented, weak, exhausted and close to death. He stumbled into Korphe, a small remote village, where he was nursed back to life. It was, we might say, a baptism into death from which he emerged transformed.
  • 06-15-08 Ridiculous Abundance
    • Ridiculous Abundance
    Ethel Hornbeck
    Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
    June 15, 2008
    (11th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

    Matthew 9:35-10:8, selected (The Message) …what a huge harvest! How few workers… so Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: …go to the lost and confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.

    The kingdom of God is not about kings or kingdoms, nor is the kingdom of heaven some glorious afterlife. It is a present—and coming—reality, one where the master kneels at the feet of his friends. Where Love reigns… there is wholeness, liberation, fullness of community and abundance, ridiculous abundance that simply must be shared. Think 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5,000 famished people satisfied and sent home with doggie bags. Think four scrawny plants and endless quarts of berries. The kingdom is dynamic, communal, and embodied… and the only bodies this kingdom has today are ours. Its all good. Really. Good. News.
  • 06-08-08 Say Yes
    • SAY YES
    Randall Tremba
    June 8, 2008
    (10th Sunday of Ordinary Time)

    Genesis 12:1-9
    Now the Lord said to Abram and Sarah, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So they went, as the Lord had told them.

    Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
    Go and consider what this means [in your scriptures]: “I desire mercy not ritual!"

    We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life. How could we tire of hope? So much is in the bud.
    Denise Levertov

    * * *

    On any given day some of us feel hopelessness like a great weight crushing life out of our hearts. We look at our selves or the world and feel deep sorrow, regret or despair. Today’s lessons are quite simply about hope, hoping against hope, hope in the midst of hopeless situations.

    Today’s Old Testament lesson from Genesis is about hope, about a promise held, knowingly or unknowingly, in the heart of every human being, a promise that we can find a way to be a blessing to others. It’s a choice. We can say YES or NO to life. We can live our lives in such a way that we and others are diminished or we can live our lives in such a way that we and others are magnified.
  • 06-01-08 Transforming the World
    • TRANSFORMING THE WORLD
    Randall Tremba
    June 1, 2008
    (9th Sunday of Ordinary Time)

    Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19
    And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

    Matthew 7:21-29
    "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”

    * * *
    Recently one of our parents told me that his child had begun praying for God — not to God mind you, but for God. This child’s usual bedtime prayer for various family members and friends now ends with “and keep God safe.” Keep God safe. Think about that: to whom or what is that part of the prayer directed?

    Keep daddy, my cousin, my teacher, and my friend safe, and, finally, please keep God safe, too.

    Pretty interesting. We may have a budding theologian in our midst.

    Now it just so happens that this child’s name is Noah as in the Bible’s Noah-and-the-Ark. And, as we’re about to find out, that Noah in the Bible story had reason to think God was in danger, in danger of losing his mind, going ever the edge, or as our British cousins put it: going round the bend. Now if you really and truly suspected that God might be losing her mind, you, too, might start praying: please keep
  • 05-25-08 Affluenza
    • AFFLUENZA
    Randall Tremba
    May 25, 2008
    (8th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

     Matthew 5:19-34
    You can't worship God and Money both.
    [From The Message by Eugene Peterson]
     
    * * *
     
    "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

    This is not a complicated lesson and I don’t want to make it complicated by adding a lot of stuff to it. It really is this simple: we can worry ourselves to death about things that don’t matter.

    Life is more than things. You know that. I know that. So be careful. Be aware of what takes your time and your energy. Be careful that the quest for comfort, status and security doesn’t diminish your soul. The one with the most toys at the end of the day is nothing more than the one with the most toys at the end of the day.
  • 05-18-08 Bringing Light and Hope

    • RINGING LIGHT AND HOPE
    Randall Tremba
    May 18, 2008 (Trinity Sunday)

     Genesis 1:1-2:4a
    Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

    Matthew 28:16-20
    Go into the world and make disciples.

     
    The sermon today is especially for our graduates: Eric, Brandon, Kate, Nick, Will, Sarah and Luke. But the rest of you are welcome to listen.

    Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift. Mary Oliver

    I know each of you graduates well enough to know that already in your young lives each of you has encountered the darkness in one way or another. Each of you has stumbled into the valley of the shadow of death. The light in your world has gone out at least once. Nevertheless, the promise of eternal love is your destiny and vocation.

    The world can be a pretty dark place at times. It needs people like you to bring light and hope. It doesn’t mean you must fix the world. It means you must come alive, time and time again.

  • 05-11-08 Replacing Jesus
    • REPLACING JESUS
    Randall Tremba
    May 11, 2008
    Pentecost

    Acts 2:1-21
    All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"

    Today is Pentecost, the 50th and final day of Eastertide. Pentecost is the least understood of the three great Christian Days—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Pentecost is the least understood and the least commercialized. Hallmark and Wal-Mart have yet to exploit it. Did anybody get a Pentecost card this week? No? I rest my case.The color of Pentecost is red. Red is the color of fire, blood, and revolution. Beware. There’s more to Pentecost than you might realize.The story of Pentecost is a glimpse of the future, a glimpse where cultural evolution points, a glimpse of fierce tribalism transformed into a worldwide community rich with diversity yet bound by love and goodwill. It can be our future if we have the heart to embrace the serendipity moments brought to us by the Great Spirit in the earth.
  • 05-04-08 Communion/Community
    • COMMUNION/COMMUNITY
    Randall Tremba
    May 4, 2008
    Seventh Sunday of Easter

    John 17:1-11
    Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me,
    so that they may be one, as we are one.

    The current presidential campaign rhetoric and reactions recently exposed a certain kind of tribalism lurking within our country. Many have hoped and still hope that this diverse country would become “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

    May they be one.

    It seems the world moves forward in fits and starts. A little progress here; a set back there.

    After 9/11 we faced an opportunity to transform tribalism and nationalism into a broader and deeper world community. Large scale opportunities such as that don’t come often. They open and close quickly. We had a chance. But alas, alas.
  • 04-27-08 The Unknown God
    • THE UNKNOWN GOD
    Randall Tremba
    April 27, 2008

    John 14:15-21
    If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
     
    * * *
    The grass beneath a tree is content and silent. A squirrel holds an acorn in its praying hand, offering thanks it looks like. The nut tastes sweet; I bet the prayer spiced it up somehow. The broken shells fall on the grass, and the grass looks up and says, "Hey." And the squirrel looks down and says, "Hey!" I have been saying "Hey” lately, too, to God. Formalities just weren't working. [Rumi, 13th century Persian poet]

    Formalities have their place, I suppose. But they can get in the way. Formalities create distance and prevent intimacy between people. Formalities create distance and can make God into something unknown. Something distant. Lofty. Cold. Masculine. A Lord over his realm. A warlord over his tribe. A godfather over his family. Distant. Lofty. Cold. Masculine.

    I have been saying "Hey” lately to God. Formalities just weren't working.

    Well, I personally haven’t been saying “Hey” to God lately although I may start soon. I recently finished reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the world’s most celebrated atheist and this week I’ve been reading Finding Darwin’s God by Kenneth Miller, professor of Molecular biology, Cell biology and Biochemistry at Brown University.

    Both of these renowned biologists look at the same world. Both see astounding glory in the billions-year-old evolved and ever-evolving material world. Both are in awe and often breathless before the wonder of it all. Both see astounding glory in the evolved and evolving material world. But one sees that and nothing else. The
  • 04-20-08 The Way of Love
    • THE WAY OF LOVE
    Randall Tremba
    April 20, 2008

    John 14:1-12
    I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

    * * *
    Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled but, as it turns out, there are reasons to be troubled, in fact, deeply troubled. These are troubling times.

    This week we marked the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre and still there’s no end of assault weapons in sight. This week 416 abused children were taken into court custody in Texas. Predatory men keep having their way. This week the Pope while visiting the United States heard testimonies from several deeply traumatized adults representing thousands of abused children. This week the death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan climbed again. Bread is suddenly scarce in some countries. Zimbabweans and Tibetans endure a nightmare. These are troubling times.

    This notice was inadvertently left out of last Thursday's notices.
    Can we as the larger Shepherdstown community create a practical and affordable way that enables our elderly to stay in their homes longer? Please attend a preliminary discussion of a proposal under consideration by the Shepherdstown Ministerial Association. We are studying models that have succeeded elsewhere. You are invited to attend SPC's first focus group discussion on this matter. Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 22 at 3:30) in the Fellowship Hall. Convener, Esther Wood. Please let the office or Esther know if you will attend. Pre-registration is requested by NOT required. (Esther Wood <emswood@comcast.net>
  • 04-13-08 Providence
    • PROVIDENCE
    Randall W. Tremba
    April 13, 2008
    Fourth Sunday of Easter/Good Shepherd Sunday
    [revision of a sermon first preached April 20, 1997]
     
    Psalm 23
    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.

    * * *
    The Lord is my Shepherd, we say. We say it at funerals especially. We say it and recite it and sing it for those who are trudging through the valley of the shadow of death. At such times we need companionship more than anything else on earth. At such times companionship is the green pastures and cool waters that restore our souls.

    Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
    At such times the It of the Universe becomes a Thou. Thou art with me. You are with me.

    And because we need companionship at such times so desperately and deeply we in turn one day may come to say to someone else: when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be with you. I promise. Though pastures be sparse and water scarce I will lead you to a nourishing place. I will smooth the rough way and rub your bruised brow with oil. I will. I promise.

    The Lord is my Shepherd. We say it at funerals. But long before we reach our final mortal days we enjoy countless, untold, unsung provisions and protection.

    We sometimes call it Good Luck or Good Fortune but that doesn’t quite describe the warm touch that we feel. So we may call it Providence but not too often or too loudly less we sound presumptuous or favored more than others. But whether we call it Good Luck, Good Fortune or Providence the sad thing is we seldom remember it at all.

    Earth Day is a good day to shake off compl
  • 04-06-08 Pending Resurrection
    • PENDING RESURRECTION
    Randall Tremba
    April 6, 2008

    Luke 24:13-35
    Then Jesus said to them,
    "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
    Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"

    * * *
    Martin Luther King died April 4, forty years ago. He died within a few hours of that fatal shot. We could say, he didn’t suffer much and, we might even add, that was a blessing.

    But if we said that we’d only be talking about the pain associated with his physical dying. Martin Luther King suffered much, long before that fatal shot struck his neck. Death was the easy part.

    Long before that bullet ripped through his neck, he had felt stinging lashes, cold prison walls, scorn and ridicule from fellow citizens, murderous threats, self-doubts, and the hopelessness of an impossible mission. Like any of us, King longed for longevity. He longed for a long life. But he longed for something else even more. He longed for the redemption of his people and his country, redemption from its long night of shame and sin.

    King was no romantic. He was no fool. He knew the cost of redemption. As a young man he had answered the call: take up your cross and follow me.

    King was a child of the church, baptized into the death of Christ and weaned on the gospel of Christ’s undying love. He knew that in this world redemption is not cheap. He knew that in this world people seldom surrender power or privileges without a fight—often bloody, violent fights. It’s an old, old story and King knew it well. But he knew another story as well, a story that had claimed his heart and set it on fire.
  • 03-30-08 The Power of Forgiveness
    •  THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS
     by Pastor Tremba
    March 30, 2008
     
    John 20:19-31
    When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
     
    * * *
    “The Power of Forgiveness” is a new film by Martin Doblmeier. Next time it comes around on Public Television be sure to see it. It conveys a hopeful message: Even though we have been hurt by someone, once or repeatedly, and even though we have badly hurt someone once or repeatedly, the past can be transformed with truthfulness, humility, courage, wisdom, love, and grace. We are not doomed to stew in bitterness and resentment forever.

    The “Power of Forgiveness” introduces various people struggling to overcome devastating hurt inflicted upon them by others, by particular individuals or, in some cases, by faceless groups. Through the film we meet Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Amish parents in Nichols Mine, PA, a Jewish survivor of the holocaust, an African American descendent of slaves, and a father whose 20 year old son was murdered by a 14 year old boy.

    Most of these testify to the power of forgiveness in freeing them from bondage to bitterness and opening them to a bright and promising future. For some, however, getting to forgiveness is virtually impossible. Elie Weisel, for example, speaks for Jews who simply cannot and will not forgive the Nazi executioners. Many Jews, he said, wouldn’t forgive God even if God begged for forgiveness. And yet some did find grace and strength to do the impossible. Forgiveness isn’t cheap and in some cases it comes very slowly, if at all.
  • 03-23-08 Easter in Mesopotamia Five Years Later
    • Matthew 28:1-10
    "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
    He is not here; for he has been raised."

    Today I must begin with a warning. In fact, I may need to begin with this warning for the rest of my preaching days. If there is any young person sitting in these pews with presidential aspirations, this would be a good time to stand up and walk out!

    This is not a state church. There have been nations and countries with state churches. The United States of America is not one of those. This is not a state church. We don’t fly the American flag in this sanctuary.

    Nevertheless, a Christian church and a Christian minister can be patriotic. I don’t mind telling you that I love this county. In sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, it is my homeland. I am a hopeless patriot. Wave the flag, play the national anthem, march the troops or firemen down Broadway and my eyes fill with tears. Right or wrong, I love America unconditionally. Nothing could make me love her more or love her less. My love for my homeland is unconditional.

    My respect, however, is conditional. At times I am so proud to be an American; at other times deeply ashamed, as I might be of my parents, my children, or even myself. Unconditional love. Conditional respect.
    The American people and our government have done untold good things here and around the world, for example our fierce resistance of Nazism and our promotion of human rights. But we have also done horrendously evil things—the long practice of slavery and the decimation of the Indian nations, America’s first peoples. We have done great good and we have done horrendously evil things. To pretend otherwise is to be blind or brainwashed.

    Unconditional love. Conditional respect.
  • March 9, 2008-Raising the Dead
    • [From "Raising the Dead." Sunday, March 9, 2008]

    Death has been in the air around here lately. And it’s in the gospel lesson today.

    We all die. It’s an absolutely, completely democratic experience. No exceptions. I know we all die, says Woody Allen, but I was hoping for an exemption.

    There are no exemptions. We all die.

    In just the past two months we have absorbed the death of Anderson Clark, Bill Johnson, and Peg McNaughton. Death is in the air. It always is; sometimes more than others. With or without a warning, it’s never easy. Death, we might say, is fatal—up to a point.

    As troublesome, sorrowful and frightening as death can be, it’s death that makes life precious and priceless by making it finite. Each mortal life comes in a limited supply. Like gold. And thus life is precious like gold.

    However, unlike gold each person is unique and thus not only precious but priceless as well. Nothing or no one can replace another soul. We are not interchangeable units. Each life is precious and priceless in its own way. We would do well to cherish every moment we have with each other.

    Life is a gift. And life as we know it is terminal.

    Jesus stood at the grave of his dear friend Lazarus and wept. Maybe he was thinking, better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. It’s small comfort; but comfort nonetheless. Jesus wept.
  • March 2, 2008-Seeing What Matters
    • When I turned in my homily title Thursday morning, I didn’t have Peg McNaughton in mind. I had something else in mind. But by Saturday morning I found Peg very much on my mind as I re-gathered my thoughts around today’s appointed lessons: the gospel story (John 9) about seeing the world with eyes opened by Jesus and the Old Testament story about seeing through superficial appearances into the heart. Seeing what matters.

    The LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

    Thursday afternoon I sat with Peg acutely aware that we were sitting under the shadow of death. Her son David and daughter-in-law Pam sat there, too. Peg was fully conscious, conversant and keenly aware that she had entered her final hours. Such awareness focuses the mind. At such times we often see more clearly. We see what matters.

    We talked of things that matter and some that didn’t matter so much. As she said over and over for the past several weeks, I’m dying. What can I say? Which is, of course, what everybody else said or thought. You’re dying. What can I say?
  • February 24, 2008-Food and Drink
    • This past Tuesday night I heard the speeches of McCain, Clinton, and Obama following the Wisconsin primaries. I heard the roar of their supporters. In those roars you could hear cries for change, cries, we might say, for water in a dry and barren land.

    From the wilderness of the Sinai the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Ex. 17:1-2

    The Israelites were on their way from Egypt, “the house of bondage,” toward a Promised Land flowing with milk or honey. Some of you are on a similar journey and have stumbled upon dry and barren moments.

    They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

    Israel was on a journey. America is on a journey, too. All nations are. Not a journey from one place to another but a journey from being one kind people to being something else. It’s a journey not a jaunt. As Frederick Buechner put it: the conversion of slobs into human beings is no picnic. In other words, it doesn’t happen overnight or easily. Not for individuals or for nations. We are on a journey from one kind of being to another.
  • February 17, 2008 - Blessing the Nations
    • Church and politics is a very touchy subject for many people. You’ve heard the saying: fools rush in where Presbyterians fear to tread. Or something like that.

    We are a political church but we are affiliated with no political party. We’re not that kind of church. We respect and give thanks for the separation of church and state, perhaps the single greatest idea instituted by the Founders.

    Nevertheless, we are a political church. It’s in our genetic make up from John Calvin, John Knox right back to Jesus and through Jesus and the prophets back to Abraham and Sara who had the radical idea to seek a way to bless all nations and not just their own. Well, at least it was the spark of a promise in their heart, a beginning, a hopeful idea that would not and could come to pass quickly or easily.
  • February 10, 2008 - Children of Creative Purpose
    • No one knows exactly how it happened in the misty past, how the first humans stood apart from humanoids. Genesis, on the one hand, offers a mythic story full of symbolic props including a first couple, a garden, a serpent, and even God as a prop. Evolution, on the other hand, offers a scientific, a physical and biological story. But however it is told, we can say this much: Mother Earth gave birth to a wild and wonderful, yet dangerous child.
  • February 3, 2008 - Dazzled by the Great Mystery

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Humans once stood on mountaintops to gaze into the heavens. We now gaze through telescopes from outer space. We see deeper into the universe and number the countless stars, solar systems and galaxies in ways our ancestors could not. What once was merely vast is now infinitely immeasurable and infinitely incomprehensible. In our lifetime, the universe has been transfigured before our eyes, the universe out there and the one in here, both full of emptiness. No wonder at times we feel smaller than dust, worthless, and insignificant.

    And then it happens.

    In some “thin place,” on a mountaintop or at a table such as this, we hear our name called. You are my beloved. Yes, you really are. Do not be afraid. And, by the way, have you noticed? I have given you a world aching and longing to love and be loved.

  • January 27, 2008 - Let Go/Let Grace

    • Matthew 4:12-23

    "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

    * * *

    Kite Runner is the story of Amir, a young Afghani boy who kept silent at a critical time when speaking up might have saved his dear friend Hassan from brutal pain and devastating humiliation. Kite Runner is a story of betrayal, of running away, of deserting a friend while he was pleading for his life in the Garden of Gethsemane.

    Amir ran away. And then time went by.

  • January 20, 2008 - Found in Translation

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Gospel lesson for the day: John 1.29-42

    A friend of mine writes and sings songs in hospitals for terminally ill children. Jim Newton is a Methodist minister from Texas. Some of you may remember his visit here several years ago.

    Some of Jim’s songs include “Jesus” in the lyrics, which isn’t a problem in most places, but in certain hospitals, administrators told Jim he couldn’t sing songs to children with “Jesus” in the lyrics. Jim is as big and tough as a Texas linebacker. He doesn’t back down. So he called his older and wiser Christian friend Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame. Jim asked Paul: If I can’t say Jesus what should I do? If I take Jesus out, my songs fall apart.

    Do you know what Paul Stookey said?

  • January 13, 2008 - America's Prophetic Dreamer

    • Sunday Bulletin

    A Sermon on the life ofDr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
    By the Rev. Dr. James G. Macdonell

    Scripture: II Samuel 11 and 12: Selected Verses's

    A half century ago, the United States was extremely fortunate that an unknown southern black preacher stepped forward to become the hero our country desparately needed, to lead us out of the chaos of national racial violence. His name was Martin Luther King, Jr. ...and on January 15th our grateful nation will celebrate his birthday.

    During the brief period of only 13 years, from 1955 until his premature death at the age of 39 in April of 1968, Dr. King led non-violent campaigns against the bigotry of segregation and violent racial injustice, all across our nation...some to Governors' mansions in the deep south...and even others to the White House. As we honor Dr. King's memory on his birthday, America's Dreamer may be gone...but his Dream remains, and so we can still dare to believe that "Someday...we Shall Overcome!"


    (Reflections from the sermon on Dr. King, delivered by Jim Macdonell at SPC on January 13, 2008)

  • January 6, 2008 - Gifts of Love

    • Epiphany Sunday Bulletin


    This past Thursday I spent some time with John Lennon. Not in person, of course, but by way of a DVD documentary—The United States versus John Lennon. In case you hadn’t heard, the popularity of Lennon’s song—All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance—troubled the Nixon administration enough to wiretap his telephones.

    Lennon was hardly pious or completely virtuous. But he was wise enough and compassionate enough to offer the world a gift of sorts.

    In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War and just before Christmas, John and Yoko plastered a message on billboards in major cities around the world. The message came right out of the peaceable kingdom dreams of Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Micah. War Is Over. Well, it wasn’t over. So, of course, he was ridiculed and called a dreamer. As it turns out, the wise men in today’s gospel lesson were also dreamers and king Herod was about to tap their phones.

  • December 23, 2007
    • Sunday Bulletin

    Matthew 1:18-25

    Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

    But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [NOTE the language: “the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” It says no more than that. From the Holy Spirit. More than one meaning is possible.] She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

    All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah—[600 years prior while living under threat of military invasion]: "Behold, the virgin [or as it is the book of Isaiah itself “a young maiden”] shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

    When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no sexual relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

  • December 16, 2007 - We Are the Ones

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Matthew 11:2-11
    Nobody makes a bigger mistake than the one who does nothing because he or she could only do a little. (Edmund Burke)

    This past Thursday I sat with a member of our parish who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. And if that’s not enough to bear, he fell on Monday and broke a couple ribs. His wife, as you can imagine, is stretched to the limits.

    When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:2-4)

    †††

    Reflections on the First Reading from Luke, Chapter 1 (Ethel Hornbeck)
  • December 9, 2007

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12

    This past week I read an article in the Christian Century by Jonathan Tran entitled “Sold into Slavery: the scourge of human trafficking.” The human slave trade has become a $13 billion industry. Depending on whose numbers you take, there are between 12 and 27 million slaves in the world today. Nearly 90% involve women and children who are forced into prostitution. Certain global economic conditions and dynamics predispose these children and women to their fate. There are many ways to be enslaved and many ways to treat others as less than human. I’m guessing that our hands are not completely clean. This is Advent. It’s a time for “the people of the promise” to stand and pray in solidarity with those who sit in darkness in one way or another.


    In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

  • December 2, 2007 - Keep Watch
    • Sunday Bulletin

    Isaiah 2:1-6; Matthew 24:1-3, 36-44

    Maybe the surprise, when Christ returns, will be that he was here all along. Maybe the surprise will be that, ahead of time himself, he has been calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying the meek and all the rest of those who bear his name. Come, Lord Jesus. Mary Hinkle, Pilgrim Preaching

    * * *

    This afternoon there’ll be a surge of prayer here in the meetinghouse. The PeaceFest2 band begins the program with a rousing version of “What’s So Funny ‘bout Peace, Love and Understanding” made famous by Elvis Costello. And it just keeps going from there. Bob Marley’s “One Heart, One Love,” George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun,” Rodney Crowell’s “Ignorance Is the Enemy,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and, for the benediction what else but: “All You Need Is Love.”
  • November 25, 2007

    • Christ the King Sunday (no sermon)

    Introduction to lessons & songs:

    The offense is not that Jesus wanted his followers to be loving, but the offense is Jesus [himself]. Jesus is the politics of the new age, he is about the establishment of a kingdom, he is the one who has created a new time that gives us the time not only to care for the poor but to be poor. Jesus is the one who makes it possible to be nonviolent in a violent world. We should not be surprised that Jesus is the embodiment of such a politics. After all, Mary’s song promised that the proud would have their imaginations “scattered,” the powerful would be brought down from their thrones, the rich would be sent away empty, the lowly would be lifted up, and the hungry would be filled with good things. Is it any wonder that the world was not prepared to welcome this savior? Jesus was put to death because he embodied a politics that threatened all worldly regimes based on the fear of death.

    Stanley Hauerwas    , Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School.
    Sunday worship bulletin including "King?" by Bruce Prewer
  • November 18, 2007 - A Daring Adventure

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Gospel lesson for the day
    Luke 21:5-19

    Seventeen years ago a young man named Christopher McCandless walked away from his home and family and into the Alaskan wilderness in order to find enlightenment. In the end, he lost his life but found his soul.

    You will be betrayed by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls. (Luke 21)

    Life is a daring adventure. Sometimes we stumble into the wild. Sometimes we walk in on our own.

  • November 11, 2007 - The Very Heart of Things

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Luke 20:27-38

    A gremlin once got me into a little trouble while I was reading this particular gospel lesson. It happened in my first or second year here, which was, in case you’ve lost count, thirty (30!) some years ago — another century and another millennium! — when I was young and reckless. On that fateful day I was reading the lesson from the pulpit, the very same lesson that is before us this morning in which Jesus corrects his critics’ view of reality, or more specifically, their view of “the afterlife.”

    We might say his critics, the Sadducees, were extreme literalists on Scripture and short on imagination. Hoping to discredit Jesus, they put him on the spot in public with a tricky question about marriage, death and the afterlife. So, Jesus, they said, here’s the problem. A certain woman died after having had seven husbands, all brothers. Just as the law of Moses and custom required, she had married one brother after the other as each died in turn. So, smirked the inquisitor, in the so-called resurrection whose wife will she be?!?

  • November 4, 2007 - Finding the Lost
    • Sunday Bulletin

    I’ve never associated the story of Zacchaeus with global warming, but after yesterday’s forum on Franciscan Spirituality, I saw a possible link. I’ll get to that link in a few minutes. First the gospel lesson for today with some textual comments.

    Luke 19:1-10

    Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.

    [Textual note: tax collectors in that time and place were considered traitors because they worked with the Roman Empire, the foreign occupying force in the Jewish homeland; with the backing of the Roman police and security forces, tax collectors could bleed their own people as much as they pleased; they were the most reviled and despised group of people in that society; considered evil and beyond forgiveness and redemption; we can guess that some tax collectors who took up that business in their youth felt stuck in a position they didn’t know how to escape; some of us know that feeling, too; stuck in a way of life or a way of living we can’t escape.]

    Zacchaeus was trying to see who because he was short in stature.
  • October 28, 2007 - The Prayer of Examen

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Luke 18:9-14

    This past Friday I took out the garbage and suddenly, for no particular reason, I found myself musing over the metaphysics of garbage.

    I’ve been taking out garbage as long as I can remember. It was my household chore as a child. It’s my household chore now. It will likely be my chore until the day I die. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken out the garbage. It’s not something I record in my diary or brag about to my wife. I mean really, who cares how many times I take out the garbage?

    It’s not a hard job. But it’s got to be done every week, sometimes several times a week otherwise the house would stink and varmints would invade and infest.

    So I take out the garbage. We all take out the garbage because of the kind of world we live in. In this world certain things go bad. Certain things defile and befoul our living spaces.

  • October 21, 2007 - Heeding the Call

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Grant me justice against my opponent.

    Lesson: Luke 18:1-8

    West Virginia is at or near the bottom of many health and economic rankings. Well, you
    might say, with 50 states competing somebody has to be last and next to last and so on!

    Maybe so. But winning the ranking’s contest is not the point. The point is to improve the overall health and welfare of the state and its people. In an ideal world all 50 states would be tied for first place, as would every nation on the face of the earth.

    But life isn’t that way. Life is unfair and uneven.

    Some inequalities are inevitable. Others are clearly created and aggravated by human greed, cruelty and apathy.

    The gospel lesson this morning is about inequalities and injustice. The lesson is a parable, a riddle of sorts. The “widow” in this parable could represent single moms, or minorities of one sort or another, or a nation, or even a single state like our own wild and wonderful West Virginia. The widowthey can also awaken and pierce the heart.

  • October 14, 2007 - Cultivating Faith (Ethel Hornbeck)

    • Sunday Bulletin

    Luke 17:11-19

    Many years ago, I found myself in a grocery store on the other side of town, if you know what I mean. I didn’t go there often. But this day, for whatever reason, I found myself there/ at the register/ short of cash. Who knew? they don’t take checks on the other side of town. Flustered, I gathered my money, I counted, I looked at that pile of groceries and decided I could just about cover it without that bag of fine looking oranges. So I set them aside. And just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned toward the very dirty, ragged, sketchy looking character behind me in line, holding out a fistful of bills. “Here,” he said, “Git yer oranges.” “Oh no, no, I couldn’t,” I stammered. I couldn’t take money from this guy! In those days, I probably made more money in a day than he made in a week or more. “Take it.” he said. More insistent. “No, I …” And then, too late, I saw-- the hurt and anger in his face, reflecting back the arrogance in my own attitude. Over three lousy dollars. A few more lame words, I took the money, I bought the oranges and I thanked him. But, in that invitation rejected, something essential had been broken.
  • October 7, 2007 - Servants of Love

    • The work is done. What we were told to do, we did. (Luke 17.10)

    Today is World Communion Sunday and Peacemaking Offering Sunday and on top of that we baptized two children into the Community of Christ, which is to say into the “Community of the Beloved.” What a day we’re having and it’s not half over.

    Tonight at the Peacefest we will sing many songs including “Imagine.” Imagine all the people living life in peace. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. Imagine one world. One world is a dream because in reality there are many worlds on this one planet. In some cases worlds are separated by great chasms. And yet the dream of one world persists. We are invited to hold it and cultivate it like a mustard seed. These two infants baptized this morning will hear of this dream and if their parents and if their church family keep it alive for them they will become servants of Christ, which is to say, servants of love. This morning and this evening we celebrate the earth and pray for its peace because not all is well with the world.

    But how can we credibly pray for the world when we live in the belly of an empire? Who among us has clean hands and a pure heart? Who? No one. And so we must walk, work and pray humbly for we have been unkind, unjust, cowardly and silently complicit with evil in more ways than one.
  • September 30, 2007 - The Great Chasm
    • If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
    Luke 16:19-31

    We are invited—just as the fishermen were invited—to follow Jesus and to learn from him how to build a new world founded on love and justice. The church, at its best, is a school of love with Jesus as our guide and mentor. Some lessons are difficult. For example, Jesus said: You cannot serve mammon (the lord of wealth) and the Lord of heaven and earth at the same time. Money, as it turns out, makes a wonderful servant but a terrible master. So, Jesus said, we must choose the “lord” we will serve. We can serve God or mammon. The gospel according to Luke says that when those who “loved money” heard that, they ridiculed Jesus.

    So Jesus told them a story that went something like this.
  • September 23, 2007 - Under the Spell of Money

    • You cannot serve God and wealth.

    Perhaps you’ve noticed how unjust the world can be. Perhaps you’ve tried to make it less so. If so, you’ve probably noticed how hard it is to do.

    When Jesus was criticized by the “right kind of people” for eating and associating with “the wrong kind of people,” he answered his critics with a story about an unjust manager of another man’s wealth both of whom lived under the spell of money. It’s the gospel lesson for today (Luke 16:1-14). But I’ll skip the story for now and jump to the conclusion.

    No slave can serve two masters, said Jesus; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed Jesus. So he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:13-14

  • September 16, 2007 - The Table of Our Lord
    • Luke 14: 34-35; 15:1-10
     
    Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

    Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable...

    Actually three. One about a shepherd who lost one of 100 sheep and would not rest until it was restored to the others. A woman who lost one of her ten precious coins and would not rest until it was restored to the others. And a father who lost a son and would not rest until he was restored to his family. Apparently Jesus was keen on restoring something that has been lost on earth. What do you think it was? Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?*

  • September 9, 2007 - Come Be My Light
    • Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

    This past Wednesday was the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. She was on the cover of Time magazine, which put her on my mind along with Osama bin Laden since Tuesday is the 6th anniversary of 911. So while contemplating the gospel lesson for this Sunday I’ve had Mother Teresa, Osama bin Laden and, of course, Jesus on my mind, which made me wonder where the gospel might take us. Here’s the gospel lesson. As I read it, imagine Osama bin Laden speaking instead of Jesus.

    [Note: the word “hate” in this verse could be translated as “disregard”; in that society individuals were owned and controlled by their family and tribe; absolute patriarchalism was deeply entrenched; social changes were fiercely resisted.]
    Luke 14:25-33
    Now large crowds were traveling with him; and Jesus turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate [disregard] father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
    For which of you, intending to build a tower, [or destroy two towers?!] does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
    Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
  • September 2, 2007 - Light Through the Cracks
    • When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

    * * *
    It’s not often that I do two funeral services within 48 hours. But I just did. A week ago Saturday (August 25) I officiated a memorial service here for Norm McKenzie who died at age 76. This past Monday I led a funeral service at Brown’s Funeral Home in Martinsburg for the legendary George Johnson of Shepherdstown who died at age 46. On the surface these two men were quite different; but underneath, they were much alike. For many people in this town George Johnson was the “poster child” for trouble, big trouble. George had been in and out of trouble, in and out of jail more than once over his 46 years. He was no stranger to alcohol, drugs or street fights. No parent would want their child within a hundred miles of him. Let me put it this way: I doubt if any of us would have George on our “dinner guest list.”
    And yet.
  • August 26, 2007-Stop Being So Religious
    • Luke 13:10-17

    Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

    There’s more to the lesson but I’ll stop there for now.

    Yesterday afternoon in this house of prayer the family and friends of Norm McKenzie gathered for a memorial service. It was a celebration of his life.
  • August 19, 2007 - The Wonder of Each Hour
    • Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. (Psalm 150)

    My God! What a world—there’s no accounting for even one second of it! (Annie Dillard) Paula and I left American soil on July 3rd for Ireland and Scotland and spent every day and nearly every hour of the next six weeks marveling at the natural beauty we encountered. We saw the awesome handiwork of Mother Nature, in particular the spectacular topography sculpted by retreating glaciers from the Ice Age—mountains, cliffs, glens, valleys, and moors covered with bracken, heather and moss.
  • August 12, 2007 - The Very Reverend Donald W. Krickbaum
    • The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost

    Text: Luke 12:32-40
    A number of years ago, a good friend of mine in Southeast Florida, where I lived and worked for a long time, had once been the director of pastoral care of the clergy in the Diocese of Connecticut. He was a close friend of Scott Peck, the well-known author, and frequently had him present workshops and discussions among the clergy. When he published his famous work, The Road Less Traveled, Peck had never been baptized and become a Christian. My friend expressed to him his puzzlement about how he could write such as he did and still not become a Christian – “it is such Christian-like material,” said my friend. Scott Peck said to him, “Bill, I have not become a Christian because I am afraid to die!” Bill, was stunned at the remark at first, recovered, and said, “Well, Scott, we all have to die one day. Come be baptized.” Not longer after that, my friend Bill did baptize Scott Peck.
  • August 5, 2007 - In the light of the Lord

    • Text: Revelation 21.22 – 22.5

    Do you remember the total eclipse of the sun, back in August 1999, and the sequence of events that occurred on that extraordinary day? Firstly, a small “bite” appeared in the sun. Gradually it got bigger, until only one bead of light remained with a ring around the sun; a “diamond ring”,visible only if you were in the path of the moon’s shadow. Finally, that last “diamond” went and we were left with a black disc and around it the sun’s magnificent corona of light, flaring out millions of miles into space; an effect sometimes called the “eye of God”.


  • July 27, 2007 - God Loved the World So Much ...
    • Reverend Richard West
    Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Text: John 3:1-21
    God loved the world. The whole lot. Everything he had made was meant to be good. Everybody, everything. So when things went wrong. God still said – I will enable good to come out of this – and that will be a daily miracle and even though people will experience loneliness and pain and anger and intolerance, I will find ways of bringing the best out of these situations, even though my people are suffering.

    As you read different writers in the Bible, you will see them struggling with this one. For their cultures were very different. The Jews were positive – and believed God as active in creating good in the earth. The Greeks, on the other hand believed that the material world was corrupt and only the mind or spirit was pure. (PDF )
  • July 15, 2007 - Our Human Yearning for Reconciliation
    • The Rev. Dr. James G. Macdonell
    Fifteen Sunday of Ordinary Time
    July 15, 2007

    Scripture: Genesis 37:2-4; 12-14; 18-28; 45:1-4

    Sisters and brothers perhaps you haven’t noticed but during the past several years our precious American way of life has begun to drastically change. Our fore-fathers gave us a Constitution guaranteeing the rights of citizens while restricting the powers of government to control or manipulate us. But, today in countless disturbing ways Americans are no longer a united people. Today we have become hyphenated–Americans who have been assigned divisive labels that more often divide us than unite us.
  • July 8, 2007 - Ordinary Love
    • Reverend Patricia A. Donohoe
    Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Matthew 25:1-13

    A few drops of oil can go a long way.
    A few drops of oil can light our path through the darkness. There are times when the darkness seems unrelenting. Not a day goes by that Ihaven't been saddened by someone's loss or pain. Not a week goes by that Ihaven't been part of a discussion about how terrible the world is. Seldom do Ihear or initiate conversations about the blessings we all enjoy. This is not to denyor diminish the severity of anyone's loss or the gigantic challenges we face on somany fronts. But sometimes I wonder if I take the easy way out when I keep focusing on all the horrible things that happen everyday. Maybe that's because,even though there are many spiritual teachings, Christian and otherwise, thatproclaim the good news and offer messages of faith, hope, and love, I have to keep finding new ways of encountering these messages on a personal level to make them as real as the latest newscast.
  • July 1, 2007 - First in My Heart
    • Lessons
    2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Luke 9:51-62
    "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"
    * * *
    In case you hadn’t heard, President Bush is planning to arrive in our area on July Fourthand who knows, he could show up at Shepherdstown’s Independence Day parade.More on that in a moment. But first the appointed gospel lesson for today, which, byeerie coincidence, is about advance planning for Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem.
  • June 24, 2007 - Open Our World
    • Luke 8:26-39
    Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him.

    * * *

    There’s an insane person in the gospel lesson this morning and there may be more than one in the congregation this morning. And that, as it turns out, could be a good thing. The prophet Elijah, in his day, would have been considered at least a little insane if notdownright mad for his enraged opposition to the peddling of “idols and lies” in ancientIsrael (1 Kings 19).

    You may think it’s not good to be insane. But it all depends.What if society itself is insane? Then what? To be sane in an insane society is nothing tobrag about. Or as Thomas Szas put it: Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society.
  • June 17, 2007-Baptized into Love
    • The movie “Amazing Grace” is playing in town this weekend. If you haven’t seen it I hope you will—if not at the Opera House, then perhaps on DVD. “Amazing Grace” is the story of how William Wilberforce persisted for 20 some years as a Member of Parliament to end Britain’s role in the slave trade in 1807. Wilberforce was a baptized child of the church. His childhood pastor was John Newton who composed the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I once was blind but now I see; was lost but now am found.
  • June 10, 2007-Secrets of Love
    • Lesson: Luke 7:11-17

    There must be a gremlin in my Bible. This past week I was musing over the gospel lesson for this Sunday and when I came to this verse: When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep" who should pop into my head but Paris Hilton! I’m guessing no other preacher on the planet had that horrifying experience with the gospel lesson this week. Like I said, there must be a gremlin in my Bible. So let’s see where that gremlin might take us.
  • June 3, 2007-The Glory of Humankind
    • Trinity Sunday
    Lessons: Psalm 8; Proverbs 8
    Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our
    technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. General Omar Nelson Bradley

    Proverbs 8. (From The Message by Eugene Peterson)
    Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling? Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice? She's taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, "You—I'm talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets! Listen, you idiots—learn good sense! You blockheads—shape up!
  • May 27, 2007 - Your One Wild and Precious Life
    • Genesis 11:1-9
    So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

    Acts 2:1-21
    All heard them speaking in their own language.

    From “This Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
    Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

    * * *

    Today is Pentecost. Once upon a time, long, long ago (before it morphed into a Jewish festival and then a Christian Holy Day), it was a day to get drunk. It was a day to celebrate the fruitfulness of the earth. Just before Pentecost, just before summer began — if the seeds were good, if the rain had fallen and if the sun had shone — the first fruits of grain were cut. It was a promise of more to come. “Hallelujah! Mother earth has done it again. We will eat and live another year. Let the dancing and drinking begin.” Once upon a time Pentecost was an occasion for drunken happiness but you’d never know it by attending a Presbyterian church—unless it was this one where the cat was just let out of the bag. On this particular Pentecost Sunday we are not feeling a drunken happiness (it’s still morning, after all!). But we are feeling a happiness of a different sort. Today we are celebrating and commissioning our graduating high school seniors. This homily is especially for them.
  • May 20, 2007 - One

    • Lesson: John 17:20-26

    Make of our hands one hand,
    Make of our hearts one heart,
    Make of our vows one last vow:
    Only death will part us now.
    Make of our lives one life,
    Day after day, one life.
    Leonard Bernstein (Westside Story)


    One love
    One blood
    One life
    With each other
    Sisters Brothers
    One life
    But were not the same
    We get to carry each other
    Carry each other.
    One. One
    Bono


    You may say I'm a dreamer
    But I'm not the only one
    I hope someday you'll join us
    And the world will be as one
    John Lennon

    Jesus prayed: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21

    * * *

    This past Friday Paula and I were in Richmond for Union Theological Seminary’s celebration of the career of Douglas Ottati. Some of you will remember Doug and his wife Pam from several visits here.