Greetings

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, April 4, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ – 

We have taken this Lenten season to accompany Jesus in his final days. 

What have we learned? 

That Jesus in his humanity is far more interesting, more competent, more radical, more intentional than we may have thought. Would the forces he opposed have killed him eventually? Probably, but we have seen Jesus leverage relationships and time to fulfill ancient prophecy, and to insure that this disruption in time would accomplish what needed to be done. 

The longed-for Messiah arrives in the Holy City at Passover to liberate God’s people from navel gazing to radical inclusivity. We employ the Gospel of Matthew. The earth quakes. Roman guards are stunned. An angelic presence reminds us that Jesus has plans and we’ll find his resurrected self in Galilee, just as he said. 

This Easter we’re open – to worship together, masked up and safely spaced. Invite your friends and let’s worship our God of righteousness, paradox and love.  

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Source: sermons

The Beginning of the End

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, March 28, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ —

Throughout the season of Lent we’ve engaged Jesus’ Final Week, discovering a more complex man, intentional leader, and shaper of the narrative. We’ve discovered someone who kept the mission in sight and provoked authorities and created situations as necessary to accomplish the goal of defeating those forces that divide and separate us.

This Sunday we start at the beginning of the week. The Messiah enters the Holy City from the Mount of Olives on the back of a colt in fulfillment of prophecy. We’ll see that each parable, each turn, each visit, meal and conversation moves the needle to and through humiliation, ridicule, and torture to love’s triumph.

Don’t miss this chance to accompany the Lord of life through human horror to God’s defining moment.

Let us abide together with God in love —

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Interested in becoming a member of Second Presbyterian? Email Cress for more information.

Listen to sermon podcasts here. Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

Source: sermons

A Pivotal Moment--Gethsemane

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, March 21, 2021

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This Lenten season, we have been following Jesus throughout his final week. This Sunday we reach the Thursday of his final week and a lot happens. We will walk alongside Jesus as he prepares his disciples for what is to come—anointing, betrayal, denial, arrest, and death. Mark 14 is a chapter full of the events of Thursday and Mark 14:32-42 shares the account of Jesus in Gethsemane, a vulnerable fully human moment and also a pivotal one.

Let us gather together to journey alongside and worship the One who became fully human, who knew suffering, and who loves us with an everlasting love.

Grace and Peace,
Margaret

 
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Margaret Fleming has been a member of Second Presbyterian Church since 2017. A native of Mt. Pleasant, she found herself back home after graduating from Columbia Theological Seminary in May 2020. She resides in Mt. Pleasant with her husband Will, a fourth-year medical student at MUSC. She is a candidate for ordination in the PCUSA and is currently serving as a Chaplain Resident at Roper Hospital.

Interested in becoming a member of Second Presbyterian? Email Cress for more information.

Listen to sermon podcasts here. Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

Source: sermons

Eyes Up

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, March 14, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ —

How often— from work to drive home radio— do you hear folks refer to Wednesday as ‘hump day’? Like an imagined mountain you climb, the midpoint of a project, an accomplishing of something that’s required after which you slide, you cruise.

Scholars, theologians and preachers don’t know what to make of Wednesday of Jesus’ final week. Scripture doesn’t tell us how Jesus and his friends spend the day. Some suggest it was a ‘personal’ day spent with friends. Others find it hard to believe Jesus would just ‘take a day’ given the time frame of passion week. I won’t speculate.   

This Sunday we engage the lectionary. We’ll touch on both Testaments that direct our attention where in our redemption will be found. 

Eyes up! 

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Interested in becoming a member of Second Presbyterian? Email Cress for more information.

Listen to sermon podcasts here. Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

Source: sermons

Jesus' Final Week: Tuesday

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, March 7, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ —

Do you know the name Harold Camping? He founded Family Radio Network; he predicted Jesus would return on May 21, 2011 signaling the end of the world. Evidently Jesus didn’t get the memo.

And civilzation didn’t crumble at Y2K.

And the ancient Mayans miscalculated as well.

What is it about the apocalypse that conjures such speculation? Perhaps if we look at another meaning – an uncovering, a disclosure, a revealing of great knowledge – it may be easier to understand the fascination. I doubt many of us are yearning for the end of it, or this, or that or all of it! We aren’t those who ponder a rapture – ascending through the clouds, bumping into Jesus on his way, the final reckoning in his pocket.

In our text this week, Jesus covers ground and he doesn’t have much time. Time is accelerating so he gathers his chosen to Olivet. There, he reveals trials to come. He is clear in what must happen, but when it comes to his return, he just says, “Be ready.” So we’ll do our part in grateful obedience and in inexplicable joy – yes, joy, even in the scrum of these days.

We sing. We pray. We proclaim. We share Christ’s table. You’re expected and will be celebrated. 

In anticipation – 

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Source: sermons

Jesus Straightens Up

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, February 28, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ —

‘Meek and mild shows up mad!’  

It’s Monday. Just a day after entering Jerusalem to the cheers of the people, Jesus of Nazareth continues to astound. The population has swelled. The city is fortified by the Roman garrison. Security is tight. He heads to the Temple and tears it up, sealing his fate. It was bad enough when this backwater itinerant embarrassed the scholars, when he and his group flouted the dietary, purity and Sabbath laws. Now he has attacked the seat of stability, secured by complicit Temple authorities. He teaches with impunity and the people love him. How quickly this will change.

Jesus cleansing the Temple is related in all four gospels. Details may differ, but the result is the same. He’s no longer just an irritant. Jesus is a threat.

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Interested in becoming a member of Second Presbyterian? Email Cress for more information.

Listen to sermon podcasts here. Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

Source: sermons

From Jericho to Jerusalem

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, February 21, 2021

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Dear Friends in Christ —

I’ve been grappling this week with the thrust for Lenten sermons. In the past I haven’t been shy expressing my belief that to know, to really experience the excitement, the pure joy of the Resurrection, one must have walked with Jesus through the days before. The entry to Jerusalem on the colt, the cleansing of the temple, teaching from the Mount of Olives, planning for one last supper, one last chance to lay out the mission.

One needs to imagine the gut-punch of betrayal, whether it was foreknown or not. The plea in the garden, “if there’s another way…” And the face turned, resolute to the Legion come to arrest him. His cheek offered to be kissed. 

It will come to this. And during these days ahead we will follow a rough chronology and seek out the man Jesus as he leaves nothing to chance, using each moment to teach, to model, to show strength, resolve, love. Let’s approach the Final Week together. 

Amen,

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Interested in becoming a member of Second Presbyterian? Email Cress for more information.

Listen to sermon podcasts here. Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

Source: sermons