Commitment Sunday

This Sunday, November 15th, is Commitment Sunday. While many of us may not physically be back in church, it is still Commitment Sunday, the time when we make our pledge to the work, the mission, and the maintenance of Second Church so that we can formulate our plans and budgets for 2021.

So we’re posting and we’re mailing this simple statement, request, appeal, reminder -- Step up! Step up to the plate! More than a clever concept from our Stewardship Committee leaders, David Savard and Rebecca Darwin, it’s a call to action, an invitation to each of you to commit by making a pledge to God’s kingdom work through Second Church.   

It’s been hard to get together, but it’s important that we stick together and that we stick with the church. How do we do that? How may we honor the primacy of Jesus in our lives and for the hope of mankind? It starts with the heart.

  • Honor the covenant you made as you joined, whether this year, last, or a decade or more ago.

  • Make a commitment, a pledge that reflects your love for Jesus and will enable the work we get to do in God’s name through Second Church. 

  • Be disciplined. The needs of the church don’t stop for Covid or for summer. You may give cash, or by check, money order, online or automatic bank draft, but please, if possible, make a pledge. A pledge is not a contract and may be amended if need be.

God’s work will be done. May it be done through Second Presbyterian. It takes you, me, our teaching and painting and recording and posting, and prayers and our money. It’s a practical issue. It’s a relationship issue. This is a spiritual issue. Our God loves us, so we must love God and God’s creation. Our God forgives us so we must forgive. Our God is scandalously generous. It’s our time to step up and give back!

In anticipation, confidence and in joy -

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Sunday, December 22, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ – 

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way:” 

Imagine this – one day you’re a respected fellow in the community – a tradesman, a carpenter, you come from a good family, a royal line!  Life is sweet… and quiet. You’re looking forward to a new life, a new life with the young woman to whom you are betrothed. Next step is marriage.    But why are people whispering? You haven’t lived together. You’ve never been intimate. She’s pregnant? She says it’s the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit of God?

Come worship this Sunday, this 4th Sunday of Advent. 

We’ll sing carols. The trumpet will play. We’ll enter into the blessed mess of the incarnation and be blessed. 

In anticipation -

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SERMON PODCAST

Source: sermons

Sunday, December 15, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ – 

One of my favorite columnists is Michael Gerson. He is Christian. He lives and writes in Washington, DC. He comments on much of the dross and drivel of the day with what I consider to be a perspective consistent with one who follows Jesus. He speaks truth (yes, it is ascertainable) and advocates for what we (followers) would believe to be in Christ, of Christ.  

In an article this past week in the Washington Post he describes Advent:

    “This is the time of the Christian year dedicated to expectant longing. God, we are assured, is at mysterious work in the world. Evil and conflict are real but not ultimate. Grace and deliverance are unrealized but certain. Patient waiting is rewarded because the trajectory of history is tilted upward by a powerful hand… the assurance at the heart of Advent is the antidote to fear. No matter how desperate the moment, we are told, time is on the side of hope.”

In these times we need an antidote to fear - and to incivility and to pandering and distraction. We need to believe the reality of the mystery we proclaim. 

In our text for this 3rd week of Advent, John is in prison - pacing, agitated, fearful that his work, his life may have been in service to a poser. 

When he sends his disciples to question Jesus. The incarnate God (thank you) says this, “Tell John…”  

See you in/to worship!

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SERMON PODCAST

Source: sermons

Sunday, December 8, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ – 

Have you ever seen John the Baptist on an Advent calendar? More likely you would see him as an action figure in a PlayStation game – Prophet of the Wild – dressed in camel’s hair, wind in his face and torn, sleeveless t-shirt with locusts and honey on his breath! 

Silly image? Maybe. Irreverent? Not meant to be, but not necessarily wrong. John was a man of the wilderness. He turned his back on his priestly lineage opting for the desert where he prophesied and baptized by water – carpenters, scribes, farmers and Pharisees from all Judea and Jerusalem.  

John proclaimed the coming of the one more powerful who would baptize with the Spirit and with fire – the one who himself would be driven into the wilderness and made fit for the harsh road he would walk. 

In advent we walk towards God’s light through the darkness that has not, that does not, that will not prevail, but was overcome by the incarnate. 

Let’s walk together this Sunday –

See you in worship!

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SERMON PODCAST

Source: sermons

Sunday, November 24, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ – 

Since the establishment of the church, people have sought to co-opt its power or ignore it. From Constantine to our modern era, tyrants have attempted to seduce its leaders. So in 1925 in response to secularization and the rise of nationalism, Pope Pius XI established a new feast day for the Roman Church – The Feast of Christ the King – a day to bring the focus back to Jesus.

The day is a "hinge” day between the season of ‘ordinary time’ and our preparation for the coming, when we “walk into expectant darkness, waiting for the light to dawn, and straining to hear the first cries of life” (Debi Thomas – Journey with Jesus), the incarnation, the enfleshment of God. 

In the time of Samuel, the people greatly offended Yahweh, the God who had liberated them from Egypt by insisting on, pleading for, whining until God relented and allowed them their wish for a king, a flesh and blood ruler. This ushered in one of the darkest eras of the people of Israel. So what do we make of a king now? Is the term even relevant? Our narratives are drenched, are saturated in images of the royal… and the rest. And yet it’s "the rest" that Jesus preferred and doted on. 

So as a fellowship of "the rest", let’s gather this Sunday and sing and pray and pledge our fealty to the only one who is worthy. Come, let’s gather and worship the Christ.

As members of "the royal priesthood", of all believers, let’s worship our king.

See you in worship!

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SERMON PODCAST

Source: sermons

Sunday, November 17, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ –

“Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.” – II Thessalonians 3:13

This is the last phrase in our text for this Sunday. It couldn’t come at a better time in the life of our country and in the life of our church.  Many forces attack the Body of Christ. Paul identifies some in our text – meddling, gossiping, entitlement, busyness, burn out, misplaced priorities. But none more sinister than God’s people abandoning our charge, surrendering our privilege to work for God’s realm, therefore denying ourselves the joy the obedient know. 

These attacks we see in scripture and we experience in real life may appear in broad strokes, but it comes down, always comes down to the personal, the individual, the peoples (to use an Old Testament term) that comprise Christ’s body.

The first reading from the prophet Isaiah speaks to the future when ‘the wolf and the lamb shall feed together.’ We ain’t there. 

Folks, this Sunday is going to be terrific as the trumpet sounds, the word is proclaimed, we bring our commitments forward. And afterward we get a glimpse of many, but not all of the opportunities for fellowship, discipleship and service. A real glimpse of what we get to do in the name and for the love of Jesus. 

Invite your friends, your colleagues. Invite especially those with whom you may have amends to make. Share the wondrous things being done through Second Church – through you. 

With great joy in being your pastor (and great anticipation) –

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SERMON PODCAST

 

Hear our Children’s Choir sing:

Source: sermons

Sunday, November 10, 2019

SERMON SNAPSHOT


 

Dear Friends in Christ –

This Sunday Catherine is joining the church. She’s excited! She told me she’s found a place where the word of God is preached and lived and seen in the people. That God’s presence is felt in the house.

Catherine is a companion to residents at Bishop Gadsden – already engaged in the work of the realm. What presence she brings. What a gift to this body. 

We’ll be engaging Paul’s letter to the Corinthians – his 2nd. 

Come and celebrate with God’s people. Come meet and worship with and welcome Catherine.

See you Sunday,

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SERMON PODCAST

Source: sermons