I want to thank everyone for your input. I felt a bit overwhelmed. This text needed a small series. I tried to make some judgments about what my little congregation needed. Visitors today. Very well received. Many of you were my partners in preparation. I enjoy the lectionary’s ability to create a community around a text.

These sermons are NOT available at itunes. You can only get them here at Internet Monk.com. These are messages I preach as a supply preacher at a small Presbyterian Church in our county.

Preaching For Grown-Ups: Mark 10:46-52.

Today’s Lectionary passage in the Gospel of Mark was the requests of James and John, Jesus’ response and his teaching on greatness and servanthood. I would have titled this something like “What’s Wrong With Ambition?”

These messages won’t be sent to the iTunes feed any more. You’ll have to pick them up here on the post.

Listen here to: “What’s Wrong With Ambition?” Mark 10:35-52

Today’s Lectionary text actually was longer, but I confined the sermon to understanding the young man’s approach to Jesus in a bit less revivalistic terms and in getting to the central challenge Jesus presented to him.

If you don’t know, I am the supply preacher for a small Presbyterian Church in our community. It’s my opportunity to preach to someone other than teenagers

This is my third straight hour of preaching/teaching this morning, so yeah, I was that tired.

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I’m posting this morning’s sermon at Manchester Presbyterian Church where I supply. I strayed just a bit from the actual lectionary reading, back into last week’s text, which I’d replaced with Mark 8….oh, anyway. This is the first sermon where some of the themes of my nameless book are really prominent. Hopefully, I’ll find more ways to incorporate book themes into preaching.

I am replacing the category “London Presby,” which is sermons, with “Preaching For Grownups.” I’d like to do this as a regular podcast someday, but right now we will just make it a category. Production values are non-existent.

The sound in the background? That’s one of God’s beautiful children. You’ll get used to her. We all have.

The scripture is Mark 9:14-29. I do a bit of my overview of Mark in here as well. Feel free to share this message with those who assume I have a Kentucky accent. I need to stamp out that rumor.

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Here’s a sermon I preached today on the message of Genesis 1-3 and the Gospel in Romans 5.

I’ve been teaching Genesis 1-11 this week in my Bible classes, so you get to hear a lot of how I handle that. Those of you wanting a creation science approach to Genesis 1-3 will likely be disappointed.

I’d like to have had a second sermon to fully unpack the second half of the message, but it’s the Gospel. That’s what matters to me.

Thanks to Pastor Ted Thulin for sharing the pulpit with me today.

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Preached this morning at a Baptist Church. During the scripture reading time earlier in the service, I read several sections of Ephesians 1-4, so don’t mark me down too hard for not reading those verses during the sermon.

Full house today, maybe 170. Very cool. I was surprised how exhausted I was. I haven’t really “preached” in almost 3 months with the exceptions of the Cornerstone seminars where Jason Blair failed to get saved.

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The lectionary text is John 4:5-42. I used the text as a launching place to look closely at Jesus and at the nature of the Good News we have to share.

This is probably my last Sunday filling the pulpit at First Presbyterian London, Kentucky. Pastor Ted is ready to come back to ministry and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to lead in worship and preach.

The beginning of the sermon is a bit of an admonition to the church. I’m pointing to the font, the pulpit, the table, etc as I talk about the various good things that should be treasured.

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Since it’s Lent, the lectionary text was Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus’ test in the wilderness.

I chose a bit of an imaginative beginning, made sure I anchored this story in the Gospel, then used it as a window to talk about the lessons for our own trials and temptations. Pay attention to what kind of community Jesus’ is creating. That’s a much overlooked point.

I cited C.S. Lewis about as much as the text itself. Hey, I’d trade Obadiah for Mere Christianity any day.

Continue to pray for Pastor Ted, who hopes to be back in the pulpit in three weeks.

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UPDATE: To those of you writing me wondering about the day, check the Revised Common Lectionary.

Today is transfiguration Sunday, and that’s what I preached about. Matthew 17:1-9, but some in Matthew 16, too. I tried to give the event its wider context, and to convey that for his disciples, Jesus may have been the most frustrating teacher of all time. Of course, he is also the greatest teacher, and the greatest lesson. Jesus is never more “Zen” to me than at these moments he takes the disciples on the roller-coaster ride of understanding who he is and what is his mission. The answers go out the window, the questions get replaced and eventually the whole school is turned upside down. It’s like he’s trying to change YOU, not just give you little bits of information. (y’think?)

These sermons will be in a category called “London Presby.”

Thanks to Wyman Richardson for the Fred Craddock story. (Always credit your sources, preachers, or you’ll be in preacher’s purgatory for many more years.)

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I preached at First Presbyterian Church in London, Kentucky again today. I took the lectionary text (John 1:29-42) and followed it down a bit further (-51) so I could not just talk about Jesus calling disciples, but about disciples being promised that they will see more than those who simply believe in miracles. Apologies to N.T. Wright for the idea that Jesus is the place where heaven and earth come together.

One thing about a sermon on discipleship is that you need to bring the Gospel of the Cross in, and since it’s not a focus of the words of the call, I wanted to say that the disciple’s pursuit of God comes in response to the Gospel; to what God has already done. If I were doing this again, I’d say more about Jesus as the Lamb of God being the first word of the disciple’s journey.

I want to thank the good people of First Presbyterian for allowing me to fill the pulpit for three Sundays. I’m praying that Pastor Ted is back and feeling better soon.

Note: I do insert the phrase “when you follow me” into the text a couple of times because I want to make it clear that Jesus was talking about what a disciple who follows sees rather than what a believer in miracles sees.

Here’s “What Disciple’s See” from John 1:29-51.

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Here’s the sermon I preached this morning at a Presbyterian Church nearby. It’s the Sunday we mark the Baptism of Jesus.

Atheists often characterize Christians as somewhere between stupid and mentally ill. It’s unfortunate that some Christians return the rhetoric in kind, saying that atheists are evil, dumb, etc. The fact is that this isn’t about intelligence. It’s not even about what can be proven. (The atheist’s worldview is as unproven at the foundation as the Christian’s.) The difference is the significance of Jesus. The difference in our “reality maps” comes down to whether God really designated Jesus of Nazareth to be the “clue” that answers the questions of significance. And seeing Jesus as that answer isn’t an issue of intelligence or being “schizo,” hearing voices, etc. It’s a spiritual revelation. Our word to the atheist isn’t “get smarter.” It’s “open up to the possibilities that your worldview map is impoverished, and start the journey to believing the Good News about Jesus.”

Let’s leave out the insults and put the light on what matters the most. (And Bill Maher needs to apologize to schozophrenics.)

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