June 11, 2017

      This passage is Matthew’s grand finale, and I am quite sure you have all heard it before.  Well known as “The Great Commission,” if we were to write a screenplay for this scene we would probably put Jesus on a mountain with a sea of people at his feet, and possibly the […]

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May 28, 2017

  This first letter of Peter was written as an exhortation from an elder in Rome (see 5:1, 13) in order to encourage Christians who were suffering because their faith had called them to break with the social fabric of their community.  The word suffer or suffering is used a disproportionate number of times in […]

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May 21, 2017

  As we begin this morning, a couple of reminders might be in order. First, a reminder that in our church calendar we find ourselves after the resurrection, and before the ascension. Secondly, a reminder that in the gospel of John our text is part of what is called the Farewell Discourse – an extended […]

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May 14, 2017

A Pre-Mothers Day Message   I do indeed acknowledge that today is Mother’s Day, and since there are limits to our ability to fight off sentimentality, I thought I would start with some cute pictures of mothers with their babies.  If you feel the need to go “Awwww,” don’t hold back on my account.   […]

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May 7, 2017

  As has been announced, the Session of Maryland Presbyterian is considering becoming aligned with The Sanctuary Coalition of Central Maryland (SCCM), so I thought this was a fitting time to provide some background material for that discussion. I hasten to remind you that as your Interim Pastor it is not my intent to tell […]

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April 30, 2017

  Anniversaries are an appropriate time for reflection.  I don’t want to attempt to reconstruct the mind of the founders of this church 60 years ago, but rather think more “big picture.”  To this end, I was struck by the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3: 11 – “He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover […]

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April 23, 2017

  A number of months ago I did a short sermon series on the Psalms that was framed by how Walter Brueggemann categorizes the Psalms.  He contends that each Psalm tends to fall into one of three categories: Psalms of Orientation, Psalms of Disorientation, and Psalms of New Orientation. The Psalm we read this morning […]

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April 16, 2017

  EASTER SUNDAY   Happy Easter!  There is a lot packed into that phrase that we cheerfully exchange on this day!  A lot of assumptions.      Before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to be reminded that the original Easter message was decidedly not, “Jesus is alive, and here’s what that means for […]

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April 9, 2017

I would like to start by pointing out that if you consult the lectionary regarding this Sunday before Easter, you will be given an option of two tracks to run on.  One is referred to as Palm Sunday, with an emphasis on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  This is the track that you are likely […]

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April 2, 2017

Series: The Shaping of Relationships   I wanted to say that I appreciate your flexibility in allowing me to take off on short notice last week to support my sister in Memphis upon the loss of her husband of 51 years.  There was a challenging dynamic to that relationship since my sister takes her Christian […]

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