First Presbyterian Church Hickory, NC: Recent Episodes
First Presbyterian Church Hickory, NC
This week we'll look at two scripture readings, one from Deuteronomy 30 and the other Matthew 5. We'll hear from both Moses and Jesus as they sum up their teachings, and we'll learn about a holy shift they both call us to make: the shift from separation to compassion. This is also World Communion Sunday. As we gather around the table, we'll be gathering in spirit with Christians across the globe. If there’s one thing the world needs from Christians, perhaps more than anything else, it is this holy shift from separation to compassion!
This Sunday we continue our look at Holy Shifts, this week focusing on the theme of Black & White to Color. Our very colorful scripture passage is John 8:2-11.
What are some ways your life needs to shift in a new direction?
This week we're exploring Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant, as found in Matthew chapter 18. As we discovered last week with the parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus' teachings often have a sting to them. The whole point of that "sting" is to make us uncomfortable, to provoke a holy shift. This week we'll wonder about the shift to mercy. How do we live with mercy? How do we experience forgiveness? And how do we pass that forgiveness on to others?
What are some ways your life needs to shift in a new direction? We’ll spend the first six weeks of this new season exploring holy shifts. Each week we’ll look at some of the ways we usually live, and then consider a shift, a new way of thinking and being and doing. We’ll begin this week with "Holy Shifts: From Fairness to Generosity," based on Matthew 20:1-16.
We will look at Matthew 16:21-28, where Jesus rebukes Peter and describes a hard road. Are we called to the same path?
This Sunday we finish our tour of water-themed Bible stories with one of the greatest fish stories of all time, the story of Jonah. Most of us have known this story since we were small, but we probably didn't know the context behind the story, or the deep secret of life hidden within it. We'll explore both of those on Sunday!
I hope as we journey through the month of August together, you'll pay more attention to water. Reflect on the ways water cleans and refreshes us, as in baptism. Meditate on the ways water is both gentle, flowing around obstacles, and yet mighty, bringing down whole mountains. How is faith like that? Think about the ways rain falls on all creation, indifferent to boundaries and borders and who we think deserves what. How is grace like that?
Last week we talked about the waters of creation, and how they remind us that everything is held up by grace, and everything is connected. This week we'll look at another watery story from Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus walks along the stormy waters and invites Peter to do the same. Are we called to follow in Peter’s footsteps?
Come to the Water is our theme for August. The story of faith is in some ways the story of water: God's spirit hovering over the watery chaos at creation; the water of the Red Sea parted to lead the people to freedom; the good shepherd leading us beside the still waters; Jesus baptized in water and turning water into wine and walking on water; Jesus as the living water; Jesus calling us to go forth and baptize in water. And so on.
This week, we'll focus on the very first chapters of the Bible, the creation story from Genesis chapters 1 and 2. What can we learn about creation, and our role within it, from this ancient story? What might water teach us about how to live as part of this beautiful world, and how to be faithful to God along the way?
Matthew 13:31-33; 44-52
As summer slides on, we will wrap up our sermon series this week, Signs of the Kingdom: Hidden Treasures. Have you ever found a treasure? Maybe lost something you loved only to find it years later? There’s a story about a Canadian woman who lost her wedding ring…and 13 years later her husband found it—on a carrot! Sometimes things stay hidden, they aren’t gone, they are simply hidden from our sight. Read Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.
Matthew 13:24-30
Our Sign of the Kingdom for this week is all-too-familiar: a garden full of weeds. See Matthew 13:24-30. You might think a perfectly-manicured garden would be a better sign of the kingdom, but Jesus points us to a chaotic mess of a field, where the weeds and the wheat are all tangled together. And he cautions us not to be too quick to start pulling up the weeds. What can we learn about the kingdom from this tangled and beautiful mess?
Matthew 13:1-9
Where do you see signs of the kingdom? Where do you see the Spirit at work, in and through and around you?
That's what we're exploring during the month of July. Last week we talked about a couple of signs: the lightness of being that comes from laying down our burdens and worries and trusting in God's grace, and the light that we can shine for others so they can find their way to that grace.
Matthew 11:25-30
This Sunday we start a new series: Signs of the Kingdom. We'll be reading through some of Jesus' teachings in the gospel according to Matthew. In these teachings he gives us signs of the kingdom, hints of what it looks like when the Spirit is at work in us and through us. I think the freedom we just talked about is one of those signs of the Spirit.
This week we'll talk about "Being Light," both learning to let go of things we don't need to carry (that is, traveling light), but also how we are a light for others when we learn to live in this way.
Romans 13:8-14
There are days we all likely pray for that, but in the meantime… well that might be what Paul offers us today, 2000 years later.
This Sunday we will continue our series on Divine Myths, reflecting on claims about God that may not be entirely true. As I said in my sermon last week (quote attributed to Mark Twain): "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." For the month of June, we're exploring what we know for sure about God… that may not be so.
This week we will consider three vignettes from the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 9: the calling of Matthew as a disciple, the healing of a woman, and the raising of a young girl from the dead. In each case, we will discover that there's a question of purity at stake - a bright line that good, religious people aren't supposed to cross. And in each case, we'll see that Jesus steps right over that line in the name of healing and compassion.
Does God demand purity? Can we only experience God if we ourselves are pure (however we define that)? Can we only appreciate the beauty and goodness of others if they are pure, too? Let's tackle these questions together this Sunday.
This week we're beginning a new sermon series I've called "Divine Myths." We will explore some things we often say about God that may not true, or at least aren't the whole story.
One of those divine myths is the idea that God is absolutely fixed and settled and unmoving. As one of our hymns puts it: "There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not; thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been thou forever wilt be."
Yet the God of the Bible also seems to be a God on the move, stirring things up, and calling us to stir things up. And our doctrine of the Trinity - which we also celebrate this Sunday - suggests that, rather than a single fixed person, God is a mystery of multiplicity and movement. We will explore all this on Sunday!
We are concluding our sermon series, Unsettled Questions, and this Sunday our question is, Which Spirit? The Spirit of God is not the only game in town, and we are sometimes tempted to give way to other spirits, other ways of being in the world. So how do we know which spirit is THE Spirit? That's the question we'll explore together.
This Sunday we will celebrate Ascension Sunday. It's fair to say that Presbyterians aren't sure what to make of this day, or the odd story we find in Acts 2, where Jesus seemingly floats away into heaven.
We know we can't quite take this story literally. Heaven is not "up there." Is it just a story from a pre-scientific age that we can dismiss?
I think the story raises a question, a question that the early church was clearly wrestling with, a question we continue to wrestle with today: where is Jesus? Everywhere? Nowhere? Heaven? Earth? At different times we've given different answers.
So that's the Unsettled Question for this Sunday. I hope you'll join us as we look for an answer together!
We continue our theme from the book of Acts, Unsettled Questions. Acts is a book full of stories about the early church as it grows and takes shape. It turns out, many of the questions that came up then are still being asked over 2000 years later. This week, we look at Acts 17:22-31 asking specifically, “What do we worship?”.
This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series called Unsettled Questions. Using the book of Acts to guide us, we'll look at four questions that the early church wrestled with, questions we still wrestle with today.
Who's In and Who’s Out? (Acts 8:26-38)
Our text for the day is one of the most beloved texts in all scripture: Psalm 23. Psalm 23 invites us to trust in God's provision even in the midst of scarcity and threats. It invites us to see the world as gracious, and to live free from fear.
This Sunday is Homecoming Sunday, the day we celebrate FPC's history and heritage. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the following invitation was included in the bulletin.
To all who mourn and need comfort...to all who are weary and need rest...to all who are friendless and want friendship...to all who are homeless and want sheltering love...to all who pray…and to all who do not, but should...to all who sin and need a Savior...this church opens wide the door and makes free a place, and in the name of Jesus the Lord, says “WELCOME!”
For more than 150 years, FPC has lived out that invitation—not only being a warm welcome for people here, but also taking the faith and hope and love nurtured here and sharing it with the world. We have much to celebrate!
“Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.” ― George Carlin
George Carlin is not exactly a patron saint of religion, but he makes an interesting point here about doubt. We welcome healthy skepticism, critical thinking, and a desire for first-hand confirmation in most other spheres of life. But for some reason when it comes to religion, we often look at doubt as something to be avoided, even condemned.
But I think there is and always should be room for doubt in the church. You know in Matthew chapter 28, even after Jesus had appeared to all the disciples after the resurrection, the text tells us "some of them doubted." Doubt has been a part of the life of faith from the very beginning.
Never forget that Easter is not a moment, not a day. It's a way of life, something that we live into. Whenever we live with wild hope, whenever we nurture wonder and love and life, we live into Easter. In the words of Wendell Berry:
Every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
Practice resurrection.
This Easter Sunday and every day, may we practice resurrection.
This Sunday, we begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday. And while we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Holy Week takes us through a whole symphony of emotions.
We are now deep into the season of Lent and well on our way to Holy Week and Easter.
Did you know the English word "Lent" refers to the season of spring? Spring (if it ever comes!) is a season of rebirth and renewal, a season of promise, and so we've been focusing on the promises of God this Lenten season.
We've talked about the promise that God is at work for salvation, sometimes in spite of us; that God is with us in the wilderness; and that God will give us true freedom, if we will have it.
This week we pick up the story of David from the Old Testament. We'll be looking at an episode late in David's story (2 Samuel 12), where David is confronted and judged for a terrible sin he has committed. I think how we respond to judgment says a lot about our lives. Judgment can be hard, but it also can be healing, if we will face it.
This week we will continue our Lenten exploration of Old Testament stories, and the promises of God we find there. Our story for this week is Exodus 17:1-7, where the people are wandering in the wilderness and running out of water, and God through Moses provides water out of a rock.
An interesting part of the story is the way the people keep looking back. Whenever they feel threatened, they start to pine for the good old days of servitude in Egypt. It's almost as if they don't know how to be free, don't know what to do with the freedom they've been given.
That's the promise we'll explore this week, the promise of true freedom -- and how hard it can be to live in that freedom.
This Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent. My daffodils are already trying to bloom and I can’t remember a warmer February, can you? As spring begins to awaken all around us, we will begin Sunday reflecting over these next 6 weeks with the sermon series, Promises of God. Looking particularly at stories in the Old Testament, this week we look at the book of Esther. It might have been a while since we took notice of this short, action-packed book of the Bible. But not so long ago (10 years!), our congregational retreat theme came straight from the book of Esther: “For Such A Time as This.” Perhaps we might see this book in a new way on Sunday as we consider the Promises of God: Salvation Anyway.
This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, not a religious holiday exactly but certainly a high holy day in our culture. I'm neither a Chiefs fan nor an Eagles fan, but I enjoy a good Super Bowl: both the (hopefully competitive) gave, and the over-the-top spectacle, the halftime show, the commercials, the food. I'm a glad participant.
Eventually the game clock hits zero and the game is over. At that point it's etched in history forever; nothing can change what happened. For some it will be a happy memory, for others a memory of loss, but either way, it's done. Finished. Over. End of the road.
We'll be talking about this idea in worship on Sunday, how we sometimes encounter dead ends in our life. We'll look at the promises we find in the prophet Isaiah, that God will do something new, that there are no dead ends for God, and so we should always hope beyond hope.
Our scripture reading comes from Matthew chapter 5. This is Jesus' sermon on the mount, and it opens with the beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven..." and so on.
It raises the question of where and how we find God's blessing. The idea of being "blessed" shows up a lot in our culture (it's a popular hashtag on Instagram, #blessed), but it's pretty clear from reading the beatitudes that Jesus has something else in mind.
What does blessing really mean? How do we find it? How do we share it? Hope to see you on Sunday as we celebrate communion and explore together where the blessings are.
For last few Sundays we’ve been exploring the notion of calling. Usually, we tend to think about careers when we think about calling, but as we’ve learned, calling isn’t your career: it is more than that. Deeper than that, wider than that. This week we look at Matthew 5:13-20 to explore the calling of a community. We know God calls individuals, scripture is full of those stories. But Jesus in Matthew is preaching to crowds, calling them to be salt and light.
We continue our series on callings. We are all called -- but what does that mean? Last week we talked about how even the smallest of acts can be a part of serving God. This week we will look at Matthew 4, where Jesus calls his first disciples. Some are called to drop everything and follow. Others are called to stay behind, to live the life they've already been given, but to live it differently. In some ways, that's the hardest call.
"Calling" can be such a big word. Sometimes we're tempted to think it's only especially holy people who are called, and the rest of us can just muddle along. But no, we are all called, called to live in grateful response to God's grace, called to share our gifts and talents with the world.
Over the next couple of Sundays we will reflect on what it means to be called. We will look at Isaiah 49:1-7 this week, one of the so-called "servant songs," which talks about what it means be to a servant of God.
Here we are at the final Sunday of Advent and we are reading about John and Jesus? It might seem odd or out of place, but I think Matthew 11:2-11 has a good word for us on this 4th Sunday of Advent. I keep saying Advent because I think our passage is all about waiting, expecting, and that is the heart of this season.
This Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent, the third stop on our journey to Christmas. Last week we talked about the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary, and her courageous yes (and also her defiant no!). This week we will turn our attention to Joseph, Mary's husband-to-be. How did this divine visitation affect him? How did Joseph respond to the disruption and uncertainty of having his life plan overturned -- and how do we respond?
The good news of Advent is, whatever you're waiting for, something new is coming. When you consider how our world seems to be stuck in old ways of thinking and acting and relating, something new may be exactly what we need. Long ago the world seemed stuck, and God did something new in the birth of Christ. That's what we celebrate on Christmas, and that's what we prepare for during the season of Advent.
This Sunday we will look at the story of the annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear the Christ child. We usually imagine Mary as timid and compliant. But I think we might better imagine her as courageous.
We begin Advent by looking at Matthew’s genealogy, 1:1-17. Will Heather read that whole scripture block? Listen now to find out!
This Sunday we celebrate Christ the King (sometimes called Reign of Christ) Sunday. It's the pivot point for the church year, where we transition from "ordinary time" to Advent (and the start of a whole new church year).
Christ the King Sunday always poses the question: if Christ's reign looks nothing like the rulers of this world, then what does it look like? Where do we find it? How do we see it?
To answer that question, we'll look at a well-known passage from the gospel according to Matthew, the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.
This Sunday is a special Sunday at FPC. We will reflect together on a passage from the book of Isaiah, chapter 65, verses 17-25. This text has been called "God's dream for the world." What do you see there? How does God's dream for the world coincide with your dreams?
Luke 20:27-38, where Luke describes Jesus and the Sadducees asking strange questions and get puzzling answers.
The text for this Sunday is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible: the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector from Luke 19. We may discover not everything there is as we remember (or as we've been told)! I think this story is one of the most important in Luke’s gospel.
Luke 19:1-9
It's so easy to feel disconnected. And when that happens, when we forget our connection to each other, and our connection to the world of nature, that's when we start to lose our way.
That's what we'll be talking about here - the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), where both go up to the temple to pray, but only one ends up being forgiven and reconciled. Only one ends up reconnected.
Luke 18:1-8
We'll be exploring one of the parables of Jesus, from Luke 18:1-8. We'll look at how Jesus' parables often turn things on their head. Then we'll talk about prayer, and what it means to be passionate and persistent in prayer.
Luke 17:11-19
What in our lives is begging to be let go? What gets in the way of our healing? This week our story in Luke is about 10 lepers who come to Jesus for healing but only one returns to thank and praise him. I’m sure we can answer that in various ways. But as we enter into the season's cooler temps and watch the leaves fall, think about how their letting go is so very beautiful. How the cycle of nature teaches us about healing.