The Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie: Recent Episodes
The Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie
Sermons feed from The Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie, New York. We are a welcoming and thoughtful Christian Church dedicated to helping people grow in their spiritual life by gathering for worship, growing in community, and going out to serve others.
o there's a lot going on in our country right now that is calling us to (re) consider how we treat others, whether they be immigrants, young girls (gymnasts), the powerless, or people from cultures we don't understand or don't care to understand.
The Scriptures are filled with such stories. Nothing is new under the sun. These problems and the struggle to address them have always existed. At times God's people have gotten it right (or closer to right) and at other times they have not (at worst they have been complicit or active in the harming).
This past Sunday I taught from Genesis 16, which tells us of the story of Sarah and Abraham and their treatment of Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave. Hagar didn't share Abraham or Sarah's religion, culture, or language. They never call her by name (distancing). They only see her for what she can do for them (being a baby machine, a slave) and not her worth. Sarah is at least guilty of harassment and ill-treatment of Hagar. Hagar has no choice but to have sex with Abraham bc of her social position. She is the least of these.
Hagar is despondent and runs away, back to Egypt, the land that didn't want her. It is there that she experiences the opposite of human callousness; she experiences the tenderness of a God of inclusion and grace.
When we come face to face with the ugliness of the world we can better see the beautiful life of Jesus
Genesis 3 - Adam and Eve are in the garden, are deceived, and then are exiled from Eden. Through disobedience comes the curse - thorns, nakedness & shame, exile, and death. In the midst of this bedlam we see Jesus, the promised redeemer. This passage points us to the hope of Christ that grace will flow wherever the cruse is found.
Genesis 1 was written intentionally, reflectively, and with the purpose of leading us to worship the God who creates, fills, gives life, and loves. God fills the void of the cosmos by speaking the creative word and God fills the void of our heart by speaking the recreative word, "Jesus!"
A post-Charlottesville message. Throughout Scripture we see that God includes and therefore the call of a Christian is to include--no exceptions.
Can you still remain open to God when God acts in ways we do not like? Jesus refuses to be tamed by our expectations and calls us to show radical hospitality to those around us.