November 2019 – Wicomico Presbyterian Church

A Future with Hope

Jeremiah 29:10-14 Years ago I traveled from Iowa to San Francisco to attend a work-related conference. It felt like a different world. Walking through the city, I encountered the homeless on every street, begging. My colleagues and I talked about what was the right thing to do – whether to give, how to give. We wanted to help, we wanted to do the right thing, but it’s often unclear what the right thing is. One of my colleagues decided that she was going to give something to every person who asked and she did– until she ran out of money to give. When one more man approached her asking for something, she stopped, looked him in the eye and said, “I am all out, I have given it all away, and there is still so much need. How much am I supposed to give?” He shrugged and turned away. It was […]

A Cheerful Giver

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 ; Luke21:1-4 I remember an autumn Sunday from many years ago when I sat in the pews of my church, and the pastor stepped into the pulpit. It was the custom at that time for the pastor to make the announcements of the church right before the sermon. He began with an announcement about the budget. At that time in my life I paid zero attention to budget matters, but apparently there were some financial difficulties, budget shortfall, if you can imagine such a thing. I only half listened, but at some point I noticed that his announcement was running really long. About 20 minutes later he stopped talking. He acknowledged rather sheepishly that he had spent too much time on the announcements and would forgo his sermon rather than make us suffer through another 20 minutes of him talking. The congregation laughed, he wrapped up with a prayer, and that was that. But […]

For Those Who Want Answers, Let Us Pray

Job 19:23-27 Luke 20:27-38 When I was a young child, I have been told, I asked questions all the time. “Why” questions. It drove my mother crazy. She felt like she had this little mosquito following her around, buzzing in her ear night and day. Why? Why? Why? It was like a form of torture that she would try to endure, offering answers as best she could, but eventually she would cave and say, “I don’t know.” She didn’t have all the answers like I expected her to. Later, I got married and I transferred all my hopes and expectations to my wise husband. I asked Kim all my questions, but it turned out he didn’t have all the answers either. I have spent much of my life pestering the people closest to me with unanswerable questions. I might be an unusually irritating person, but doesn’t everybody want to have […]

The Blessing and the Woe

Luke 6:20-31 This week our book discussion group gathered together to talk about the most recent book we have read: Ordinary Grace. A man named Frank looks back on one particular summer in his childhood. 1961 in a small town in Minnesota. He was 13 years old, his brother Jake was 9. And in that summer, they confronted death for the first time. It wasn’t as though they knew nothing of death, actually. Their father was a minister, and they had been to plenty of viewings and funerals in their childhood already. But this summer was different. There were four deaths for these young boys: lives taken by tragic accident, by violence, by unknown causes. Four deaths they met at close proximity. All four, lives taken too soon. And throughout the story there is the question of faith – and grace. How does faith carry us through times of loss? How […]