Maggie Gillespie – Page 19 – Wicomico Presbyterian Church

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Exodus 3:1-15 Last week I talked to you about the best first lines of novels. Today I want to tell you about one of the best book titles I have heard: A Good Walk Spoiled. It’s a book about the game of golf. I don’t play golf, but I like the title very much. It speaks to me, and I’ll tell you why: The author writes, “One week you’ve discovered the secret to the game; the next week you never want to play it again.” This could be said about ministry. And when I say ministry, I mean every Christian who is called to walk the walk of faith. Sometimes it feels like a good walk spoiled. Moses would relate. There he was, out for a walk – just Moses and the flock – and the angel of the Lord calls to him from this burning bush. He just had to look. […]

By the Grace of God

Exodus 1:8-2:10 A favorite pastime among readers is to list the best first lines of novels – sentences that are so good they hook the reader instantly. Think of the opening line from Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Or Moby Dick: “Call me Ishmael.” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” from A Tale of Two Cities, and my personal favorite: “124 was spiteful,” from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. And chapter 1, verse 8 from the book of Exodus, is also one of the best: “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” Now, you might say it doesn’t count because it’s not the first line – it’s the eighth line of the book. Technically you are right – but I think verses 1-7 are more like a prologue to the story. The real […]

Meaning and Purpose

Genesis 45:1-15 Some years ago when I was a campus minister, I knew a student named Megan – a very dear young woman. She had this ability to find the silver lining in everything. Megan could find something hopeful in every disappointment, and she would always say: “In a way, I’m glad this happened,” and then she would tell me how she had found some new opportunity in the setback. Megan had a talent for reframing her disappointments. Of course, these were all relatively minor disappointments. I don’t know how she would have handled a real crisis, the kind of thing Joseph was thrown into again and again and again. So much has happened to Joseph since last week, when he was trotted off to Egypt with the Ishmaelite caravan. There he was sold to Potiphar, an official in Pharaoh’s court, and Joseph rose quickly in Potiphar’s household, soon put […]

Dreamers

Genesis 37:1-38 When I ask people about their dreams, often they say, “I don’t have dreams, I just don’t dream.” Or, if they do have dreams, they don’t remember them. But, sometimes, if we continue talking they will remember a dream they had … then maybe another dream will come to mind. When it comes to dreaming, I think we all do it – it’s a matter of being mindful of our dreams. During the past six months, I have read, many people have been experiencing pandemic dreams. Some of them are pretty obvious – like dreams about being sick, or having a loved one sick with the virus, dreams about being unable to breath or desperately trying to find your lost face mask. But some are weird and funny dreams – like being wrapped up in toilet paper and being the envy of all who see you. Being surrounded […]

Alone Again

Genesis 32:22-31 Matthew 14:13-21 Since this pandemic began, I have developed a certain kind of sensitivity. That is, when I see people get close to one another, touching one another, it sets off an internal alarm, like, “danger, Will Robinson, danger!” This happens when I’m watching TV and see scenes of people crowded into rooms together or embracing each other. “Six feet apart!” I want to shout at the screen. I had that reaction to the gospel story, with the mention of the crowds that Jesus couldn’t get away from when he went in search of solitude. We have all had quite a bit of time to think about solitude this year. It has its place, but not too many of us are cut out to be hermits, practicing solitude as a way of life. Of course, those who have children at home might be thinking a little […]

Then There’s Grace

Romans 8:26-39 Genesis 29:15-28 So the story of Jacob continues. After his night in Bethel where he saw the ladder of angels climbing between heaven and earth, and heard the voice of God reaffirming the promise of a future, Jacob arrives at the home of his uncle Laban – his mother’s brother. Here he is welcomed … here he meets a beautiful girl … it looks like Jacob has landed on his feet. But what’s that thing they say about karma? Karma is a you-know-what, right? After seven years of hard work impressing his future father-in-law, Jacob the trickster gets tricked. Bigly. And surprisingly, Jacob doesn’t even complain. Maybe he’s been waiting for this, the proverbial other shoe, to drop. So he sighs, nods in acceptance, then puts his head down and continues working off his sentence – seven more years for Uncle Laban. And we, the readers, sit back […]

Where God Is

Genesis 28:10-19a Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in […]

Entitlement

Genesis 25:19-34 When we were little, my older sister and I told our youngest sister that our parents found her in a garbage can and brought her home. We only told her that because she was young enough and innocent enough to believe it and it amused us that she believed it. We convinced her also that her duty as the youngest child was to wait on us; run down to the kitchen and get us a snack if we were hungry, even run down to the 7-Eleven if we had a sudden craving for Doritos or Laffy-Taffy. We were bad. It’s the natural order of things that older siblings dominate the younger ones because they can. They’re bigger, smarter, stronger … for a while. Later, when things even out; when the younger siblings are as big and strong and smart as the older siblings, they’re still dominated by the […]

O Soul, Are You Weary and Troubled?

Romans 7:15-25 Matthew 11:16-19,25-30 Some years ago, I began a search for Jesus pictures. I was interested in all the different ways Jesus is portrayed in art. There is quite a variety. Over the centuries you can see the ways cultural priorities have been reflected in the popular images of Jesus. In the early centuries of the church, there were some rather severe images: Judge-of-the-world Jesus and victorious-in-battle Jesus. But modern people seem to prefer a milder version: Gentle-shepherd Jesus and little-children-loving Jesus. There are some that are less common but very arresting: like sad Jesus, looking on the state of the world with a tear on his face. One of my favorites is polite Jesus, knocking on our door, hoping we will answer. There is also laughing Jesus – which, for some reason, a lot of people don’t like, and I’ve never really understood why. But one thing I have […]

An Outstretched Hand

July 3, 2020
by Maggie Gillespie

Genesis 22:1-14 Matthew 10:40-42 There are a few stories in the Bible that are sometimes referred to as “texts of terror.” This story from Genesis is one of them. It is the climax of the long story of Abraham and Sarah. In a way, it resembles the climax of a big disaster movie, where a disaster comes – a tsunami, a fire, a nuclear attack, or zombies from outer space – tearing through our civilization and leaving a huge swath of wreckage in its wake. Usually, in the disaster movie, we just focus on the survivors. When it’s over, the audience is washed in relief, so thankful that we made it! On the screen there are embraces and maybe a little wry humor, so we can leave the theatre feeling good. We might try to do that with the Genesis story too. Look at the survivors – Abraham and Isaac […]

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