Sermons 2024 – Wicomico Presbyterian Church

Called and Sent: Discipleship in the World Today, Part 3 – What We Cannot See

2Corinthians 5:6-10,14-17 Mark 4:26-34 Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Mark 1:14-15 Back in the beginning of Mark’s gospel, these are the first words we hear from Jesus, himself. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news. And the rest of the gospel tells us what this means, tells us what this kingdom is like. In the fourth chapter we get the first lessons about the kingdom of God. And the lessons are given – naturally – in the form of parables. The word parable actually means “thrown alongside.” Jesus scattered these parables alongside our lives, inviting us to see where they might connect with our own paths. A parable doesn’t give us the answers; […]

Called and Sent: Discipleship in the World Today, Part 2 – Family Ties

Mark 3:20-35 In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays a man named Ray who is trying to learn how to be a successful farmer. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but he has a lot working in his favor. For one, he lives in Iowa, which is a place God made for growing food. He has a beautiful, fertile piece of acreage, and he lives in a community of farmers, from whom he can learn a lot. But one evening he is walking in his cornfield and he hears a voice. “If you build it, he will come.” After that, it’s one weird thing after another, and he ends up ploughing under his cornfield to build a baseball diamond so all the ghosts of ballplayers past can come out and play. And his wife Annie gets it. Somehow, she gets it. But their relatives and the community […]

Called and Sent: Discipleship in the World Today, Part 1 – New Wineskins

Mark 2:23-3:6 All four of the gospels tell us basically the same story, but each one bears certain unique marks that set it apart from the other three. Mark’s gospel is believed to be the first one written, probably around the year 70. It is short; it is blunt. Mark has two focuses: Jesus and his disciples. It is all about the relationship between them. Mark wants us to have a clear and correct understanding of Jesus, in order to have a clear and correct understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But the understanding is not easy, nor is it simple. As you read Mark’s gospel, pay attention to his disciples and you will see a change happening. At the beginning, they seem promising. They are eager, enthusiastic, even brilliant at moments. But as we read on, we watch that change. Increasingly, they fail to […]

Trinity Sunday: Strange Gifts

Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17 When I was a freshman in college, I answered a knock on my door one evening and met three young women I had never seen before. They lived a few flights up in my dorm and they were making the rounds on behalf of salvation. They smiled warmly and spoke in gentle voices and invited me to participate in a weekly bible study they were holding in their room. I didn’t even need to think about it; I said yes. It was like God had opened the door and said here you go. I went to the bible study, and at first it was very nice. These young women radiated warmth and love, and I appreciated the things I was learning. But then suddenly one day it changed. We were in our usual space, sitting on the floor together reading the scriptures and then the leader […]

True Friend

John 15:9-17 In the musical, My Fair Lady, there is a young man who is hopelessly in love with Eliza Doolittle. He is trying to profess his love to her, then Eliza suddenly interrupts him, saying she is so sick of words, words, words. She says, “If you’re in love, show me!” Because words will only go so far in communicating something as big as love. In the Gospel of John, God’s love is a clear thread running through it – and the gospel only has words to show us this. Jesus uses an awful lot of words with his disciples to show them who he is and what kind of relationship he wants to have with them. In John’s gospel we have the “I am” passages, where Jesus uses words to show his disciples who he is for them. And in recent weeks we have dwelled on some of […]

Abide in Me

John15:1-8 Several days before Jesus was arrested and crucified, he was spending some quality time with his disciples; the ones closest to him, those who had left behind lives full of work and people and purpose. They had dropped everything to go with Jesus – to be with him. And they stayed with him, wherever he went, whatever he went through. So during these days leading up to the end, an end he knew would be coming, he spoke a lot to these disciples about all the things that seemed most important for them to know. It was a very tender period in their lives together. One evening, he took a towel, filled a basin with water and knelt before these men to wash their feet. To their bewilderment and discomfort, he said, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Later that same evening they all sat […]

Open Table

1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36-48 I heard a funny story that, I think, actually happened, probably a few decades ago. A couple of girls go into a jewelry store, and they tell the saleswoman they want to buy cross necklaces. Crosses were very fashionable back in the 90’s, thanks to Madonna. The young saleswoman takes the girls to the glass counter where all the crosses are displayed, and she tells them, “There are different kinds. Do you want a plain one or do you want one with a little man on it?” I guess she didn’t know who the little man was. We do, don’t we? Even though Presbyterians do not have crosses with the little man on them, also known as a crucifix, we know who he is. And we know that Christ did not stay on the cross. He died on the cross, but he did not stay […]

Lent 5: Lift Up

John 12: 20-33 During my second year of seminary, I went on a cross-cultural trip with my class. This was something my seminary required of all students in the Master of Divinity program. Three weeks in another country, time spent immersed in the culture, learning about the Christian faith from a very different perspective. The destination varied from year to year. In my year, it was Cuba. This was in a time when internet and cell phone service were not universally available, so I was completely separated from Kim and our four children for three weeks. When we finally returned home, Kim and our two little boys met me at the airport. I can remember clearly how I felt. Elated, grateful, tears of joy. A classmate told me later, “The look on your face when you saw your family? That’s the way I think we will all look when we […]

Lent 4: Light Up

John 3:14-21 In the 1970s there was a man named Rollen Stewart who started attending sports events and doing big gimmicky things to get in front of the camera. He said later he didn’t care at all about sports, but it was a way of getting a lot of attention, which he did care about. Then he became a “born-again” Christian and his purpose changed. Now he wanted to draw attention to the gospel. So he started carrying in sheets or banners with “John 3:16” printed on them in big bold print. A lot of people didn’t have any idea what that referred to, but it sparked their curiosity. It became a thing. And John 3:16, which Martin Luther, centuries ago, called the gospel in miniature, came to stand in for the whole of it. For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone […]

Lent 3: Raise Up

John 2: 13-22 When I was a campus minister, one year I had a couple of students who were planning to walk in the local Crop Walk. They had their registration forms, but they didn’t have any donations. Maybe they didn’t really know how to get them. Their pastor, however, was a seasoned veteran of asking people for money, so I put these young women in my car and I hustled them over to a church I knew well. It was after the worship service ended. We crashed their fellowship hour, and I challenge the good people of this church to lend a helping hand by opening their checkbooks. I knew they would respond. I took advantage of these Christian people and their sense of responsibility. Was it for a good cause? Of course. But did that make it right? I leave that to you. I was not the only […]

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