humility – Wicomico Presbyterian Church

Saved by Grace

Luke 18:9-14 I am in the habit of beginning my prayers with thanksgiving, you might have noticed this if you have prayed with me. Offering thanks to God for whatever is at the top of my mind in the moment. I have noticed this about myself, wondered about it a little, but haven’t seriously thought that it was a problem of any kind. I mean, what could be wrong with saying thank you? Nothing at all, I thought, until I really dug into this little parable. The Pharisee at prayer begins with thanks. “I thank you, God, that I am not like other people…the thieves, the rogues, the adulterers, or this tax collector right here beside me. Thank you, God, for making me better.” There it is. Our thankfulness can actually be kind of smug, as we count all the ways our lives are great…enviable. We risk the humble-brag – […]

Measuring Faith

Luke 17:5-10 There’s a story about a woman who goes into a coffee shop for a little afternoon break. She goes to the counter and gets her coffee and a package of cookies, then looks for a place to sit. The shop is crowded, so she is forced to take a chair at a small table already occupied by a man reading a newspaper. She’s not looking for company, but she sits down with her coffee and package of cookies, gives him a quick smile and nod, then buries herself in her book. She notices out of the corner of her eye that the man reaches out and takes a cookie from the package on the table. Rude, she thinks, but tries to ignore it. She reaches out and takes a cookie for herself. Pretty soon she sees his hand sliding across the table and taking another cookie out of […]

Your Place

Luke 14:1,7-14 There is a book called The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois, a remarkable story about slavery and race in America through the centuries. Near the end of the story, an elderly man, Uncle Root, explains to his young niece why he took his wife’s name when they were married in the mid-20th century, instead of asking her to take his name. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Uncle Root lived for most of his life on the plantation where his ancestors had been enslaved. And during that long period of slavery, it was not uncommon for the master of the house, and other white men, to take advantage of the powerlessness of the enslaved. It was known that many enslaved children were fathered by the master of the house, although they would never be able to call him father. And often these individuals were given the family name of […]

Advent 4: A Room for Love

Micah 5:2-5a Luke 1: 39-55 About 15 years ago there was a woman driving home from work in Chicago and, driving through an underpass, she saw a vision of the virgin Mary on the wall. And thus was born Our Lady of the Underpass, a place of pilgrimage, where the faithful bring flowers and candles to a little altar they have set up. In the underpass. Have you ever driven in Chicago? The thought of supplicants kneeling before the shrine while traffic whizzes by, inches away from their bodies – terrifying. Yet, it’s a reminder that the image of Mary is extremely powerful for the church, particularly the Roman Catholic church. She is venerated because she was chosen by God to bear God’s son in her body. She is called, in Greek, Theotokos, which means God-bearer. She is holiest among women because she was chosen to be the vessel of God’s […]

Giving and Receiving

Luke 2:22-40 This Sunday we are in the Christmas season, which means that, for the world we live in, Christmas is over. All around we see the debris of Christmas, while here in the church we’re saying, “At last – we have arrived and we are just getting started!” Because there is much more to Christmas than the shopping and the gift exchanging. It’s after the rush is over that we have the chance to really see that. This first Sunday of Christmas is a day to get some perspective on it. This is a good day to get some perspective on giving and receiving. I read an article once that said, from an economist’s point of view, Christmas gift giving is irrational. It said, “ill-chosen gifts caused between $4 billion and $13 billion a year in economic waste.” I didn’t want to know that. But I know it’s true, for I have personally been in the […]

Heart to Heart Talks, Part 5: A Different Way

Matthew 21:1-11 On the day that Jesus and his followers came into Jerusalem, it was approaching the Passover celebration. This was and is a time of great celebration for the children of Israel. Most of the Jews didn’t live in Jerusalem – just like most Americans don’t live in New York – but they traveled there for the holiday. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life. The temple made it so; it was the place to offer thanksgiving to God, the place to offer repentance, the place to receive forgiveness. But Jerusalem was more than that. It was not only a center of religious life, it was a center of political life and even financial life. It was like Washington DC and Manhattan rolled into one – the center of power in the region. It was the time of the Roman occupation; Rome placed its own chosen governor in […]

Toxic Faith

Luke 18:9-14 There is a scene in the movie Beaches, with Bette Midler. Some old friends have come to see Bette Midler’s character, CC, perform on stage, and they go backstage to see her after the show. CC just can’t stop talking about herself and her performance. But finally she turns to her guests and says, “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do YOU think of me? So we have another parable from Jesus today, and he tells this one for the benefit of those people who tend to think they are better than everyone else. It’s left to us to figure out who those folks might be. Do you think they are the Pharisees? Maybe…maybe not. He tells a story about two characters – one who spends his prayer time thinking about how pleased he is with himself and disparaging the other guy, the one who spends his prayer […]

Pillars of Faith, Part 4: Faith Waits

Luke 14:1-11 It’s curious that, after just having put his opponents to shame, the leader of the religious leaders, the Arch-Pharisee, invites him over for dinner. Why might he have done that? He might have been invited because the Pharisees thought this had gotten out of hand and they wanted to try to reconcile. Good intentions. So, maybe that was it. He might have been invited because the Pharisees’ professional reputation was on the line. Their credibility was at risk because the crowds of witnesses were cheering Jesus on while he was humiliating the leaders. He might have been invited because they decided to take the high road. They would show that they could “turn the other cheek” with the best of them. Or, he might have been invited because they were keeping a close eye on him. Remember that they have been trying to catch him in a serious […]

God’s Intervention, Part 4: Working Undercover

July 9, 2019
by Maggie Gillespie

2 Kings 5:1-14 Slaves and servants – the ones who are supposed to be invisible – step into the spotlight for a brief moment in this story from Kings. But first, let’s talk about Naaman. Naaman is a great man in the land of Aram; a commander of the king’s army. He is high up on the pyramid. He is respected by all. Everything about Naaman’s life is great, except that he suffers from leprosy. Then one day he learns from an Israelite slave girl about a prophet who can cure him. Naaman knows nothing about prophets, but he knows how to get things done. Naaman is an organization man, so he does what organization men do. He goes up the chain of command. He tells his king about the prophet who can cure him. The king of Aram writes an official letter, on official letterhead, to the king of […]

Occupy

Scripture References: 2 Samuel 5:1-5,9-10; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 The beauty of following a story through a series of Sundays is being able to see how characters develop. You think back to just a few weeks ago when we were reading about the boy who ran around with a slingshot in his back pocket, following the sheep around the pasture, running errands for his dad and his big brothers. You think about this little boy who bragged to the soldiers of Israel, I could beat that old giant any day! And they laughed him off. And then he did. That cute little boy from the hick little town of Bethlehem, ruddy and innocent – look at him now. He’s king over all Israel, ruling from his new stronghold, the city on a hill, the city of David. All the tribes of Israel came out to see him, they praised him and […]