Second on the Mount

"Jesus Chooses Kairos Time" – Genesis 2:3, Exodus 20:8-11, Matthew 12:1-8

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, June 25, 2023. "I don’t know about you, but it can feel like I’m all over the map sometimes. There is so much to do, so much to produce. It can feel like my life lacks prayerful attention. And because my attention is so scattered, it can feel like I don’t have enough time for the kind of Kairos moments Jesus makes possible here. It can feel like we’re hungry for some grain, but we don’t know how to stop and pluck it."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/jesus-chooses-kairos-time/ 

"Final Interview" – Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, June 18, 2023. "'Were you kind?' Oh dear! Even without being literal about end-times, that question is intimidating. The question Matthew’s Jesus leaves us with in his last sermon is that one. In the parable, the question is in the past tense so that we’ll ask it in the present one: 'Are you kind?' Never mind the unforgivable sin, that is the unavoidable question."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/final-interview/ 

"Handing Out Invitations" – Luke 14:1, 16-24

Sermon by the Rev. Millie Snyder, Executive Pastor of Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC and our Evening VBS guest speaker, from Sunday, June 11, 2023.

"Unqualified Teaching" – Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Trinity Sunday, June 4, 2023. "Much like the disciples and the early church, as we teach, we gain a better understanding of what we believe, we become more comfortable in sharing our beliefs, and through practice we develop the ability to ask different and deeper questions, to look beyond the surface for meaning and connection. And teaching goes beyond the classroom. Jesus charged his disciples—from the first church to today— to Go. Make. Baptize. Teach. Go, leave your comfort zone; Make, that is to be in relationship with others; Baptize, call others into the family of God; and Teach, humble yourselves in the way of Christ and relinquish control, so that others may come to better understand the good news of the gospel!"

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/unqualified-teaching/ 

"Let There Be Church" – Acts 2:1-4

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023. "How liberating it is to have removed from us the pressure of the responsibility to find on our own our own identity, create our own meaning, and establish our own significance… all of which would die when we die. But life has meaning even at death because it is a life shared with God."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/let-there-be-church/ 

"A Blessing" –  Luke 24:44-53

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, May 21, 2023. "While God came to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus, the ascension reminds us that we cannot restrict God to any one place. Thus, Jesus’ ascension isn’t about his leaving—his disciples, us, the world—but rather it is about the simultaneous confession that God has chosen to be located in our physical world so that God may be accessible to us, and God refuses to be limited even to those important places. No building, no people, no book, no church can limit God’s ability to be accessible to others. Instead, the ascension it challenges us to ask ourselves, how are we witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ? How do we recognize Christ’s presence among us?"

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/a-blessing/ 

"Known Mystery" – Acts 17:22-31

Sermon by the Rev. Ben Brannan from Sunday, May 14, 2023. "Embrace the scandalous idea of eternal life, the scandalous idea that grace is more powerful than guilt, and that love has once and for all conquered death in Jesus Christ. And let us not be afraid to question, to explore, to challenge and be challenged, and to seek after God, the Creator God who is revealed in creation, a God who invites us into relationship, who wants us to seek after what our hearts most longs for."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/known-mystery/ 

"Body Memory" – I Corinthians 12:12-13

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, May 7, 2023. "We worship to build Body Memory so as to instinctively love God and serve the world. Serving the world looks different today than it did in Paul’s day. Then it was about giving alms, taking a collection from some members when other members are in trouble, giving a cloak away if one has two, providing a sojourner a meal and room to sleep in one’s home. Today, with the church’s expanded size and resources, it might look like:

• an afterschool program for children,

Paul would be amazed."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/body-memory/ 

"Write Your Life" – Genesis 1:1-3a, John 1, Rev. 14:13, II Corinthians 3:2-3, Colossians 3:12-17

Sermon by Dr. George C. Anderson from Sunday, April 30, 2023. "But the question that is asked of all of us, at whatever level we are capable of answering, is, 'What will be the story we tell in life?' 'Will the Word be heard through who we are and how we live, or not?' It is not a question about how successful you are, even in being able to do good in the world. Chance, opportunity, and freedoms play huge roles in how much good we are allowed to do. The question is really about how, within what is possible for us, we are going to live. What witness we make as we write the chapter that is our life."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/write-your-life/ 

"What Is Fair?" – Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, April 23, 2023. "We are quick to allegorize parables. We are quick to explain Jesus’ stories as all about heaven and salvation and glory and a kingdom to come, but he’s most often not talking about salvation or the life to come. More often than not, Jesus is talking about how we can sanctify daily living. He’s talking about the mess of daily life, our pocketbooks, our responsibilities, our ethics."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/what-is-fair/