Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Illinois

A 5 Page Paper First of all, there’s only 3 chapters in Habakkuk. Talk to Trilby about why we have this passage for today. In general Habakkuk is a short book, and a simple book. It is a plaintive call from a prophet and priest who wants to know why God stands by and lets bad things happen.  Why so short? It…

Habakkuk 4:7-12 Before Trilby told me why she wanted to hear about this passage, I had my own thoughts. Since it isn’t actually a Scriptural passage, I thought about all the things that people think are in Scripture that aren’t. After all, God helps those who help themselves. This, too, shall pass. Spare the rod, spoil the child. God works in mysterious…

The book of Hosea is one that most of us aren’t incredibly familiar with. The Wednesday morning group tackled it as part of their study of the Old Testament prophets. The word of God that comes to Hosea isn’t polite, it isn’t clean, it isn’t easy. Hosea ends up living out the broken relationship of God and God’s people in his own…

Jeremiah 28:1-11 (12-17) In the 28th chapter of Jeremiah, there is a conflict between 2 prophets. Jeremiah and Hananiah go toe to toe and prophecy to prophecy. If you’ve never heard of Hananiah, then you already know who ‘won.’ Jeremiah responds to a prophecy from Hananiah that things will all be the same as it was before (back to normal) by defeating…

Nahum 2:1-13 Nahum is a prophet who only appears in his own book. He prophecies destruction against Nineveh and Assyria, in a marked contrast to the book of Jonah. We certainly hear the tone of Jonah the prophet in the words of Nahum. This book fits the context of Jonah, and Habakkuk. Here Nahum describes an attack on Nineveh, or perhaps how…

I Kings 9:1-9 Covenant is a key part of the story of God and humanity. There are times when the covenant is unconditional – God will do this thing regardless of what we do; and times when the covenant is conditional – if the people are faithful then God will do this thing. This passage focuses on a conversation between God and…

Psalm 2 The challenging verses at the end of the Psalm can only be read in context of the whole Psalm. The Psalm is a contrast between the rule of God and God’s chosen ruler, and the earthly rulers.  God’s anger and mockery are explicitly named here, in a way that perhaps we don’t think of as normal. God demands a deference…

Acts 2:1-4;  Galatians 4:1-7 [5:16-26]                                                                               Paul writes that the works of the flesh are obvious. And while the duality of flesh versus spirit is a problem, let’s go explore the obviousness. For Paul doesn’t call the works of the Spirit obvious.  Our behavior illustrates that it isn’t obvious, or that we don’t care. There is a strong contrast with the fruits…

Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29            The end of this passage is the familiar part. The start is a bit more aggressive, a bit more John the Baptist, a bit louder than the tone we normally read the familiar part in. Paul does a bit of work here, addressing the people of faith in Galatia and in Marion.            This duality between faith and…

Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21                          Paul is here calling the other disciples on the carpet. It’s an odd passage to read a week after the Jerusalem conference, when we just heard about the church opening to Gentiles. It is important that we read the letter carefully, and in the context, remembering the conversation from Acts 15 last week.            What Paul actually seems…