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Your True Nature

Mark 9:2-9 As some of you may know, both of my children have birthdays this month. My wife posted a wonderful photo montage celebrating our eldest child’s birthday last week, which inspired me to do the same. While looking through and selecting old photos, I could not help thinking about the changes that come with life’s events. I must say that I am continually awestruck and honored to be the husband and father that I am, and to be a part of the changes that life brings into our lives together. It is amazing how quickly it goes, but the younger years are the easiest to mark. They are also the years we prize the most. You might even argue that entire economic systems revolve around resisting those changes as life goes on. No matter what we do, change is a constant metabolic reality that we experience every day. I’m reminded here of one of my favorite after-church hand-shake conversations in my first call in Virginia. Often I would ask how he was doing and he would say, “Well, you’re
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One In A Million

Isaiah 40:21-31 ; Mark 1:29-39 Our gospel reading ends with, “And Jesus went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.” Have you ever wondered what that message might be? We have portions of what we believe were some of his sermons, but can you imagine hearing him preach for yourself? Talk about a message that transforms your life! Think about the most inspiring message you have ever received, and then imagine that the person who delivered it was able to remove all of your doubts and fears and make you feel more complete and purpose-filled than you ever thought that you could. I don’t mean to dumb Jesus down to the level of a motivational guru, but isn’t the message of Jesus that repentance draws you into God’s presence in a way that connects you with all of creation? Isn’t salvation as much about our lives today as it is about the promise of eternity? Isn’t that the Gospel – the Good News? I imagine that if we asked each person here t

Clay Pots

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 ; Jeremiah 18:1-6 [This sermon was delivered by The Rev. Barry W. Chance ( © 2024) on January 28, 2024, at the Downtown Presbyterian Church on the occasion of my installation as their pastor.] For the first fifteen years of my ministry, I did a lot of work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In my first congregation, I was the pastor to twenty-five adults with some kind of disability and led a Bible study with them each week. I wound up serving on the board—as the president of the board of an international non-profit that published that Bible study curriculum in English and Spanish with employees in the United States, Columbia, and Canada and served as a theological author and editor for them or a few years after I rotated off the board. I served on the board of Evergreen Life Services, a Presbyter-related non-profit that provides services to 1,300 individuals and their families in seven states including here in the Nashville area. That is

Following Jesus

[This meditation was delivered online in lieu of in-person worship due to adverse winter weather. It was preceded by reading the scripture in the form of Lectio Divina .] Whatever gift God has given you through this time of reflection was for you, even if it was only a time of silence. The word that settled on my heart was “follow.” Maybe that’s because it was repeated 3 times. Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."  And immediately they left their nets and followed him; they left Zebedee and the hired help and they followed him. Maybe I just like the word "follow" because “followers of the way of Jesus” is what the early believers were called well before they were called “Christians.” We usually call these first few “Disciples,” and sometimes we act as though that title, Disciple, only describes 12 men who lived about 2,000 years ago. Maybe that is because there is some shred of humility and dower Calvinism in us that makes us feel unw

Come See

1 Samuel 3:1-20 • John 1:43-51 Last Sunday, we celebrated Epiphany with the Magi, and I challenged you to consider the importance of curiosity and expectation in our lives of faith together and individually. In the afterglow of the star and the expectation that Jesus is God’s self-revelation, John’s Gospel has us jumping straight into the ministry of Jesus in Galilee. Of course, John’s gospel is not concerned with mangers or Magi, but it is concerned with revelation. John’s gospel is all about revelation, relationship, and belief. Verse 1 starts with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The text goes on to emphasize how God has come to abide with us in the person of Jesus, and it is followed immediately by the introduction of John the Baptizer as the herald of Jesus. After his testimony about Jesus, ev

Curiosity and Expectation

Isaiah 60:1-6 • Matthew 2:1-12 I would like you to take a moment and think of your favorite movie. On the count of three, I want you to shout the name of your favorite movie. One. Two. Three. Excellent! I learned so much about you all just now! Do you want to know what mine is? It’s Casablanca. While I could talk about why I’ll just highlight one important scene at the beginning of the film. For those who don’t know, Casablanca was set during World War II in a town where numerous Europeans are stranded after having sought refuge from Nazi occupation. Rick, an ex-pat from the US, is running his cafe, as he does, and is asked by Bougarti to hold two letters of transfer that will allow anyone safe passage to America. Bougarti tells Rick that he hopes he will be more impressed with him after the lucrative sale of these letters of transfer. After Rick notes a recent murder of two German couriers carrying the same kind of letters, he says, “Why yes, Bougarti, I am rather impressed with yo

This Is For All Y'all!

Luke 2:1-20 Tonight is a night of proclamation and hope! Tonight is truly a night of expectation and wonder! Tonight is the night that we experience the pure and unadulterated joy of celebrating the birth of Jesus. And all of us have received the same profound gift. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This phrase took on new meaning for me a few years ago when I saw the play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” I heard these words in a new way when the young girl playing the angel – who had a star shaved into the side of her head – pointed a fairy wand into the crowd and said repeatedly, “Unto you!” She did it with such urgency and sincerity that I realized that this message was for me as much as it was for her. It mattered for me to receive it, and it mattered for her to say it. She said it for the whole audience, as much as she said it to each of us. I’d like to unpack the gift of those words a little tonight. I know it’s early f