Recent Sermons
Nov 13, 2006, If I Were A Rich Man
Kings 17:8-16 Mark 12:38-44 Based on the sermon given by The Rev. Karl Travis at the April 22, 2006 meeting of the Presbytery of Northern Kansas Two men were shipwrecked on an island. One started screaming and yelling, “we’re going...
[ View this Sermon ] Nov 5, 2006, Pop Quiz
I think it would be really quite wonderful if we could all say that being grasped by the power of love is the main rule that guides our lives, is our bottom line, proclaimed it to be our own statement of faith and the foundation of our living. What would it be like to be truly grasped by the power of love – God's unending and gracious love given to us in Jesus?
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 22, 2006, Who's The Boss
I think this is the essence of the book of Job. This book is not so much about why bad things happen to good people, but about the majesty, the awe, the wonder, the power of God. All the woes that befell Job, are, in this ancient and ageless drama primarily the writer's way to set the stage for God's self-revelation. We are drawn into a story that is not so much about a human tragedy as it is about divine glory. It's not about us; it's all about God.
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 16, 2006, Living a Prayerful Life
“Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples make this request to Jesus even though they have probably heard him pray often. He did go into the wilderness alone sometimes to pray, but we know he prayed with his companions as well. But they still want to learn from him the rules – perhaps have him tell them the right ways and wrong ways to speak to God. In Matthew we hear Jesus tell his disciples not to be ostentatious in their praying, but to be private, to go into their closets to pray, but we get little else from Jesus on the how to's of prayer. When the disciples ask him to teach them to pray he offers what we call The Lord's Prayer, which gives us wonderful words, but still no rules. And so often that is what folks seem to ask of me when we speak about prayer. “Is there a right way – or even a wrong way to pray?”
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 8, 2006, Living a Forgiving LIfe
In just about any other community, probably including ours, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue. But instead, in this community, at the behest of Amish leaders, a fund has been set up for the gunman's wife and his three children.
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 24, 2006, Living the Welcoming Life
Faith is something that is alive; it is an event that happens. If we have faith the people around us will know it because they will see our faith in action. Faith is the living out of our relationship with God. Because we have been forgiven we are able to forgive others. We can love others because we ourselves have first been loved by God. Genuine faith in Christ should always result in actions that demonstrate our faith in him and his saving grace.
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 16, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 3 -The Changing
Have you ever had one of those moments when suddenly you listened to what your inner voice was saying – or maybe just the opposite, when that nagging voice became silent – one of those moments when, instead of doing what you thought you were going to do, or instead of believing you were who you thought you were, it all changed, and nothing was ever the same again?. Do you remember such a moment – a time of change, of transformation, of surprising yourself with something uncontrollably new?
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 9, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 1 -The History
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 This sermon was given on September 3, 2006. It was a history of the Jewish people and their faith from Moses to the time of Jesus. There is no manuscript, but an...
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 9, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 2 -The Doing
Proverbs and James both assert that if we truly are in a faithful relationship with God then we too are to live as people who break down those same barriers and reach out to others, without regard to all those divisions that we humans have set up to judge and divide one another. “Faith without works is dead,” says James. If you say you believe in Jesus, but live your life in a way that contradicts what Jesus taught and lived, your faith is probably not very deep.
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 25, 2006, Wearing Armor is Hard to Do
Sword drills. Did any of you here grow up in churches where you did sword drills?...To my way of thinking, the armored protection of the Word of God needed to be more than various memorized verses without context or substance. It seems to me that the Word of God protects, not with rapid the fire shots of a video game, but with a weapon that is well-used, that you know to be dependable, tried and true. The Word of God is not a rapid-fire bombardment of moralisms or haphazard thrusts and parries, but something with the same strength, depth and stability as the one who is the living Word of God.
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 13, 2006, He Is Our Peace
Earl Johnson begins his final chapter in his book Witness without Parallel – Eight Texts that Make Us Presbyterian this way. This final chapter brings the discussion full circle in the search to understand biblical texts that make us Presbyterians. The conclusion is the beginning, since Jesus Christ is advent and ending, alpha and omega. If faith begins with the commitment to Jesus as Lord, it finds maturation when it is realized that – in a world in which believers are tormented by stress, turmoil, and doubt, and in a time when the nations are still pulled apart by continuing violence, and even terrorist attacks on major U.S. cities – peace can only be found in him, since Jesus is our peace. Perhaps at no time since nuclear annihilation was a daily threat has there been a greater need to understand this central Christian belief.”
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 6, 2006, You Have No Excuse When You Judge Others
Jesus isn't stupid. He knows that many of us are quite happy to be moral judges, demanding changes in others. But Jesus being Jesus, he just doesn't leave us standing there squirming in our own judgmental shoes. But Jesus says that before we demand a transformation in someone else, we are to be transformed ourselves.
[ View this Sermon ] Jul 30, 2006, No Longer Male and Female
What kind of portrait has the Bible drawn of women? What are the positive and negative images of women in scripture? How has the Presbyterian Church affirmed or betrayed women, and what place do women have in our denomination and the Christian community as a whole? And how do men see themselves as women's roles have become more visible?
[ View this Sermon ] Jul 22, 2006, Uh Oh – Predestination
Predestination, then, is just another way of saying that it is God's plan that all are to be saved by God's grace, and God's grace alone. It is the gift of salvation that is ours because of what God has done, not by arbitrarily electing some and rejecting others, but by sending Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior. And this is done, as it says in Ephesians according to God's good pleasure, not in judgment, but in love.
[ View this Sermon ]
Kings 17:8-16 Mark 12:38-44 Based on the sermon given by The Rev. Karl Travis at the April 22, 2006 meeting of the Presbytery of Northern Kansas Two men were shipwrecked on an island. One started screaming and yelling, “we’re going...
[ View this Sermon ] Nov 5, 2006, Pop Quiz
I think it would be really quite wonderful if we could all say that being grasped by the power of love is the main rule that guides our lives, is our bottom line, proclaimed it to be our own statement of faith and the foundation of our living. What would it be like to be truly grasped by the power of love – God's unending and gracious love given to us in Jesus?
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 22, 2006, Who's The Boss
I think this is the essence of the book of Job. This book is not so much about why bad things happen to good people, but about the majesty, the awe, the wonder, the power of God. All the woes that befell Job, are, in this ancient and ageless drama primarily the writer's way to set the stage for God's self-revelation. We are drawn into a story that is not so much about a human tragedy as it is about divine glory. It's not about us; it's all about God.
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 16, 2006, Living a Prayerful Life
“Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples make this request to Jesus even though they have probably heard him pray often. He did go into the wilderness alone sometimes to pray, but we know he prayed with his companions as well. But they still want to learn from him the rules – perhaps have him tell them the right ways and wrong ways to speak to God. In Matthew we hear Jesus tell his disciples not to be ostentatious in their praying, but to be private, to go into their closets to pray, but we get little else from Jesus on the how to's of prayer. When the disciples ask him to teach them to pray he offers what we call The Lord's Prayer, which gives us wonderful words, but still no rules. And so often that is what folks seem to ask of me when we speak about prayer. “Is there a right way – or even a wrong way to pray?”
[ View this Sermon ] Oct 8, 2006, Living a Forgiving LIfe
In just about any other community, probably including ours, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue. But instead, in this community, at the behest of Amish leaders, a fund has been set up for the gunman's wife and his three children.
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 24, 2006, Living the Welcoming Life
Faith is something that is alive; it is an event that happens. If we have faith the people around us will know it because they will see our faith in action. Faith is the living out of our relationship with God. Because we have been forgiven we are able to forgive others. We can love others because we ourselves have first been loved by God. Genuine faith in Christ should always result in actions that demonstrate our faith in him and his saving grace.
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 16, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 3 -The Changing
Have you ever had one of those moments when suddenly you listened to what your inner voice was saying – or maybe just the opposite, when that nagging voice became silent – one of those moments when, instead of doing what you thought you were going to do, or instead of believing you were who you thought you were, it all changed, and nothing was ever the same again?. Do you remember such a moment – a time of change, of transformation, of surprising yourself with something uncontrollably new?
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 9, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 1 -The History
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 This sermon was given on September 3, 2006. It was a history of the Jewish people and their faith from Moses to the time of Jesus. There is no manuscript, but an...
[ View this Sermon ] Sep 9, 2006, Faithful Living – Part 2 -The Doing
Proverbs and James both assert that if we truly are in a faithful relationship with God then we too are to live as people who break down those same barriers and reach out to others, without regard to all those divisions that we humans have set up to judge and divide one another. “Faith without works is dead,” says James. If you say you believe in Jesus, but live your life in a way that contradicts what Jesus taught and lived, your faith is probably not very deep.
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 25, 2006, Wearing Armor is Hard to Do
Sword drills. Did any of you here grow up in churches where you did sword drills?...To my way of thinking, the armored protection of the Word of God needed to be more than various memorized verses without context or substance. It seems to me that the Word of God protects, not with rapid the fire shots of a video game, but with a weapon that is well-used, that you know to be dependable, tried and true. The Word of God is not a rapid-fire bombardment of moralisms or haphazard thrusts and parries, but something with the same strength, depth and stability as the one who is the living Word of God.
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 13, 2006, He Is Our Peace
Earl Johnson begins his final chapter in his book Witness without Parallel – Eight Texts that Make Us Presbyterian this way. This final chapter brings the discussion full circle in the search to understand biblical texts that make us Presbyterians. The conclusion is the beginning, since Jesus Christ is advent and ending, alpha and omega. If faith begins with the commitment to Jesus as Lord, it finds maturation when it is realized that – in a world in which believers are tormented by stress, turmoil, and doubt, and in a time when the nations are still pulled apart by continuing violence, and even terrorist attacks on major U.S. cities – peace can only be found in him, since Jesus is our peace. Perhaps at no time since nuclear annihilation was a daily threat has there been a greater need to understand this central Christian belief.”
[ View this Sermon ] Aug 6, 2006, You Have No Excuse When You Judge Others
Jesus isn't stupid. He knows that many of us are quite happy to be moral judges, demanding changes in others. But Jesus being Jesus, he just doesn't leave us standing there squirming in our own judgmental shoes. But Jesus says that before we demand a transformation in someone else, we are to be transformed ourselves.
[ View this Sermon ] Jul 30, 2006, No Longer Male and Female
What kind of portrait has the Bible drawn of women? What are the positive and negative images of women in scripture? How has the Presbyterian Church affirmed or betrayed women, and what place do women have in our denomination and the Christian community as a whole? And how do men see themselves as women's roles have become more visible?
[ View this Sermon ] Jul 22, 2006, Uh Oh – Predestination
Predestination, then, is just another way of saying that it is God's plan that all are to be saved by God's grace, and God's grace alone. It is the gift of salvation that is ours because of what God has done, not by arbitrarily electing some and rejecting others, but by sending Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior. And this is done, as it says in Ephesians according to God's good pleasure, not in judgment, but in love.
[ View this Sermon ]