St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Get Involved >
      • Choirs and Music
      • Social Groups
      • Community Service
      • Missions >
        • NICHE
        • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
        • Honduras 2012
        • Honduras 2015
        • Honduras 2018 >
          • NPH 2018 photos
      • Christian Formation
      • Sustainable Living
      • Youth Group
    • Aftertalk
  • Happenings
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • News >
      • News
  • Give
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Sunday Roles
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists

Sermon - 7th Sunday after Epiphany

2/23/2014

 

Scott Anderson

Today's Scripture:
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18  •  1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23  •  Matthew 5:38-48


I was reminded this week of a 2006 interview the satirist Stephen Colbert did with then first term Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland. At the time, the congressman was a co-sponsor of a Republican bill that would have required the display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

You may remember, this was at a time when people were all atwitter over the bizarre debate of whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed in courthouses. This was also at a time when The Colbert Report was relatively new, and not yet well known for its practice of taking interviews and cutting and pasting them in such a way that the duplicity of powerful people was exposed in biting, and hilarious ways.

So in the space of a minute, the segment introduces Westmoreland as a co-sponsor of the bill, and in justifying the proposed religious display, we see the congressman ask, “Where better place could you have something like that than in a judicial building or a courthouse?” Colbert responds, “That is a good question, can you think of any better building to put the Ten Commandments in than a public building?”

Read More

Sermon - 6th Sunday after Epiphany

2/16/2014

 

Scott Anderson

Today's Scripture:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 •  1 Corinthians 3:1-9  •  Matthew 5:21-37


I suspect that any religion that is deeply true is lived in tension. Anytime we settle too comfortably into something that has the sound of finality to it, anytime we speak an absolute, we may be in danger of turning something true into a shadow.

This Deutoronomy passage that John read is a case in point. It is filled with all kinds of “if-then” language: if you obey God’s commandments, if you walk in God’s ways, then everything will be great for you. But if you don’t, well, look out!

The psalm echoes the same simple sentiment: Happy are those who do no wrong, but keep God’s commandments. Everything will go swimmingly for you. If you do what’s right, you’ll have your cake and eat it too. God will take care of you.  It is a great promise, and true… until it's not. It is true, but a truth, I suspect, that must be held in tension with other truths.

I heard that kind of absolute talk a lot when, as a teenager, I lost my dad to cancer. “God has a plan,” they’d say. “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” “God took him for a reason,” they’d tell me.


Read More

    St. Andrew Sermons

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Advocacy
    Allegory
    All Saints
    Annie Dillard
    Anti Racism
    Anti-Racism
    Ash Wednesday
    Auden
    Authority
    Baptism
    Beatitudes
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Bones
    Catechumenate
    Center Of Hope
    Christian Formation
    Christian Hope
    Christmas
    Clarity
    Climate Change
    Communion
    Compassion
    Confession
    Courage
    Creation Care
    Creative Process
    CS Lewis
    Dance
    Deacons
    Dealing With Death
    Desmond Tutu
    Despair
    Discernment
    Easter
    Economics
    Fairy Tales
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Fecundity
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Frederich Buechner
    Fred Rogers
    Generosity
    Godspell
    Good Friday
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Guns
    Hans Rosling
    Home
    Honduras
    Hope
    Housing
    Hulie Wigmen
    Incarnation
    Jan Dittmar
    Jimmy Nelson
    Judgment
    Julie Kae Sigars
    Justice
    Leadership
    Leigh Weber
    Lent
    Life In Christ
    Linda Ferguson
    Living In The Light
    Longing
    Love
    Maggie Breen
    Maundy Thursday
    Memory
    #MeToo
    Miracles
    Moral Injury
    Neighborliness
    New Life
    Newness Of Life
    Nicodemus
    NPH
    Palm Sunday
    Parables
    Peacemaking
    Pentecost
    People's Campaign
    Photography
    Poetry
    Pope Francis
    PTSD
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    REACH
    Reformation (New)
    Reign Of Christ
    Resilience
    Richard Powers
    Righteousness
    Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Role Of The Church
    Scott Anderson
    Security
    Sermon On The Mount
    Sermon On The Plain
    Sin
    Singing
    Social Media
    Solidarity
    Spiritual Formation
    Steadfast Love
    Temptation
    The Church
    Timothy Egan
    Transfiguration
    Trinity
    Tse-whit-zen
    Wendell Berry
    White Supremacy
    Wonder



​WORSHIP

Sunday 10am

PHONE:
425-272-5836


​OFFICE HOURS
Wednesday and Thursday
10AM-12PM 
                                        

  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Get Involved >
      • Choirs and Music
      • Social Groups
      • Community Service
      • Missions >
        • NICHE
        • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
        • Honduras 2012
        • Honduras 2015
        • Honduras 2018 >
          • NPH 2018 photos
      • Christian Formation
      • Sustainable Living
      • Youth Group
    • Aftertalk
  • Happenings
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • News >
      • News
  • Give
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Sunday Roles
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists