Sermons on Genesis

Sermons on Genesis

Promises, Promises

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16   In one of their songs, the rock band U2 describes someone who is unreliable as being like “a promise in the year of election.” There are promises, and there are promises. Election year promises tend to not be the kind you put much stock in. Our faith is built upon promises. Not the kind that are made and then not kept, but the kind that stand the test of time. Abraham stands as one of the great…

Oath of Office

Genesis 1:1-5 and Mark 1:4-11 Certain positions of public trust carry such solemn responsibility, coupled with such potential for the abuse of authority, that they may only be assumed after first taking of an oath of office. There is an oath of enlistment for members of the Armed Forces, an oath taken by Judges and police, a Hippocratic Oath for doctors, vows taken by ordained clergy, and an oath that comes with the office of President. Most of these oaths…

The Illogical Essence of Being

John 1:1-5, 10-14, 18 and Genesis 1:26-31 There are certain days on the Church calendar that present preachers with the daunting challenge of having something to say about a well known passage that the congregation has not already heard many times before. These are the days like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Then there are days like Trinity Sunday, where the challenge is not so much to say something fresh and new as it is to simply say anything relevant to…

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11 I have a sister-in-law who runs her own interior decorating business, and the transformations she performs on people’s homes are borderline miraculous. But, if you have toddlers who treat freshly painted walls like coloring books, cats who like to push delicate objects off of shelves or puppies who are still learning the difference between chair legs and chew toys, you might want to consider waiting awhile before investing in her talents. The apartments my…

Pinky Swear

Preached FCCW, March 17, 2019 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Hooking little fingers together in a “pinky swear” is one of the ways we learn while growing up, the importance of respecting a solemn promise. A pinky swear seems like all fun and games…until you know what it stands for; which is that the consequence of breaking the agreement is to lose your pinky finger! Then, suddenly it all sounds pretty barbaric. But, still not as barbaric as the way Abram sealed…

Transformers or Transmitters?

Preached FCCW, February 24, 2019 Genesis 45:3-11, 15 and Luke 6:27-38 Four trees and an empty field. That is all that remains of the West Nickel Mines Amish School. It’s been that way pretty much since October of 2006. That was when the world was appalled by one of the most horrific mass shootings in a school full of children… at least, up to that time. The parents of the perpetrator, who took his own life, thought for certain that…