First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL

Mark 1: 21-28; 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 January 28, 2018 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry Ordinarily, when the scriptures are read in worship, the gospel reading would be the last one read. I guess we usually want to have Jesus to have the last word. But today, we are going to read the gospel first, because this Sunday, we want Jesus’ words to come first, and the words of the Apostle Paul to come second. So our first reading comes from the first chapter of Mark, in which we see the first miracle Mark records, as Jesus heals a very ill man at the synagogue. Mark is, I think, less interested in the miraculous healing, and more interested in us understanding the identity and authority of Jesus. He places that statement of identity and authority in the mouth of an unclean spirit, right in the middle of this story, Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Mark 1:21-28: They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were asto...

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20 January 21, 2018 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry Our first reading today comes from the Old Testament, a little book, tucked way in the back, among the minor prophets. Even though Jonah is a small book, it may be among the more familiar stories, even to people who aren’t religious. That’s because of the part about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish – familiarly called a whale, though that isn’t the term in the story. It’s also not exactly the point of the story. Here’s a Cliff’s notes refresher. (Kids, Cliff’s notes were what we use before the internet, when we hadn’t read the book but needed to pretend like we had. They sold them at bookstores, little black and yellow booklets… not that I ever used them….anyway…)  Jonah, son of Amittai, is called by God to carry a message to Nineveh. He’s supposed to go tell that wicked city to repent, or God will smash them. But Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. Not at all. So i...

1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 1: 43-51 January 14, 2018 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry John 1:43-51 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told yo...

Genesis 1:1-5, Mark 1:4-11 January 7, 2018 First Presbyterian Church Christina Berry On this day when we recall and celebrate the baptism of Jesus, we begin with the beginning, the first five verses of Genesis. In the ancient world, the conception of the way the world began was that God brought forth order from the watery chaos; as science teaches us today, that is pretty much how it all started - in the watery chaos, life began. Let’s listen for the beginning of it all in Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Today’s gospel reading is the beginning of...

This is the second in a series for Advent from a work in progress called "Prairie Liturgy." Original artwork by Meg Rift, (C) 2017 Haggai 1:3 - 9, 2:6 – 9; Psalm 63:1 – 8; Luke 12: 35 – 40 December 10, 2017 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry The three scripture readings for today may seem at first to be disconnected. The first reading comes from almost the end of the Hebrew Scriptures. Haggai is a prophet of the era of about 520 BC, after the exiled Israelites have returned from Babylon. Haggai is distressed that the Israelites are more interested in restoring their own fortunes than they are in restoring the temple as a center of community life. The Israelites are interested in getting stuff for themselves, but what they don’t get is how meaningless that pursuit has become. Let’s listen for God’s word in the words of Haggai 1:3 - 9, 2:6 – 9: Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you...

This is the first in a series for Advent from our work in progress called "Prairie Liturgy." Original artwork by Meg Rift (c) 2017 Isaiah 40:27 – 31; Psalm 42:1 – 6a December 3, 2017 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry Our first reading for this first Sunday of Advent comes from the prophet Isaiah, as he exhorts the weary nation of Israel to wait for God. As waiting is an essential element of Advent, it was an essential for the Israelites. They were not usually prone to waiting or trusting for very long. They preferred to get on with things and let the God of the Covenant catch up to them. This usually did not go well for them. In this familiar passage, Isaiah insists that they call to mind the faithfulness of God, and the provision that God will make for those who are weary, exhausted, struggling, if only they will wait for God: Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Isaiah 40:27 – 31 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is ...

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18, Matthew 22:34-46 October 29, 2017 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL Christina Berry Our first reading is from the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Bible and an entire book of rules and codes and commandments. We don’t often have sermons from the book of Leviticus in this church. That’s partly because today’s selection from the Revised Common Lectionary is the only one from the entire book; over an entire three-year cycle, this is all that is used. Interestingly, while these verses from Leviticus form what is the heart of Torah, the five books of law, they are often overlooked. In fact, it is possible that Leviticus is the most quoted and the least studied by some Christians. See, some Christians are very fond of quoting Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 as clobber verses against LGBT folks, but they are not terribly interested in Leviticus 19. Perhaps that is because it is easier to grab two verses to set themselves up as judges of others. It i...