MAC KIRK

  John 15.  The Vine and the Branches   This is obviously a well-known part of the teaching of Jesus.  Every time I come to it, I gain something new from it.  It makes sense because Israel too was known as a vine.  Unfortunately Israel did not always behave in the way God required of them.  " He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." Is 5:2  If we are part of the vine and the branches we too know this all too well. Our intentions may be pure but somehow we act in such a way that we do not experience God's peace.  It usually has something to do with us, not God, for His calling and purposes are always good. 1.  God calls us as He did with the people of Israel.  They did not follow before His call of them individually and as a people.  We too are called to Him .  Vs 16 " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chose you and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit." We cannot be proud or boastful for we know before we

  Easter Living I Timothy 6 This lesson , and as the Gospel proclaims the risen Christ , truly living now in heaven, seated at the right hand of God, so we look to this Scriptural record and truth for our lives now----Christian living is the issue. We who are in the world and part of the church witness to a living Lord , and we do this by our faith and in its practice in the moments and days of our lives. This is the whole point, is it not? For these are doctrines not just of the head, but they are of the heart as well, and that is that where the rubber meets the road , in our living. I have often hummed this hymn : " Because He Lives" God sent his son They called him Jesus He came to love Heal and forgive He lived and died To buy my pardon An empty grave Is there to prove My Savior lives (Chorus) Because he lives I can face tomorrow Because he lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because he lives This hymn written by the

  Easter II.  First Lesson: Acts 3:12-19; Epistle: 1 John 3:1-7; Gospel : John 21:1-19;  Sermon- "Easter --- Peter is Restored by Jesus" Abraham Lincoln’s Attitude On Restoring the South God does not hold our old sins against us, nor does He act like forgiveness is a favor to us, even though it is. When President Lincoln was asked how he would treat the rebellious southerners when they were defeated, he said, “I will treat them as if they had never been away. I remember someone said broken crayons should not be thrown away.  Why?  They still color very well even though they are broken.  We bring our brokeness to God, and we will make sense out of it. We see problems.  God has plans. How we all need forgiveness and restoration!  If we are honest,  we are all flawed , and need the help of God's new work being done in us constantly.  In the Old Testament this is illustrated as well by David's failures.  We all should remember what the prophet Nathan said to David ,"

  "The Peace of Believing"  Acts 4:32-35; I John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31 "I rest beneath the Almighty's shade, My griefs expire, my troubles cease; Thou, Lord, on whom my soul is stayed, Wilt keep me still in perfect peace." Charles Wesley. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee"  Isaiah 26:3 The word peace is eirḗnē (from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness) biblehub.com 1.  Fear present . gk phobia-from phebomai, "to flee, withdraw" In its usage, " (a) fear, terror, alarm, (b) the object or cause of fear, (c) reverence, respect."  biblehub.com John 20:19 sets the scene when Jesus comes to the Disciples.  They locked the doors for " fear of the Jews" What strikes fear into our hearts?    2.  Peace comes when fear leaves. The cost is " Je

  Easter -Mark 16 "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." I Cor. 5 Alleluia. Christ is Risen.  Response- Christ is Risen Indeed. Alleluia.    The women were there to annoint the body of Jesus with sweet spices they had bought.  They did not know a lot of things but they were wondering and said among themselves, " Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" 16:3 1.  What stones have not been rolled away? I see good intention here to annoint the body of Jesus with the aroma of the spices, but they were troubled about how they would get into the tomb.   So we too have stones in our paths that have not been rolled away. We are unable to see inside the tomb just as the women wondered.  We are unable to see where we are going at times.  Our lives are like the mirror that we see darkly I Cor.

 Sunday of the Passion-Palm Sunday  " Death must come before Life" Mark 14-15:47;  Philippians 2:5-11 "ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 1928 Book of Common Prayer   "Death must come before life" is the sermon title. " Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you."  John 16:7 John 12:24 “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” In agriculture

  Passion Sunday. Hosea 6:1-6; Epistle:  Hebrews 10:1-25; Gospel:  St. John 10:17-38 Sermon- "  I Give Them Eternal Life & They Shall Never Perish"    In the near East there is told the story of a traveler who was traveling with a guide, and came across a shepherd and his sheep. The man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It had four walls with a way in.  " That is where they go at night?" " Yes, said the shepherd, and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe."  " But (said the traveler), but there is no door."  " I am the door said the shepherd."  He was speaking from the arab shepherd's standpoint.  The traveler said,  " What do you mean by the door?"  Then said the shepherd. "When the light has gone, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door."  Morgan, Th

  Lent 4 mid way to Easter---  scripture:  Old Testament: Numbers 21:4-9;  Epistle: Epistle: Ephesians 2:1-10; Gospel: John 3:14-21     Sermon---" The Gospel Still Works" Charles Spurgeon the famous Reformed Baptist in England said, "  We believe that the work of regeneration, conversion, sanctification,  and faith is not an act of man's free will and power, but of the might efficacious and irrestible grace of God." I was re-reading my great-grandfather's commentary ( DR. G Campbell Morgan from London) on John, and came across this which I will use as an outline for the message:"Because God so loved He gave-1 and life comes through that Gift-2 and now the Light is shining-3"  ( Morgan on John) 1.  God so loved He gave. The conversation before this is with Nicodemus , a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee . He needed to see before he could believe ...there was a new birth needed. We too need that before we can truly love and then give as does God.  We nee

  "Seeking God Alone Together"--or " The World Does not know God ....the Way of the Cross Leads Home" Exodus 20:1-17 Third Sunday in Lent Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 John 2:13-22 What is the church exactly? What is this place where we come every Sunday to bring our concerns, to worship, to share our joys and sorrows? We would say a community of faith where Jesus is the Head. It is His body and we are His followers. There are laws which we read a few minutes ago which form the background of its laws, the so-called moral law of God which is binding and gives us form in our lives here now and for eternity. In the lessons we see some talk of that. Why come ? We come because in community we share the body of Christ together. We are its members. All week long I have been thinking of that . I like what a writer on a book on retreats said about community: “ one of the most powerful things community brings to individuals is courage---courage to be and do things we would n

  Luke 18  Prayer and the Widow/Unjust Judge "God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. Richard Sibbes" "The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel. Thomas Watson" "Attending church in Kentucky, we watched an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father's arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow -- until the child captured everyone's attention by crying out in a charming Southern accent, "Ya'll pray for me now!"  Jean McMahon (Dyer, Ind.) in Reader's Digest, April 1980. ----1.  See the context, the ch. before.  Jesus talks about His Coming Again in Glory to judge the world.  In the days of Noah, so it shall be when He comes again. So He picks up on this and tells the story of the unjust Judge. 2.  We should never give up on prayer---have we given up on our prayers that seem unanswered?  That is the theme of this parable.  " We ought al

  Lent I The Road to Holiness   "Recently I was looking at some of my many files under the "quotes" folder. One such quote is called, "The Road to Holiness." A seeker after truth came to a saint for guidance. "Tell me, wise one, how did you become holy?" "Two words." "And what are they, please?" "Right choices." The seeker was fascinated. "How does one learn to choose rightly?" "One word." "One word! May I have it, please?" the seeker asked. "Growth." The seeker was thrilled. "How does one grow?" "Two words.: "What are they, pray tell?" "Wrong choices." I believe that this is God's purpose in times of testing, to help us grow and to show us that we have the faith and ability to stand up to the testing so that we will trust God in difficult times -- to strengthen our faith and Christian character. At the same time, Satan has his own purpose --

 Sunday before Lent.  Quinqagesima .  I Corinthians 13; John 15 "GEORGE MACDONALD A heart has to be taught to love, and its first lesson, however well learnt, no more makes it perfect in love, than the A B C makes a savant. The man who loves most will love best. The man who thoroughly loves God and his neighbour is the only man who will love a woman ideally – who can love her with the love God thought of between them when he made man male and female. The man, I repeat, who loves God with his very life, and his neighbour as Christ loves him, is the man who alone is capable of grand, perfect, glorious love to any woman." " There are people who are filled with knowledge, but empty of mercy and love." Jonathan Edwards Does following the way of love mean actually doing it, with the concluding vs in 14:1?  " Follow after love..."  the word follow there is strong in the original .  In other words we understand we should practice love , but seem to fail more than

 Presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary and Joseph - February 2 The End of the Christmas Season Luke 2 Today we certainly are at the end of the Christmas Season. It is Candlemas or Purification of the Virgin Mary. ( 40 days after the birth of Jesus) " The light was the inspiration for the celebration with candles. It was and still remains to this day a Christian celebration of the purification of Mother Mary and the first appearance of Jesus in the Temple. During the early years, people would place their candles outside the church in order to be blessed. They would then carry them in a procession to church in order to imitate the appearance of Jesus in the Temple." from holidaycalendar.com in England. France and Belgium  ( from nationtoday.com/candlemas Candlemas Day is celebrated with a specific method of preparing crepes. Mexico Candlemas Day is celebrated with tamales. Puerto Rico Bonfires and singing mark the end of Candlemas Day. Luxembourg Children roam the streets

  Septuagesima Sunday.  3rd Week before Lent begins. 2 Timothy 2:1-13     ---We are leaving the time of Epiphany and moving into a few weeks of preparation for Easter ,soon the 40 days before on FEB 14. But these few weeks (3) are there for us to see the challenges, and think about the goal. The Second Reading today is about encouraging us to be strong (strengthened) in the grace that is the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ God's Only Son.   1.  Look at the Chapter before that talks about the setting for saying what the Apostle does in 2 Timothy 2:1.  Some had turned away  from the Apostle and his teaching.   1:13  He names them .  They were in Asia, Phygerlos and Hermogenes.  " It is evident....that many of these professed Christians have proved false to Paul in the hour of his need."  Erdman  This was also true in Titus 1:14 " commandments of me, that turn from the truth" The Apostle in vs. 9 encourages Titus to " hold fast the faithful word as

 Passion Burnt Out- Thirst Quenched- John 4:5-42 During this time of approach to Easter ( officially begin that next week ...the 3 Sundays the older Calendar used before the Lenten season), we are on a journey with Jesus to the Cross. You would think that the temptations that we normally deal with would not be a problem. We have gotten in the car, and are on a road trip! But they seem worse.  Would it be we could find our way in this world of sin to the Cross where we find relief. But the way is treacherous and the slippery. The world beckons us to take our fill of its delights, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life . (I John 2:16) These things are only temporary. In fact John says in his letter that “the darkness is passing away” 2:8 The world is in a state of decay . The flowers are here but they shall not last. Today we go to the woman at the well and look at her encounter with Jesus. (we have looked at this before in seeing a method of evangelism in the pattern of Jesus) Today I