MAC KIRK

A Door Was Opened  The Revelation of Saint John    "... if you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door"   Clarrisa Estes " if your religion doesn't make you feel good to be alive, what is the point of it?"  Tom Robbins " After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven"  Revelation 4    1.  The Open Door-  When others come to us and try and open up about a problem, are we open?  One of the most trying things is to get couples to open up about their problems.  Usually it takes finding the real problem in counseling as the presenting problem is not the real problem.  We may say this about our own lives as well individually.  When we think that our problem is such and such it may be something else , a deeper problem?  What does real openness require?        We know " we are saved by hope"  ( Romans 8:24).  When we are tryi...

Pentecost , but the real issue is " Am I am spiritual person or not?" ACTS 2    Today I want to ask some deeply spirtual questions because somehow in our day these questions are in the background.  What is the foreground?  It depends on who you ask of course.  Some struggle with age related issues and we can id with that.  Some have issues related to what kind of worship should we be having in our culture and others just are not engaged in a deep way perhaps in some of the questions I want to ask today.  Of course we always have the foreground issues of the look of the building (which is important), etc......and who is coming or not coming to hear the preaching of the Word and receive the Holy Communion.  These may be good things to think about today because next Saturday our SR Warden has given us an invitation to explore some of these things together.  We should do that.    As we look to the Scriptures today you will probably...

The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and its encouraging practical lessons Acts 1; Luke 24    Today is one of those watershed events we mark in our liturgical observance taken from the Scriptures.  As we would say in morning prayer before we sing the Venite ( Ps 95) the preface for Ascension is, " Alleluia. Christ the Lord ascendeth into heaven; O come, let us adore him. Alleluia.", p. 8 , BCP. In Luke 24 we read in vs before the Gospel for today, " ...all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.....he opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.." 1.  We must continue to trust in God and in his Word which we read .  We too should ask for the understanding that Christ and the Holy Ghost can give us as we read the Scriptures.  We are continually buffeted about in our world today and many say things that are contrary to scripture.  But we mu...

PEACE  John 16:33     I suppose if we were truthful and we were asked what is one thing we desire in this life more than anything else it would be " peace."    I think this is something we really need. On Friday mornings my schedule is to prepare the Sunday sermon and this is one I wish I could study all day as I have meditated on it all week it does not seem to fill my cup yet totally.  When I was in the service I tried to bring a little peace to the married couples and single Soldiers in our units.  I would bring them to various places to give them a break from the hum drum of the routine of military life.  We traveled to various places such as the redwoods of California, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin area, and to the Carmel beach near Monterey , CA.  The Koreans had a retreat center all the way on the top of the mountain overlooking Seoul and we went there once a month with a group of Soldiers for the weeke...

“The Christian Life Gives Us Christian Living”    James  1:17..       Somehow there is a lot of confusion about the Christian life. Some think that going to church is being a Christian and that is all that is needed. That is certainly important to go to church and join with fellow Christians and make up what we call the body of Christ here on earth. We know that our Christian lives    were begun by God Himself. “ Having willed He begat us by the word of truth for us to be first fruits of his creatures.”   1:18   This is important for us to ever remember.    We did not create our Christian lives.    We should be humbled because it is God who did that.        James writes his letter to the scattered believers who were living in a world that was not so friendly to them.    They were experiencing “trials”    1:2    (literally surrounded by trials....

Peter's Encouragement to Live the Christian Life  I Peter 2    Peter reminds us  as the hymn we sing " Because He Lives" conveys tells us that we have a " living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1:3 and that our inheritance and future is " uncorruptible , undefiled, and unfading reserved in the heavens for us" 1:4 .  Life is worth the living just " because He lives".  He writes his letter to encourage the believers as they go through various trials, perhaps at the time of the Emperor Nero, to be holy 1:16 because they have been redeemed out of their sin and selves " by the precious blood of Christ".      Their suffering is real " various trials" 1:6 but the suffering they endure is for a reason and he lists three reasons why they should not give up but perservere in their Christian faith.  They are not to return to their former lives of lust, desire for the pleasures of this life as their ...

Good Shepherd Sunday Chiseled on the doorway to the parish Church of Staunton Harold in Leicestershire, England are these remarkable words: "  In the year 1653    When all things sacred were throughout the Nation     either demolished or profaned,     Sir Robert Shirley Barronet     founded this Church,     Whose singular praise it is      to have done the best things in the worst times and      to have hoped them in the most calamitous." To hope " in the most calamitous"---that is our calling. Hope in what, where or who?  Some hope in their standing in life...financial success means hope to them.  Some hope in their families.  If your family is successful, then you have hope.  Or we hope in the church---if it is growing and "successful" and " full", then we can say we have hope.  Can hope be disappointed?  Obviously , if w...