June 30 2013 Luke 9: 51-62 Rev. Catherine Purves How many of you make ‘To Do’ lists? I do, most days in life. I confess that I have actually added things to my ‘To Do’ list after I’ve done them, just for the joy of crossing them off. I want credit for everything that I’ve accomplished, even if I’m the only one keeping score. I don’t always do the things in the order in…
June 23, 2013 Luke 8: 26-39 Rev. Catherine Purves A few months ago I received, I think, three phone calls asking if I could perform an exorcism. I was understandably surprised by this request. When I finally asked one of the desperate callers why he had telephoned me he said that he had done a Google search for exorcists and my name popped up. That was not especially reassuring. Why would the Google-world of…
June 16, 2013 Luke 7: 36-50 Rev. Catherine Purves I’ve always thought that prequels are stupid. If you’re going to tell a story, just start at the beginning. Don’t begin a long story in the middle and then, in the next installment, take a time-out to go back and show what happened beforehand. When books or movies or TV shows jump around like that, it’s unnecessarily confusing in my opinion. It’s hard enough to…
June 9, 2013 Galatians 1: 11-24 Luke 7: 11-17 Rev. Catherine Purves How many genuine surprises have there been in your life? How many times have you looked back and said, “Wow, I never saw that coming!”? How many twists and turns has your life taken that have truly shocked you? I expect that for most of us there are only a handful of completely unexpected and life-transforming events or changes of heart that…
June 2, 2013 1 Kings 18: 20-39 Rev. Catherine Purves Have you ever remodeled a bathroom, or even worse, a kitchen? It sounds like such a good idea at first. Imagine how much nicer that room could be where so much time is spent. The kitchen is the heart of a home. And the bathroom – well, you have to spend a good bit of time there too. Everyone says that the value of…