Heritage Presbyterian Church

Love Grows Here

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Sunday’s Sermon – Thirst-Quencher – Isaiah 55:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

March 24, 2019 Leave a Comment

When I was a teenager, my family and I were in Montreat for the 4th of July. It’s a day celebrated in big ways in true small-town fashion. There’s a parade, lawn games and activities including the infamous greased telephone pole, food to enjoy, and a barn dance in the evening. After the parade was finished, my parents, two younger brothers and I were debating what to do when the topic came up that my mother had never climbed Lookout Mountain, a popular hike. And so, clad in our matching Old Navy flag t-shirts, we decided to make a family event of it in the remaining morning hours before lunch. We headed up the hill from the Anderson Auditorium lawn and walked the half mile or so to get to the trailhead. It wasn’t very long on the trail where we realized the considerable flaw to our plan: no one had brought water. It was July 4th. The air was hot. Humid. Sticky. And while this hike is labeled as “moderate” hike and is about ¾ of a mile measured from the trailhead, if you are not used to hiking, and it’s the middle of July, it’s, well, difficult[i]. We made it to the top, but not without a lot of sweat and second guessing. Fortunately, the way back is all downhill, and we rewarded ourselves with cool treats at the end. Water never tasted so good. And we learned our lesson. My mother vowed to never again hike Lookout, a promise she has maintained, and I have always made sure to have water when hiking, especially when it’s a family trip. When you are going on a journey, whether it is a hike up the mountains or a trip through the wilderness, or even a road trip in your car, it’s vital to take water or other nourishment with you. Otherwise, you will end up, at minimum, thirsty or parched.

Our journeys of Lent, or just our journeys in life, can leave us feeling this way, can’t they? Demands on our time and energy are high.  Do you ever find yourself saying “when things slow down,” and then wondering if that will ever be the case, or if it’s just something you say to yourself to keep your sanity with the hope that there might be a break ahead? It seems we are living at a breakneck pace in a world that only pushes us to go faster. And that’s on our good days. There are also plenty of things that make our journeys harder: a spot shows up on an exam that needs more testing, a friendship falls apart after a major disagreement, a family member breathes their last breath. The big and small things in live can leave us longing for respite and hope; thirsty, if you will. And in these times, we often lean on our faith to get us through. In fact, we come to worship, or pray, or flip through the thing pages of our Bibles hoping for something that might revive us.

The promise of the prophet Isaiah is that life-giving water is waiting for us in God. Written to a people in exile in the 6th century, Isaiah builds upon the messages of the previous chapters to encourage the people of Israel to return to Jerusalem from Babylon, into a time in which anything might be possible. This chapter is brimming with hope and salvation; the excitement of an adventure to be had. The prophet wants to remind Israel just where they can find nourishment. This passage is a holy invitation into God’s covenant living with a simple message: drink up!

In Grand Canyon National Park there are signs strategically placed along the trails that remind you to stop and drink water. “Stop! Drink water. You are thirsty, whether you realize it or not.”  . . . Isaiah’s words are like the sign in a dry climate – “Stop! Drink water. You are thirsty, whether you realize it or not[ii].”

Many times, I think we take our relationship with God for granted. It’s something that is just sort of always there, hanging out in the background, until we have real need for it. It’s easy to put God on the backburner, or even take it off the stove altogether. And then, life takes its toll, and we find ourselves scrambling to find it. Sometimes, we need reminders to take care of ourselves before we get to a critical point. Isaiah calls us to do just that with our faith, seeking God while God is to be found, and assuring us that God is ready and waiting.

It should be an easy message, right? We know that drinking water is vital to our health. Some say 8 glasses of water each day; others the number of ounces equal to half of your body weight, which for most of us is more than 8 glasses. Either way, that’s a fair amount of recommended liquid consumption, and yet few of us get as much as we truly need. It is so easy for us to get caught up in the craziness of our lives that we don’t even realize we’re thirsty. Doctors and scientists would tell us that the hypothalamus is responsible for controlling our signals for both hunger and thirst. Sometimes, the symptoms are so similar that we mistake them. Early signs of dehydration, like inability to focus, being tired, or a little lightheaded, can make us reach for a snack rather than a drink, thinking it is what we need.

Our lives are much the same, and we often reach for the wrong things. We are caught in an endless pursuit of . . . . what? Do we even know any more? Is it money? Physical strength or fitness? Beauty? Social status? Business rank? Reaching a certain number of “lifegoals”? Being the perfect student, or parent, or grandparent? The bars are set impossibly high all around us and we jump and jump, frantically trying to reach them. It’s exhausting. We spend a lot of time seeking to feed our desires, sometimes in unhealthy ways that leave us mindlessly consuming junk.  In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul names it as idolatry; the prophet Isaiah offers the reminder that there is much we consume that does not satisfy. In his interpretation of verse 2 in The Message, Eugene Petersen describes it in this way:

Why do you spend your money on junk food,

your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?

Now hear me, I like cotton candy, but it certainly is lacking in nutritional value.

Both of our passages today call us to take a bit closer look at the nutritional value of our lives. In doing so, we might discover the things that need to be lessened, or eliminated all-together. That is the work of Lent, where we “clean house” to rid ourselves of the things that consume us more than they should. But it’s important to remember in this that we are doing it not so we can lose a few pounds or make space in our closets or be better people. Lent is about returning to what satisfies us: namely, a relationship with God. If you’re Lenten discipline – something you’ve added, or something you’ve “given up” – isn’t bringing you closer to God, or deeper into a relationship with Jesus Christ, then you are missing the point or doing something wrong! Lenten practices are meant to help us drink more deeply in our faith lives, so that we can better understand the abundance and grace of God in the midst of the wilderness.

The journey of Lent can be daunting. 40 days can seem like forever. But there is good news! Not counted in our 40 days are Sundays. That’s because they are days of little resurrection, times to remember that we are not in the wilderness of our lives alone. Rather, God is with us, a God who provides for us, who loves and cares for us, and who invites us to drink and eat, whether we have the funds to cover it or not. A God who will quench every thirst we have, even if we don’t realize we are thirsty. A God who is with us in the journey, and leads us into life. May it be so. Amen.

~Sermon by Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford, Heritage Presbyterian Church, March 24, 2019

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[i] http://montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TrailDescriptionsLegal.pdf

[ii] Daniel M. Debevoise, “Pastoral Perspective: Isaiah 55:1-9,” Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).

Filed Under: Church blog Tagged With: God, journey, lent, sermon, spiritualcare, spirituality, thirsty

Sunday’s Sermon – Waiting Rooms – Psalm 27; Luke 13:31-35

March 17, 2019 Leave a Comment

Think about the last time you were in a waiting room. Maybe it was a doctor’s office, or hospital or surgical center. Maybe it was a car dealership or the DMV. Often times, they have a similar feel to them: rows or groupings of identical chairs, bad lighting, stacks of dated magazines. Instead of bad elevator music, there is often a television set to a never-ending stream of home improvement shows. We scan the room to find a seat and generally hope that whatever we are waiting for won’t take too long. Sometimes, we know it’s going to take a while, so we bring some provisions. Generally speaking, there are about a million other things we would rather be doing, or places we would rather be.

Waiting can be tedious and boring. The longer the wait is drawn out, the more restless we can become, and irritation begins to set-in. Waiting rooms can even breed anxiety, particularly in the face of fearing the unknown. Our time in waiting rooms, then, becomes give and take between hopeful anticipation and wrestling with the unknown. What a clever parallel to these 40 days of Lent for us. Lent is a time of waiting, where we are left to sit with our thoughts and ask deep questions about faith, even when we know we may not get clear or final answers. It is a time to have focused, intentional conversation with God, and to grow in our understanding of God’s presence in our lives and in our world. In Lent, we are bold enough to confront the gritty parts of our lives and world and try to make sense of it all in light of our faith.

That, in a nutshell, is the journey of the Psalmist in Psalms 27. Perhaps more than any other book in the Bible, Psalms speak to the experience of our lives with the full range of human emotion. This book of 150 includes joy, sorrow, anger, confidence and hope, confusion and despair. Its wide diversity is a powerful testament that we can talk to God under any circumstances. In our text for today, the psalmist balances fear and trust with a gritty honesty that speaks to our Lenten experiences.

The Psalm is bookended with affirmations of faith and trust in God. This is where the writer begins and ends. On their own, these verses “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (verse 1) and “wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage;” (verse 14) make for comforting phrases. But their true power comes by examining the verses in between. For the journey of the psalmist does not ignore the pain and challenges in his own life. In fact, it does quite the opposite, as the struggles are laid out before God in a lament.

The psalmist doesn’t ignore his suffering or minimize it. He does not check it at the door so to speak as he comes before God . . . Rather, he tells his story. He speaks of his pain. He calls out to God with all the rawness and honesty of someone who has been pushed to the limit. He doesn’t hold back. He pours out his complaint to God, not to push God away but rather, to plead for more, more of God’s presence, more of God’s instruction, more of God’s protection[i].

This week, the popular Tuesday night drama, This is Us featured an entire episode set in the waiting room of a hospital over the span of 26 hours or so. The tension was palpable throughout the episode, with each character responding to the events in their own way. One attempted to lighten the waiting with a game: name a food that is not improved by either chocolate or ranch. But it didn’t take long for their own life issues to come pouring out. Conflicts were sparked and the precarious nature of their relationships were on display.  Stories of truth were spoken.

This is the work of Lent, as we lift up the struggles our lives into God’s light. In this 40-day waiting room, we identify our own shortcomings and challenges, whether it is a broken relationship with a friend or coworker or those things about ourselves that we long to change but just can’t seem to figure out how to do it in ways that stick. Lent is a time for beginning to sort it all out, within ourselves, with each other, and even with God. And, going further, Lent is also a time when we are painfully aware of the hardships and brokenness that exists in our world. It doesn’t take long to find these examples, either. This morning, we might name those in Nebraska and other parts of the Midwest who are literally underwater; for farmers whose crops are gone, for those trapped on rooftops, and those who have now lost everything. We acknowledge the horrors experienced in a mosque during prayer on Friday in Christchurch, New Zealand, an act of terror that led to the death of 50 of God’s children. We lament the ways in which hatred takes hold and intolerance and fear become driving forces. Both in our world and our nation and our communities, there is much to call attention to.

These are also the cries of Jesus over Jerusalem in our gospel text, and his longing for wholeness in the midst of heartbreak. Jesus uses the image of a hen, gathering her brood under her wings, as an image for a God who longs to take this brokenness and pain and offer shelter and protection.

And while the gospel text has the children denying such an opportunity, the Psalmist finds a place in God’s shelter. The Psalmist is insistent on God’s presence in the midst of all that scares him. This psalm, then, “shows a courageous life lived amid the onslaught of bullies described as oppressors, enemies, and false witnesses[ii]. It dares to name the challenges and struggles of the world and then proclaim that they will be no match for God, and at the same time let surface those doubting questions of how that can be true. For the psalmist, faith and doubt become intermingled in the very real wrestling with what it means to live in God’s light and at the same time, the unknown of how or if things will go from there. Amanda Benckhuysen notes:

Confidence in God’s ability to overcome the darkest of evils does not require holding back our tears, our disappointments, our deep longing for more of God. Faith does not rule out doubt. Both trust and lament are proper expressions of faith in the context of hardship and suffering and often they go hand in hand. What they share in common is an unwavering conviction in the reality, the goodness, and the power of God, who is both worthy of our confidence but also attentive to our cries for help[iii].

In the end, the psalmist has a choice in the face of his fears. And rather than give into them, and into the spiral of reactionary choices made out of fear, the psalmist chooses to trust instead. And little by little, this choice builds into a renewed confidence of who God is, even as the psalmist begs for confirmation to be revealed. Richard Stern describes this as a psalm about when our intentions are put under pressure, and he leans into the ambiguity of how it ends, noting:

This is not a psalm about how God answers our prayers. It is a prayer, even a plea, for patience, for trust, for the ability and the endurance to wait for the Lord, even when there is no sign that prayers may be answered, when the Lord’s arrival is a long, undetermined way off[iv].

This Psalm tells the truth of life as we know it: even in the midst of deep faith, there are deep questions and many unknowns. Our lives, particularly in these Lenten weeks, are living in this tension, in the waiting room of what is and what will be. Here, may we name the things that are real. Here, may we trust in a God who walks in the grittiness of our lives with us. Here, may we find a way in the wilderness. Here, may we wait for the Lord, with a hopeful anticipation that lets go of our fears and trusts a new ending to God, who is our light and our salvation. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, for these 40 days and beyond. Amen.

~Sermon by Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford, Heritage Presbyterian Church, March 17, 2019

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[i] Amanda Benckhuysen, “Commentary on Psalm 27,” Working Preacher for March 17, 2019, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3994, accessed 3/16/19.

[ii] Robin Gallaher Branch, “Exegetical Perspective: Psalm 27,” Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).

[iii] Amanda Benckhuysen, “Commentary on Psalm 27,” Working Preacher for March 17, 2019, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3994, accessed 3/16/19.

[iv] Richard C. Stern, “Homiletical Perspective: Psalm 27,” Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).

Filed Under: Church blog Tagged With: emotion, faith, journey, lament, lent, longing, patience, prayer, psalm, sermon, trustinGod, waiting

Wandering Wisemen

December 4, 2017 Leave a Comment

The Wandering Wisemen 2017

Some call them Wise Men, others Magi, others Kings. They were astrologers from the East who saw a special star in the skies that led them to Jerusalem. They were searching for the newborn King of the Jews to honor him.

(Read their whole story in Matthew 2:1-12!)

Starting December 3, the “Wandering Wisemen” will appear at Heritage. They have come to remind us that the road to Bethlehem and the good news of Jesus’ birth at Christmas is a journey! They will make appearances throughout Advent and Christmas on our church Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/heritagepres.
There are also sets for you to take home. Pick yours up at the church or download one here: Wandering Wisemen 2017 Download Color or decorate them as you imagine their stories. What do you think they hoped to find? What are you looking for this Advent? Each day, move them to a new space in your house, or take them with you as you celebrate the season. Take a picture and post it on our Facebook page (or e-mail it to pastor@heritagepres.com to be shared). How many places will they go before the reach the manger?

Then, make sure your Wondering Wisemen find their way back to worship on SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 as we celebrate Epiphany and the end of their journey!

Note: This concept was originated by Rev. Mandi Hockensmith Richey. You can follow more travels at https://www.facebook.com/thewanderingwisemen/

Filed Under: Church blog Tagged With: advent, journey, newsletter, wanderingwisemen, wisemen

Food Pantry

Food distribution is scheduled the 1st Saturday of the month at 10:00 am and the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 12:30 pm.

The next Drive-Up Food Pantry is scheduled for Wednesday, May 21 at 12:30 pm.  Accurate pre-registration is strongly encouraged to ensure volunteers pack accordingly.
Please sign- up here!

For other pantry locations, go here
or text “FINDFOOD” 
to 888-976-2232

Church News

Volunteers are needed to help pack family boxes Monday, May 19th at 10 am in the Fellowship Hall. We welcome all volunteers.  

Food Pantry distribution volunteer opportunity Wednesday, May 21 registration here!


Worship Live Streaming and archives can be found by clicking the appropriate link under the worship tab.


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Sunday Schedule

9:00 AM
Responding in Faith Sunday School Class
     via Zoom with Barbara Jessee

9:15 AM
Bible University Sunday School Class
    with Dr. Tom Scott
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Connections Sunday School Class
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Youth Bible Study (Room 8) 6- 12th grade

Kids Club – (Room 7)
Biblically-based Faith Formation Activities for Preschool – 5th Grade
Praise Kids Music on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

10:30 AM
In-Person Worship and Livestreamed via   YouTube.


Youth Group – the first and third Sunday of the month from 5-7 pm during the school year.

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