Sermons on Psalms
The Valley of the Shadow
The Valley of the Shadow 4th Sunday of Easter Pastor Pat Mecham Mothers’ Day Psalm 23 May 8, 2022 Acts 9: 36-43 Well, it’s Mothers’ Day, and preachers around the country have had to figure out what to preach about today. Those of us who preach from the common lectionary have to decide: Do I focus on Mothers’ Day and Motherhood, or do I simply go where today’s texts lead me? In 42 years of ministry, I have often wished that…
Don’t Be Denied
April 3, 2022………..5th Sunday in Lent………….Pastor Pat Mecham Psalm 126; Philippians 3: 4b-14; John 12: 1-8 Hello. My name is Lazarus. You probably remember me because Jesus brought me back from the dead. Now, that was pretty spectacular, but I want to share with you the tremendous impact that Jesus had on my whole family—especially my sisters, Mary and Martha. I guess I ought to start with Mary, because she’s the one who introduced us to Jesus in the first…
Reconciled
March 27, 2022———-4th Sunday in Lent Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21; Luke 15: 1-32 Dale was a proud man, a man who was glad that his grown kids had settled in the same area, a man who was happiest when his whole (large) family gathered around the table for a meal. But Dale had a problem. His teenaged grandson had acted in a way that he considered to be extremely disrespectful, and he had called him on it. The…
Discerning the Path
March 6, 2022——–1st Sunday in Lent Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Luke 4:1-13 Remember the old days when you had a trip coming up, and you would get out the old folding maps and make a plan for how you were going to get from here to there? Those of us who love MAPS always cherished that particular activity! But now we have a GPS on our phones, and we simply type in our destination and we see two or three…
Sanctified or Sanctimonious?
March 2, 2022—–Ash Wednesday Psalm 51: 1-17; Matthew 6: 1-6; 16-21 I was driving our daughter, Erin, to school one day, and she was reviewing her vocabulary lesson. “Dad,” she asked, “What does sanctimonious mean?” Well, sanctimonious is a word I am familiar with, and I have seen it used numerous times (though I don’t believe I have ever used it!), but I could not think of a way to define it. She had, in her lesson, some definitions from…
Those Who Trust in the Lord
Psalm 1—————1 Corinthians 15: 12-20—————Luke 6: 17-26 February 13, 2022—————Rev. Patrick Mecham Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Happy are those who trust in the Lord. It’s kind of a basic concept in our faith, isn’t it? I remember seeing a skit back in college where a student gets on an elevator and sees a friend and starts telling them about the new spiritual insight they had recently gleaned: TRUST IN THE LORD! “Oh, my life has become so much more peaceful…
Job’s New Insights
Job 42: 1-6, 10-17———-Psalm 34: 1-8, 19-22———22nd Sunday after Pentecost October 24, 2021———–Rev. Patrick Mecham You all know the story of the lowly caterpillar. It is earthbound, slowly crawling from leaf to leaf, munching its way through life. Then one day it attaches itself to a branch and develops a chrysalis and, to the uninformed eye, DIES. How sad. But, on a later day, the apparently dead thing starts to wiggle and eventually splits and the form of a butterfly…
Job Is Questioned
October 17, 2021———-Rev. Patrick Mecham Job 38: 1-7, 34-41———-Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c———-21st Sunday after Pentecost Do you know any “know-it-alls”? You know, people who either think they know everything or at least like to give the impression that they have a firm grasp of everything worth knowing. Years ago, I was telling a friend that we were looking at moving to Elko, Nevada. He asked me, “What’s the base of the economy there?” and I told him, “Gold mining”…
Letting Go and Letting In
Psalm 90: 12-17……….Mark 10: 17-31……….20th Sunday after Pentecost October 10, 2021……….Rev. Patrick Mecham Letting Go and Letting In…………….Special Message by Maggie A.F. Harmon, Esq. A common critique of my sermons that I have received, and it may be a mistake to start a sermon by telling you what the problems are, but here goes – a common critique I have heard is that I am too academic (not shocking in a presbyterian church) and that I don’t share enough of…
Audacious Asking
Psalm 124———-James 5: 13-30———-18th Sunday after Pentecost September 26, 2021 Many years ago, I met two 14-year-olds that were in the youth group at the church where I was a new intern. Within ten minutes of meeting me, they asked, “Can we borrow your car?” I was flabbergasted! What an audacious request! Firstly, they were too young to drive. Secondly, I barely knew them—but they appeared to be entirely serious about it! I said, “No, guys. Sorry.” And they said,…