Sunday, March 31, 2013

Reflections on "Jesus Is the One Raised from the Dead" John 20: 1-18; Isaiah 65: 18-25

This sermon probably reads better than it was preached.  It worked a bit better at the chapel service where I preached from the pulpit.  I preached holding my notes due to how the sanctuary was set-up for Easter in sanctuary service, and it did not go as well. The correct flow of words was to important to lose the ability to read the notes easily, which impacted the delivery.

It turned into a fun sermon to write -- lots of neat stuff  I had not explored previously in an Easter sermon.


Introduction: Ann Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Prayer: “I don’t have the right personality for Good Friday, for crucifixion: I’d like to skip ahead to the resurrection. In fact, I’d like to skip ahead to the resurrection vision of one of the kids in our Sunday School, who drew a picture of the Easter Bunny outside the tomb: everlasting life and a basket full of chocolates. Now you’re talking.” (141).

What do we do with the resurrection?

The Gospel of John describes the surroundings related to the empty tomb a bit differently than the others gospels – he seems to go out of his way to connect the empty tomb with other stories of God's people.

This morning, I have three questions for you, all of which grow of the particular way in which the Gospel of John tells the story of the resurrection.

Move 1: Question #1 -- Whom are you looking for this morning?

a. IN the opening chapter of the Gospel of John, two of John the Baptist's disciples meet Jesus, and he looks at them and asks, “What are you looking for?”

1. Turn out, the disciples were looking for the Lamb of God, the Messiah.

2. Now in the garden at the empty tomb, the one Mary thinks is the gardener asks her a similar question, “For whom are you looking.”

3. I'm not sure Mary even knows how to answer that question.

5. her most honest answer might have been, “I am looking for the body of the my dead friend Jesus.”

6. She won't find Jesus' dead body, but she is looking at Jesus, the one who is raised from the dead.

b. For whom are you looking this morning?

1. Someone recently called me in a tear-filled voice tears shared the good news that her loved one, for whom we had been praying, had received the best possible news following the surgery. Healing was taking place. Are you looking for someone who offers healing of body of Spirit?

2. As I mentioned in this month's newsletter, today is my parents wedding anniversary. I am keenly aware of our human mortality this morning and the hope of eternal life. Are you looking for the one who overcomes death and offers us the hope that death is not the end?

4. Mary and the other disciples were surely crushed at the death of Christ. She needed the resurrected Christ to give her hope and new life. Maybe you are here and have had your dreams crushed, and you are looking for the one who can offer you new possibilities.

5. Some of us arrive here today feeling beat up and betrayed. Maybe not like as bad as Judas betraying Christ, but you feel alone, as if there is no one you can trust in the world. Are you looking for the one who befriends you and loves you no matter what?

6. When Christ was walking among them and performing miracles, I suspect the world seemed full of possibilities, but now as Mary approaches the tomb that morning, the only possibility the world seemed to offer was death. Are you looking for the one who offers new life?

c. As Jesus, the resurrected one, calls Mary by name, he invites her into a new reality.

1. Where crushed dreams are restored.

2. where hope replaces despair.

3. Where the vision of a new heaven and a new earth that Isaiah had prophesied about years before now seems possible.

d. Those first disciples found whom they were looking for, the Messiah, when the met Jesus.

1. They knew that when they heard him speak and watched him perform miracles.

2. Now Mary discovers that the one she mistakes as a gardener outside the empty tomb, is the resurrected resurrected one.

3. If you come here this morning looking for the Messiah, the one who can change your life, the one who brings you hope, he is alive and among us.

Move 2: Second question – Are you ready for what God has done for you?

a. My theology professor from seminary suggested that as Christ was convicted and crucified by the authorities, the world convicts God of forsaking Christ and letting Christ die.

1. But the empty tomb tells a different story.

2. the verdict against God has been overturned.

3. God has acted decisively to raise Christ from the dead. .

b. The Gospel of John, unlike the other three gospels, places the empty tomb in a garden.

1. In our Lenten Bible study this week we saw a garden that tradition suggests was the garden Mary went to that first Easter morning.

2. It was a beautiful, tranquil place – the kind f place where you might find God.

3. The presence of the tomb in a garden also takes us back to the Garden of Eden.

4. Takes us back to that time before Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden fruit; a time when when humans and God were in right relationship; a time when God would look over creation and call it good

b. In that context, we realize the implications of what God has done by raising Christ from the dead.

1. The resurrection is not about a scientific oddity.

2. The resurrection is not about some miracle in which we have to believe.

3. the resurrection of Christ reveals that God has deemed you worthy of being saved. That God has declared the world worth saving.

4. The resurrection of Christ means that God values being in right relationship with us enough to let Christ die on the cross and then raise him from the dead.

5. The resurrection means that God wants you to be a new creation.

c. Are you ready for that?

1. It means giving up looking in the mirror and seeing the person who is not good enough and instead seeing the person God has said is worth saving.
2. It means giving up on all the reasons we cannot move into those new possibilities God puts before us and claiming that new creation God calls us to be.

3. I recently had a conversation with someone who was in the interview process for what appeared to be an exciting new job situation.

AS the person shared with me about the new job and how the interview process, they was clearly some apprehension. I thought maybe the person was afraid of not getting the job, so in all my pastoral care wisdom I asked, “Are you scared of not getting the job?”

After a long pause, the person replied, “No. I'm scared that I might actually choose me. That they might actually think I'm the one who can do this job.”

4. Its' easier not to be the chosen one. To just go along with how things are.

4. The empty tomb is God saying, “I choose you. Come and be a new creation.”

Are you ready for what God has done for you?

Move 3: Third question – what are you going to tell the world?

a. Remember, the crucifixion of Christ was very public.

1. Like the Little Caesar guitar man who hopes that if he makes a spectacle of himself on the sidewalk on Main St. you will step in and buy some some pizza, the Romans make crucifixion a public spectacle.

2. The Romans wanted lots of people walking by to see the gruesome death and be reminded, and to tell others, do not mess with the Roman government.

3. If you were in Jerusalem around the time when Jesus was crucified, you probably saw it or heard about it. We remember that in the Gospel of Luke when the resurrected Christ meets some followers on the way to Emmaus, they ask him, “are you the only in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about the crucifixion of Jesus?”

5. Christ's crucifixion is there for everyone to see.

b. In contrast, in the Gospel of John, Mary arrives at the tomb while it was still dark.

1. In the pre-dawn solitude of the garden she discovers the tomb is empty.

2. she has to go tell the Peter and the beloved disciple that the tomb is empty.

3. and after the resurrected Christ reveals himself to her, Mary has to go and tell those who she meets, “I have seen the Lord.”

4. No crowd of people to witness the resurrection.

5. the story of Jesus being raised from the dead will be heard only when Mary and the other disciples tell others.

c. We remember that later in the Gospel of John, Jesus appears on the beach to some of the disciples. As Jesus talks with Peter, he tells him, “Feed my sheep.”

1. IN other words, go and share the good news of my resurrection through your words and deeds.

2. WE live in a world that desperately needs to know the good news of the resurrection.

Are you going to tell the world?

Conclusion: The Easter bunny brings candy for a day or two; the resurrected Christ brings good news for a lifetime and beyond.


Sources used:

The parts that refer to the connection between the garden where the tomb is and the Garden of Eden were supported by: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=4/8/2012&tab=4 Lucy Lind HoganHugh Latimer Elderdice Professor of Preaching and Worship
Wesley Theological Seminary
Washington, D.C. 

The section on the public nature of Roman crucifixions was found in A Hitchhiker's Guide to Jesus by Bruce N. Fisk and 24 Hours that Changed the World by Adam Hamilton.

Friday, March 29, 2013

"Jesus Is the One Who Is Raised from the Dead" John 20: 1-18

The theme on Easter is, of course, resurrection.  Some thoughts for this year's Easter sermon.

1. the crucifixion of Christ was a public spectacle.  The Romans did crucifixions in place where there was heavy traffic so that people could see the gruesome death and be reminded not to go against the Roman government.

2. In the Gospel of John,  Jesus' resurrection scene takes place in the solitude of the early morning garden.  How do all the people who know he is dead find out he is now alive?

3. The defeat is final.  One might say that not only was Christ convicted and crucified, but that God was convicted of letting Christ die.

4. But God raises Christ from the dead.  Usually, we talk about Jesus being raised from the dead, which means that someone else (God) did the raising.  It's God's decisive act.

5.  Being back in the garden takes the reader back to the Garden of Eden, where humans turned from thier perfect relationship with God and sought to be like God.  Christ has died and been resurrected to take us back to the right relationship with God.

5. How does the resurrection impact your daily life?

Monday, March 25, 2013

Reflections on "Jesus Is the One Who Cries over Us" Luke 19: 28-48


I had fun preaching this sermon.  I find great power in Christ who cries for us.  I felt a little hypocritical preaching this sermon about crying since I don't cry that often.  maybe I should take Jim Valvano's advice (see conclusion).  I had a sermon illustration to spare from "The Holiday."  The Cameron Diaz character does not cry form the time here in her childhood when he dad walks out on the family until the dramatic scene at the end of the movie. 

Jesus Is the One who Cries over Us” 3/24/13; FPC, Troy Luke 19: 41-48; Jesus Is the One Who... preaching series

Introduction: “The cattle are lowing, The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus, No crying He makes”

Well, he's crying now.

As he looks over Jerusalem.

Jesus has already ridden triumphantly ridden into Jerusalem with crowds lining the streets to wave their palm branches.

They have shouted the truth about Jesus: “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” A truth that Jesus said the stones would shout out if the people were silent.

If the story would stop at this moment, with echoes of “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” in the air, the story would finish with the crowds getting it right – Jesus, the Messiah, has indeed arrived.

Or so it seems.

Because in the next instance Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

Jesus weeps of what is comings.

He sheds tears over Jerusalem's inability to recognize that God is visiting in their midst.

And so the joy and celebration of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem is paired with Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.

Move 1: Why does Jesus cry?

a. Imagine Jesus at his vantage point overlooking Jerusalem – seeing the Temple; remembering the history of what has happened to God's people in that place. Why does that make him cry?

b. Why do you cry?

1. When we are sad. Is Jesus sad?
2. when we are hurt? Is Jesus hurt?

3. When we are angry? Was Jesus angry?

4. When we are overwhelmed? Was Jesus overwhelmed?

5. Sometimes we shed tears of joy. Was Jesus somehow grateful at the view of Jerusalem?

b. The text does not tell us, but perhaps like most humans and their emotions, it's complicated.

1. anger – Perhaps Jesus is mad at the way God's people have perverted God's Word and God's ways? Frustrated that he cannot get the people to really understand. He has already overturned to the tables in the temple; now he weeps tears tinged with anger.

2. Overwhelmed at what he saw and what he was about to face.

3. Sadness. Jesus also wept when he arrived at Lazarus' tomb. He knew that in a few moments he would bring Lazarus back to life, but in that moment of grief, he weeps over the death of his friend.

4. Perhaps he grieves over what he knows is about to happen.
5. He grieves over how they will return to their sin and fear of Jesus and betray him.
6. He grieves over those in the crowds who will go from shouting “Hosanna” to shouting “Crucify him, crucify him”

7. Jesus has many reasons to weep as he gazes out over Jerusalem.

Move 2: His tears characterize what he was about.

a. Judgment

    1. Jesus announces by words and deeds that Jerusalem will be destroyed.

2. he sounds like a prophet from the Old Testament./

3. Judgment will befall God's people.

b. But coupled with the judgment comes compassion and concern.

1. the one who judges us, weeps for us.

2. The tears a reminder that God's greatest desire for the world does not end with judgment but continues to repentance and redemption

3. If you want an image of Christ that speaks to the truth of who he is, imagine him crying for you.

Those tears remind us of who Jesus is and why he lived among us.

Move 3: Finally, when we see Jesus cry, it frees us to cry

a. Yaconelli quotes Keith Miller: “ Our churches are filled with people who outwardly look contented and at peace, but inwardly are crying out for someone to love them….just as they are – confused, frustrated, often frightened, guilty and often unable to communicate even within their own families. But the other people in the church look so happy and contented that one seldom has the courage to admit his own deep needs before such as self-sufficient groups as the average church meeting appears to be.” Michael Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, 21

1. but Jesus invites us to be real and authentic.

2. To join with him and with others who experience both the pain of our brokenness and the joy of God's healing and hope.

3. To see Jesus cry reminds us that Christ joins us in the depths of our humanity – no matter where that takes us.

4. And it invites us to claim our brokenness and to seek God's healing.

b. It's more than just the facts.

1. We can memorize and learn lots of facts about Jesus and faith statement about who we believe he is.
2. There is value in that – confirmation class may wonder, but there is.

3. But ultimately faith is Christ is giving ourselves over to the one whom we meet as the Son of God, who lives among us, who cries with us and over us, who calls us to a new way of life.
4. Facts cannot prove it – but Christ's love can.

Conclusion: If I say the word bracket or March Madness, many of you will immediately begin thinking about the NCAA basketball tournament.

2. Bracket busters.

3. Perhaps the ultimate bracket buster was the 1983 NC State team coached by coached by Jim Valvano. They had to win their conference tournament to make the NCAA tournament, and then they kept coming from behind, game after game, including defeating the #1 team in the nation on a last second basket.

Not quite a decade later, Valvano was diagnosed with cancer. At the Espy awards in 1993, just a short while before he died, Valvano was honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. He was very sick. He could barely make it to the podium for his acceptance speech, but then he seemed to come to life as he gave his speech.

As part of that speech, he tells the crowd the three things everyone should do everyday: laugh, think (do something to work your mind), and find something that moves you to tears.

Jesus has found something that moves him to tears. Us. And he invites us to follow him.



Friday, March 22, 2013

"Jesus Is the One Who Weeps over Us" Luke 19: 41-48

In a poignant scene, Jesus weeps over what awaits Jerusalem.  This take place after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting "Hosanna" and waving palm branches.

He also has some difficult words about why he is weeping over Jerusalem.

it has me wondering why we weep?

       When we are angry?  Was Jesus angry?

        When we are sad?  Was Jesus sad?

        When we are overwhelmed?  Was Jesus overwhelmed?

        Tears of joy?  Presumably Jesus was not feeling much joy in that moment.

        Did he have tears in part because of what he knew was waiting for him?

Jesus also wept when he arrived at Lazarus' tomb. Interestingly, he perhaps knows that he will raise Lazarus.




Monday, March 18, 2013

Reflections on "Jesus Is the One Who Performs Miracles" Mark 4: 35-41; Luke 7: 18-23

The sermon sort of fell into place for me. I had the Jefferson Bible reference from Gordon in my original notes, but then expanded the illustration to make it the introduction, which I think worked well.

The boat trip ending at the land of the Gerasenes (the Gentiles) was a late addition to the sermon, but it really helped me figure out what the miracles might mean to us today.  If I had known I was going there, I would have added verse 42 to the Markan passage.

I left unanswered two critical questions:  1. What is a miracle in our time? and 2.  Why did Jesus choose to do the miracles some of the time and not some other times.  Since I don't really have an answer to those questions, leaving them unanswered worked for me!


Jesus Is the One Who Performs Miracles” Jesus is the one who... “series; FPC, Troy; 5th Lent; March 17, 2013; Mark 4: 36-41
Introduction: Thomas Jefferson, who penned the Declaration of Independence and later became President of the United States, took a razor and carefully cut out the sections of the New Testament to create what was called the the Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.
As the title suggests, he focused on the moral teachings of Jesus. From his rational, intellectual perspective, he chose to leave out any stories that dealt with the supernatural, which meant excluding all of the miracles of Jesus. In fact, there are instances when Jefferson would cut a section in mid-verse to include the teaching, while excluding the miracle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible)
This morning I would suggest, with all due respect to Thomas Jefferson, that the miracles Jesus performed are critical to who he was and how we understand what he was doing in our midst.

Move 1: First of all, let's be clear. Jesus performed miracles.
a. Admittedly, the Gospels do not contain the word "miracle" (Anatomy of the New Testament: A Guide to Its Structure and Understanding, Robert A. Spivey and D. Moody Smith, 211).
  1. But they contain lots of miracle stories.
  2. 30-40 miracles (depending on how you count them) are included in all four gospels (Spivey and Moody, 209).
3. nearly 1/3 of the Gospel of Mark – remember, Mark is the shortest of the gospels, in part because Mark's styles is action-oriented and full of verbs – nearly 1/3 of the action is devoted to healings (Spivey and Moody, 211)

4. The Synoptics have basically four types of miracles:
    
           exorcisms – Jesus casting out demons

           healings – like the paralytic whose friends lower him down through the roof in the Gospel of Mark

          resuscitations – Jairus' daughter

           and nature miracles – turning water into wine in the Gospel of John, or calming the seas in Mark's gospel story we read this morning.

Jesus performed lots of miracles.

b. Admittedly, Jesus was not the only miracle worker.
    1. WE know from other writings of the time that others were performing what were considered miracles.
    2. In Acts, we read the story of Simon, who performed miracles, who was also amazed at the miracles the disciples were performing and wanted to buy some of their power, only to learn that the power of God was not for sale.
    c. how do we translate miracles into our time?
    1. Sports – I am remembering the "Miracle on Ice, " when the US hockey team defeated the Soviet hockey team in the Olympics.
2. Medical technology.

3. A miracle has come to mean totally unexpected.

Move 2: Secondly, Jesus performs miracles to announce that the kingdom of God has arrived and show us what that means.

a. Story from Luke.

1. John the Baptist's disciples arrive and ask Jesus – are you the one? Or should we look for another.

2. Jesus makes no personal statement about who he is – he simply says, “Tell John what you have seen and heard:he Baptist's disciples ask Jesus whether he is the one to come or if they should look for another, Jesus replies"go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news."

3. Jesus points to the miracles he has performed and says, “What do you think?”

4. The miracles announce to the world that the kingdom of God has arrived with Jesus.

b. The miracles matter both in defining who Jesus is, but also in calling the followers of Christ into action.

1. Consider the story we read in Luke about Jesus calming the seas.

2. Jesus literally “rebukes” the waves. The same verb used when Jesus “rebukes” or calls out the demons.

3. This act establishes that Jesus is the one who can cause the waves to subside; he has power over nature.

4. He can support the disciples in their fear.

c. But he also introduces them to the new reality of how they are called to respond now that the kingdom of God has arrived.
1. Notice where they end up after they cross the Sea of Galilee.

2., they arrive at the land of the Gerasenes.

3. The land of the Gentiles, those people who are considered outside the realm of God.

4. Jesus miraculously calms the sea so that the disciples can spread the gospel among the Gentiles.

5. their world has shifted with the arrival of Jesus and the kingdom of God.

Move 3: Thirdly, Jesus changes the world in a personal, real way through his miracles.

a. Reading Jesus: A Writer's Encounter with the Gospels, Mary Gordon, (105): notes that she, unlike Jefferson, includes the miracles because they witness Jesus' acknowledgment can concern for human affliction.

1. The disciples are scared to death of the raging seas – Jesus calms the waves.

2. the paralytic's friends want him to be healed, so they lower him through the roof into Jesus' midst – Jesus heals him.

3. The wine has run out at the wedding feast and Jesus' mother wants more – so Jesus turns water into wine.

4. One of the great unanswered questions is why Jesus does not perform miracles in every situation – cannot answer that, but I do note that every miracle Jesus performs reaches into the real-life situation of someone's life and changes it.

b. Of course, when thinking about the miracles Jesus did not perform, we are reminded of the greatest example of the miracle Jesus did not perform and how that impacts us in a real, personal way.

1. Jesus, who could calm the waves, rebuke the demons, heal the lame, multiply the food – this Jesus did not choose to miraculously come down off the cross.

2. The one who seemingly could do anything, chooses not to invoke his miraculous powers to save himself.

3. the non-miracle that defines the arrival of the kingdom of God that brings God's saving grace to the world and to each of us.

Conclusion: 'We don’t use the word very often in the Uniting Church, but the Nave—is the body of the church. It’s where the pews are, where we sit. It’s has the same root as the word Navy. It’s the boat of the church. Jesus gets into the boat with the church in the story this week. We will find him in the church, in those odd folk we know only too well... http://onemansweb.org/man-overboard---mark-4-35-41.html





Thursday, March 14, 2013

"Jesus Is the One Who Performs Miracles" Mark 4: 36-41

Lots of information for this sermon, which sometimes drags the sermon down with too much information.

Notes from Anatomy of the New Testament: A Guide to Its Structure and Understanding:

1.  "the most characteristic miracles in the Synoptics are Jesus' healing, especially the exorcism of demons, which Mark emphasizes (209).

2. When John the Baptist's disciples ask Jesus whether he is the one to come or if they should look for another, Jesus replies"go and tell John what you have seen and heard:  the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news, " which points out the importance Jesus placed on his miracles (209).

3. nearly 1/3 of the Gospel of Mark is devoted to healings; 30-40 miracles (depending on how you count them) are included in all four gospels (209).

4. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and Paul's writings, the miracles are not a sign of Jesus' messiahship (or at least Jesus does not seem to want them used that way).  In the Gospel of John, however, miracles do serve as a sign of who Jesus was (210).

5.  There is a theme in the Synoptics that suggests that "Jesus' power is not in mighty works, but in his crucifixion and death" (210).  I might note that Mario and I were discussing miracles today, and he asked the question, "What does it tell us that Jesus did not perform a miracle and come down off the cross?"  It has me wondering which is more important:  the miracles Jesus did perform, or the miracles Jesus did not perform!

6.  "In the first century, indeed in the New Testament itself, Jesus is not the only miracle worker" (see Acts 8:9-24) (210).  

7. The apocryphal gospels (those writings about Jesus that are not considered to be true or to have the authority of Scripture) often reflect a need to expand Jesus' miracles, which leads to stories like Jesus stretching a piece of wood that was cut to short to help his carpenter father Joseph (211).

8.  The Gospels do not contain the word "miracle" (211).

9.  "jesus' miracles are signs that the eschatological kingdom of God is breaking in." (212).  In other words, jesus' miracles signify that the kingdom of God is at hand.

10.  The Synoptics have basically four types of miracles:  exorcisms, healings, resuscitations, and nature miracles (exorcisms are not found in the Gospel of John) (213).

11.  "Miracle stories claim that a power is at work which is personal concern -- that is, the will of God, which declares itself personal at a point where it is not expected" (219)

Other thoughts:

1.  I am remembering the "Miracle on Ice, " when the US hockey team defeated the Soviet hockey team in the Olympics.  A miracle because it was totally unexpected.  when people call it a miracle, are they suggesting that God intervened for the US to win?  It makes me wonder how we use the word miracle.

2.  Gordon notes that she struggles with how to explain miracles; she then adds: “but why I, unlike Jefferson, would not excise Jesus' miracles from the New Testament is that read not literally but as signs, they are compelling, narratively, humanly. They witness Jesus' acknowledgment of human affliction, and unlike the televangelists or the priest in Fellini's mega-pilgrimage, they are intensely personal encounters in which transformation of a profound sort occurs.” Reading Jesus: A Writer's Encounter with the Gospels, Mary Gordon, (105)

3.  The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.


Monday, March 11, 2013

"200 Years of Women at First Presbyterian" Psalm 148: 7-14


Thanks to the Bicentennial committee for putting together a service recognizing the role of women in the church's life over the last 200 years.  


"200 Years of Women at First Presbyterian" Bicentennial Sunday, March 10, 2013


Richard: As part of our Bicentennial celebration, this morning we are focusing on the role of women here at First Presbyterian Church,
Noelle (interrupting loudly): Excuse me, Papa.
Richard: Uh, Noelle, you know you're interrupting me while I'm preaching my sermon about women here at First Presbyter...
Noelle: Yes, I know, I'm interrupting you. But I need to ask you a question.
Richard: Right now?
Noelle: Yes, right now.
Richard: Okay. Watt?
Noelle: why are you preaching a sermon on women at First Presbyterian Church.
Richard: If you'd been listening instead of interrupting, you'd know why. It's the Bicentennial celebration of women in the church.
Noelle: I heard that. What I mean is, why are YOU preaching the sermon.
Richard: Who else would?
Noelle: If it's about women, why don't we hear from some women? Right now I have three women with me who are former presidents of the Presbyterian Woman Association. I bet they could do a better job that you could in telling us about the women. It would probably look better, too!
Richard: Really?
Noelle: Really.
Richard: okay.
Noelle: Thanks. Now if Mrs. Collier, and Mrs. Kerns and Mrs. Eppleston will help me out, we can hear from First Presbyterian Church Women about First Presbyterian Church women.
Stephanie: I'm in.
Nancy: Me too.
Sherry: I'm ready to go.
Stephanie: Noelle, what would you like to learn about the women who have served at First Presbyterian?
Noelle: I'm kind of curious what it was like for women to serve the church at different times in our history. I know we have women elders, and deacons, and trustee now, but I don't think we've always had women officers. Did women do anything important before they were officers?
Sherry: Have we got some stories to tell you. In fact, after you hear them, you might decide that women were more effective in ministry when they could not be officers.
Noelle: Really?
Sherry: Really!
Nancy We've learned lots of stories over the years about the role of women in our church and recently Teri Okrutny (a woman, I might add) has done lots of research on the role of women in the church on behalf of the Bicentennial committee.
Stephanie: I find it fascinating how the women of the church have organized themselves in different ways to meet the needs of the community and the church.
Noelle: What do you mean?
Stephanie: For instance, in communities like Troy during the first part of the 19th century educational, missionary, and evangelical work by men and women alike was accomplished by community volunteer societies.
The women of our church did not necessarily have their own group within the church, but they helped organize these volunteer societies in the community. Yes, Christians from all denominations participated, but these societies were generally organized and led predominately by Presbyterians, and often by the women!
Sherry: For example, The Troy Female Bible Society was the first volunteer women’s society in which the ladies of FPC were actively involved. It was organized in 1843 as an affiliate society of the American Bible Society and had as its sole object the distribution of the Holy Scriptures.
As the story goes, men (one of whom was the pastor of the Franklin St. Presbyterian Church and another was pastor of the Main St. Presbyterian Church – that was when were split between Old School and New School Presbyterian churches) led the organizing meeting, but the women took over after that. Sarah Jane Rice, the wife of one of the Presbyterian pastors, served as one of the group’s first vice presidents.

Their aim was that every family in Troy had a Bible in the home. During the Civil War, they saw to it that every soldier carried a Bible in his pocket when going away to the war. They also placed Bibles in local schools and distributed Bibles to inmates in the jail and children at the Knoop Orphan Home.
Nancy: Don't forget the Troy Women’s Christian Association. This group was organized in 1872 by a number of ladies from different churches, including a significant number of of members from our church.
Their purpose was “to provide relief for the destitute, aid the needy, and to promote the spiritual, moral, mental, and social welfare of those in our midst.”
This group took the lead in petitioning the commissioners to provide a home for orphans. Their efforts led to the establishment of the Knoop Orphan Home.

In 1877, they added self-help to their objectives and a year later established an industrial school at which girls could learn to knit and sew so they could find jobs. Girls between the ages of 12 and 18 were provided materials and patterns and were required to learn Bible verses while working on her sewing.

Some of the groups that have been helped over the years include: the Troy Nursing Association, Miami County School for the Retarded, FISH, the Child Development Center, Head Start, Well Child Clinic, Mobile Meals, the Abuse Shelter, Hospice, LIFE, Children’s Services, Habitat for Humanity, Agape Ministries, and Partners in Hope.


Stephanie: And, of course, Presbyterian women were active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.


Noelle: Is that the group of women who tried to enforce no drinking?


Stephanie: You are correct. In fact, the first president was Mrs. J. B. Riley, a member of our congregation. She was joined by Mrs. Lucinda Lewis, who served as secretary and later as president as well as an officer in the state organization and delegate to the national convention.
They also used our church as the venue for many meetings and conferences on the topic of temperance in the 1870s and 1880s. IN 1919, the year in which the Prohibition amendment was ratified, their prayer service on election day was held in the Sunday School room here.
Sherry: Were they the women who went into bars and prayed?


Stephanie: Yes, indeed. They would ask to be invited in to the bar, or saloon as they called them, and hold a prayer meeting right there. If they were not invited in, they would stand outside the bar and hold their prayer meeting.
Nancy: I love the story of the Jewish bar owner who told them they needed to pray in Hebrew so that they could understand them!

Sherry: But times changed and the way women from the church organized themselves changed as well.

As the 19th century began, the Presbyterian Church became the first Protestant denomination in the United States to organize a missions committee at the national level in 1802. Subsequently, they organized a permanent Board of Missions in 1815 and a separate Board of Foreign Missions in 1837. As various boards were organized at the denominational level, individual churches organized their own locally affiliated boards.

Nancy: This shift in how to organize for mission culminated in 1870 when the newly-reunited Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. organized the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society in Philadelphia, the first and largest of the denomination’s women’s boards.

This led to the to creation of The Woman’s Missionary Society of Troy for Heathen Lands later known as Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society or simply The First Missionary Society. This was the first women’s group within FPC.

It was organized on January 12, 1872, with 12 members as an auxiliary to the Woman’s Board of Missions connected with the Presbyterian Board of Missions at Philadelphia.

The object of the society was to aid the denominational board in sending and sustaining single women who would labor as missionaries among heathen women, train and superintend native women, and open schools for girls. Membership in the society was restricted to women who made an annual contribution of not less than fifty cents. Meetings were held monthly, and officers were elected at an annual meeting in January.

Stephanie: IN the following years, the Woman’s Home Missionary Society later known as The Second Missionary Society formed.

This group met twice a month and had dual purposes of study and mission work. Membership was open to anyone who paid the seventy-five cent annual dues.

Although the society at times provided financial aid to ladies of other Presbyterian churches in the U.S., most of their work involved sewing clothes and making quilts to fill missionary barrels that were sent to American mission schools or churches. There also was mention of the ladies providing funds to Miss Orbison, delegate to the temperance convention in 1903, to lessen the burden of the expenses associated with attending the convention.

In 1905, after noticing the decline of the membership of the First Missionary Society, the ladies of the Second Missionary Society voted to invite them to unite with them, and they functioned as the Ladies Missionary Society 943.

Sherry: During this time the Ladies Church Society also came into being.

The purpose of this group was to provide aid to First Presbyterian Church of Troy, Ohio. They accomplished this through the following committee structure:
  1. Department of Visiting the Sick
  2. Committee for Visiting Strangers
  3. Committee for Caring for Church
  4. Department of Caring for Parsonage
  5. Kitchen Committee
  6. Flower Committee
  7. Care of Church Linen
  8. Care of Silver
  9. Care of Communion glasses
  10. Music Committee
  11. Committee on Entertainment

In addition to their standing committees, work was delegated to them from the Session. A few examples include: praying on behalf of the unconverted; afternoon prayer meetings; repairing old hymnals and raising money for new hymnals; provide the supper at the annual congregational meeting; and provide refreshments at special services.

This group’s fund raising efforts were so successful, that it was to them that the Trustees turned when the church was short of money. They also purchased the stained glass windows that weren’t given as memorials.

Noelle: If the women were doing all that, what did the men do.

Stephanie: That's a question for which we do not have an answer this morning!

Nancy: In 1943, the Ladies Church Society merged with the Ladies Missionary Society to form the Presbyterian Women’s Association.

That's the group that all of us were president of once upon a time.

As we moved through the 20th century, things began to change in the Presbyterian denomination that impacted us as well – officers were no longer elected for life terms and beginning in 1930 women could be elected to hold office of elder or deacon.

Four years later, here in Troy, we elected the first woman Deacon, Mrs. Jessie West Baker.
It took awhile for the church to elect its first women elders, but in 1959, Donna Dixon and Helen Lefevre were elected as elders, and Maralynn Houser was elected to serve as a Trustee. Our church may have decided that was the right time to elect women elders since the first woman in the Presbyterian Church was ordained as a minister in 1955.

Stephanie: In the midst of these changes nationally and locally, the women in the denomination in 1943 the Plan of Organization of Women of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, which sought to unite all organizations of church women under one inclusive departmental organization.

The organizing meeting was held on October 14, 1943. Rev. Coyle spoke on the subject “Why We Are Presbyterians” and then installed the officers. A motion was then made, seconded, and carried to disband the Women’s Missionary Society and The Ladies Church Society. Mrs. W.H. Mitchell was the first president.

The group was active for 59 years and continued to serve the same functions as the predecessor societies until there no longer was a need or a function was reassigned to a Sessional committee, the Deacons, or the Trustees. Circles formed for study and social purposes. The Thursday evening circle remains active today.

Sherry: While many Presbyterian Women Associations still are Active and alive in many congregations in our denomination, the Presbyterian Women's Association in our congregation ceased to exist in 2002.

The times have changed – when the Women’s Association began women of the church were mainly stay-at-home mothers, when many functions of the life of the church were performed by the women. Many of the women of the church now have jobs outside the home, children involved in numerous activities and many church activities have been taken over by committees, Deacons and Stephen Ministries.

And perhaps with women in the leadership structure of the Presbyterian church as ministers, elders, deacons and trustees, there is no longer as great a need for women to organize for study, fellowship, and mission projects on their own.

Nancy: Noelle, what do you think? Which model of organizing Presbyterian women appeals to you.

Noelle: I'm not really sure. But I hope that however Pr4esbyterian women in my generation organize, we will use the technology and resources of our time, but still serve God as and the God's church as well as the women who have come before us.

Stephanie: My hope is that in your generation the Presbyterian women will rediscover the need to join together in new and different ways.