Whew! Easter Sunday is over. Every church musician, support staff, and pastor is breathing a sigh of relief this week. Don’t get me wrong—it was awesome, jubilant, over-the-top, fabulous, joyous. Even the superlatives need superlatives to describe our Day of Resurrection festivities. I was thrilled...
Resurrection. New life. Second chances. Redemption. A fresh start. These are all good ways to talk about the meaning of Easter. Last Sunday, what churches call Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, marked the beginning of Holy Week. During this week Christians trace Jesus’ journey from his...
Peter: “I Will Not Deny You” Matthew 26:17-25, 31-35 Palm Sunday: April 14, 2019 M. Michelle Fincher Calvary Presbyterian Church Welcome back to our final Sunday of our Lenten sermon series on the Apostle Peter. If you recall, when we left Peter last week, he was on the Mount of...
It is ten days until Easter. Ten days to complete our Lenten journey, to contemplate Jesus’ act of sacrificial love that will end on a cross next Friday. Whether it has felt like a long forty days to you, or whether the time seems to...
Peter: Four Steps Down the Mountain 2 Peter 1:16-19 and Matthew 17:1-9 April 7, 2019 M. Michelle Fincher Calvary Presbyterian Church What is the most afraid you have ever been? Some people can point to a specific time or place or event that caused genuine terror to result—something like a...
Do you ever feel like you are a little (or a lot) “late to the party”? This happens to me with some frequency, in part because I don’t watch a lot of television and I’m not very social media savvy. The most recent occasion of...
Peter: Bedrock or Stumbling Block? 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and Matthew 16:21-28 March 31, 2019 M. Michelle Fincher Calvary Presbyterian Church Welcome to the fourth Sunday of our Lenten series looking at the life of Simon Peter. If you’ll recall, when we left Jesus and the disciples last week, Peter was...
The first day of school. The first daffodil poking its head through the winter-hardened earth. The first summer peach. I love the “firsts” that signal the start of something new—the changing seasons, the turning of the calendar, one rhythm giving way to another. Today is one...
Peter Series: Keeper of the Keys Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16:13-20 March 24, 2019 M. Michelle Fincher Calvary Presbyterian Church For the past two weeks we have encountered Simon Peter and Jesus at a body of water, first as Jesus requisitioned Peter’s boat for his water-based pulpit and then in...
An airplane crashes in Ethiopia on March 10 killing all 157 people on board. A shooter opens fire at a Muslim mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15 killing fifty. Cyclone Idai ravages Mozambique on March 19, with 300 already reported dead, but some...