Sermon Texts

Good morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here this morning. Thank you for having supported me on this journey to becoming your Lay Pastor for Mission and Advocacy. The leadership of this church, the Session of this church and the members of this church have been with me all along the way and for that I am grateful. If you’ll indulge me for a minute or two, I’d like to share something on a somewhat personal note before I talk about our scripture passage and what I want to talk with you about today. I guess you might call this my “Call Story”. When did I feel the call to do this work? Recently as you can imagine, I’ve been asked the question many times about how I decided to do this Seminary study? I don’t believe that I have ever answered that question until today…certainly, not publicly. When I was about 12, I got up one Saturday morning and had this idea that I was going to ride my bike from my house on Three Chop Road to First Presbyterian Church on Cary Street where my family worshiped. I did just that. I approached the door on the Locke Lane side, tried the knob and the door opened. I went into the sanctuary, walked down the center aisle and knelt. I asked God to tell me what he wanted me to do. His answer was that I should do the work that needed to be done; that I should make a difference. That when the time came, that I should JUMP IN. We chatted over the years; He would ask occasionally if I was still on board with the plan. I always answered yes, but that things were always in the way. About ten years ago I said, “Lord, I am finally ready to jump in and start the journey of doing the work for your Kingdom that needs to be done.” And yesterday my commissioning at Presbytery sort of pulled it all together. I am blessed to have so many “doers” here at Second ready to work alongside me!

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