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Second Sunday After the Epiphany – January 19, 2020

Matthew 22:34-40

How does one love God “with all one’s mind?”

About twenty years ago, I was the board chair for an ecumenical endeavor called United Campus Ministries at Christopher Newport University. The board was comprised of clergy and laypeople from around the lower peninsula of Virginia, including some professors. Our tasks were basically to help set a course for the ministry and make sure it was funded.

One of the members of the board was a professor of psychology at the university who was also an active member of a local Presbyterian congregation. He and I became close enough friends that I could eventually ask him a question that had been on my mind since we first met: Does your being a person of faith ever cause issues for you in your professional and academic spheres?

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Baptism of the Lord Sunday – January 12, 2020

Genesis 7:17-24

Today is week two of three of our “With All Your Mind” sermon series wherein we are exploring the relationship between science and faith. Last Sunday, we considered the science of evolution and how it relates to the Genesis story of creation. This week, we will examine what we can learn today about who God is from the story of Noah and the ark, which is also found in Genesis.

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Second Sunday After Christmas – January 5, 2020

John 1:1-14

Today begins a three-week sermon series wherein we will explore together the relationship between science and faith. As Galileo famously said “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” In that vein, I would like for us over the course of these three weeks to explore the relationship between evolution and scripture, the story of Noah and the Ark, and what it means for us to truly love God “with all our minds” as Jesus entreats us to in the gospels, for it is my conviction that the Christian faith is indeed a religion for thinking people, despite so many modern assertions to the contrary. As such, it matters not only that we read scripture as we interact with the world, but how we read scripture as well.

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