My sermon for Palm and Passion Sunday was titled "Hating Life." It explored the words in John, "Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life will save it." Are we called to a life-hating faith or is there a...
Last Sunday my sermon featured the important concepts of repentance and mind. Many Christians do not fully grasp the connection between some of Christianity's key concepts with the larger context of Greek philosophy and religion. The message of repentance (metanoia) is an invitation to change...
Last Sunday, my sermon addressed our need to recognize both the objective and subjective aspects of our consciousness. We live in interesting times, when the objective or rational mode of knowing has displaced much of the old subjectivity. What we see emerging, however, are new...
Last Sunday I spoke a little about Presbyterian history. Did you know that Presbyterian polity influenced the rise of democracy and that many in England called the American Revolution the Presbyterian Rebellion? However we self-identify, our deeper self is without boundaries, without center or circumference,...
Our adult spiritual ed class has been discussing Reza Aslan's book "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." Her words not only raises questions about the historical context of Jesus of Nazareth, they also point to the distinction between the Jesus of historical...
On Saturday, March 1, regional Presbyterians gathered for a series of TED Talk-styled presentations on the question Jesus asked his disciples "Who do you say that I am?" My sermon on March 2 featured my presentation from the previous day, when I offered an experiential...
Last Sunday I gave the second part of a two-part sermon, "I Am That." In the first part, I talked about the divine ground of our being, the "I Am," which is not separate from our own consciousness. In the second part, I talk about...
[caption id="attachment_12347" align="alignright" width="225"] Pastor Pat Bailey[/caption] The farther I go down this road of our spiritual development, the more I am convinced that the spiritual life is not so much about who God is as about who I am and who we are and that those...
How do we avoid letting our fears and frustrations control our thoughts and feelings and actions? How do we say "Yes!" to the various wonderful circumstances we encounter each day. To me, that is not a matter of submission to a supernatural entity that controls everything....
[caption id="attachment_12347" align="alignright" width="225"] Pastor Pat Bailey[/caption] A concept that I find in a variety of spiritual traditions, including Christianity, is mysticism. It is the assertion that what we most deeply seek in our spiritual lives is something that is already real and true and has...
