Curwensville Alliance

Presented Sunday Evening, August 22, 2010

The story is told of a soldier in the army of Alexander the Great, who was brought before the great world-conqueror for court martial. The soldier had been found guilty of cowardice, an offense Alexander the Great particularly disdained.  When the emperor had listened to the charges and the evidence, he turned to the soldier facing condemnation and said: “What is your name?”

“Alexander!” was the reply.

Again the emperor questioned, “What is your name?”

And the second time the soldier answered, “Alexander!”

With a cry of rage, the emperor roared, “I say, what is your name?”

And when the soldier answered for the third time, “Alexander!” the great general angrily replied, “You say your name is Alexander?  You are found guilty of cowardice and you must now pay your penalty.  Either change your conduct or change your name, for no man can bear the name Alexander, my name, and do the thing you have done.”

Likewise, as ones made in the image of God, as ones who bear the name, “Christian,” we have a responsibility to reflect God’s likeness well.

This podcast speaks of the creation of man in the image of God.

Presented August 22, 2010

On the farm where I grew up, my Dad had made a cistern at the top of the hill that he kept full of spring water to supply all the other houses in the community. That cistern needed to be kept full.

To check its depth, you would have had to lift a large cement lid from the top and then you could see it. Except for one thing. My Dad had inserted a small hole in one of those cement lids with a flip cap over it. So you could open that lid and place a rod down into the cistern and measure the level easily. Dad made measuring the water level easy. He wrapped a rubber band around the rod and used that rubber band to mark the depth of the water. Then next time, he could compare the water level with the previous week.

You would think that would be a foolproof method of keeping track of the water level, but it was flawed. It was flawed because it didn’t take into account a little boy who couldn’t keep his hands off of things. That would have been his youngest son. Every time I went by that rod, I would run my hand across it and roll the rubber-band up or down. His measuring technique produced error.

In our passage today, Jesus is saying that our measuring stick for our spiritual depth is flawed. Some of us feel like the depth is just right, but the technique we use is giving us corrupted data.

This podcast works to help us understand the errors of our measuring devices and gives us good counsel on how to increase our spiritual depth.

Presented August 15, 2010

Today I want to talk to you about distractions. Sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of a distraction in your life. Something to reduce the monotony of things. Other times distractions can be a problem. When I was 16 years old I traveled with the Pennsylvania Youth Chorus. We saw some pretty neat places. We visited Dinkelsbühl, Germany. Have you ever seen Dinkelsbühl? It’s a beautiful village in Germany, still surrounded by medieval walls and towers. We sang in Innsbruck, Austria. A place world-renowned for skiing. We drove through the Swiss Alps. The mountains were beautiful. We went to Italian cities like Venice, Rome, and Florence. We even saw Michelangelo’s David.

You know what I took pictures of? Motorcycles. Michael Angelo’s David? Nah. The Roman Coliseum? Meh. St. Peter’s Basilica? Thanks, but no thanks. I wanted to see Motorcycles.

You’re probably saying, “How could any human being be so dense as to miss all the history, beauty, and art of that region of the world?” And if you feel that way, good. That’s how God feels about you and me when we allow distractions to cause us to miss what’s really important.

This sermon addresses the issue of distractions in our spiritual life.