top of page
WORSHIP
Search
chudgins4
Sep 5, 20205 min read
Matthew 18:15-20: Courage to Love
Let me just look at you for a minute. Let me just enjoy seeing you all gathered here inside these familiar walls, on these familiar pews,...
4 views0 comments
chudgins4
Mar 7, 20205 min read
Matthew 5:38-48: How To Pray for an Enemy
Today’s Gospel lesson is full of some of the hardest teachings in the Bible: Turn the other cheek Give more than what is sued for Go the...
3 views0 comments
chudgins4
Feb 26, 20204 min read
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21: The Hidden Meaning of Lent
An old saying goes, “If you give someone a fish they eat for a day. If you teach someone to fish they eat for a lifetime.” There is a lot...
15 views0 comments
chudgins4
Feb 22, 20207 min read
Matthew 17:1-9 Rise, and do not be afraid
Moses met the living God in the burning bush and in the devouring fire on top of Mount Sinai, and both times, it changed him. The first...
5 views0 comments
chudgins4
Feb 9, 20206 min read
Matthew 5:13-16: Being Salt and Light
I want to start by giving you some literary and geographical context for the Sermon on the Mount, which is contained in chapters 5, 6,...
4 views0 comments
chudgins4
Feb 1, 20205 min read
Matthew 5:1-12: Blessed Are You
Take a moment to think about your blessings, to count your blessings, as the saying goes. You might even jot them down in the margins of...
4 views0 comments
chudgins4
Jan 11, 20204 min read
Matthew 3:1-17: The Come-to-Jesus Meeting
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath that is to come?” John showed up in the wilderness preaching hellfire and...
1 view0 comments
chudgins4
Jan 4, 20207 min read
John 1:1-18: Word of the Year
Each year the Oxford English Dictionary issues its “word of the year,” the word or phrase that best encapsulates the mood or concerns of...
1 view0 comments
chudgins4
Dec 27, 20195 min read
Luke 2:1-20: Great Joy for All People
What brings you joy at Christmas? Being with family? Enjoying the delight of children as they anticipate visits with Santa and their...
2 views0 comments
chudgins4
Dec 27, 20196 min read
Matthew 2:13-18: And How Are the Children?
Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than...
1 view0 comments
chudgins4
Dec 21, 20194 min read
Matthew 1:18-25: Love that Liberates
By rights, Mary should have been executed. If a man takes a woman for his wife and discovers that she is not a virgin “she shall be...
0 views0 comments
chudgins4
Dec 19, 20193 min read
Mark 6:30-34: Oh rest beside the weary road
It was called “The Blizzard of 1996.” It was the worst nor’easter snowstorm to hit the East Coast in decades. It hit Virginia, West...
1 view0 comments
chudgins4
Dec 19, 20195 min read
Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 15:4-13: Wrestling and Resting in Peace
Are you a “wrestler” or a “rester”? Are you the sort of person who is constantly wrestling with God, struggling to work out your faith...
13 views0 comments
chudgins4
Nov 30, 20195 min read
Matthew 24:36-44: A Ready Heart
I never had much use for the Rapture. I think it’s bad exegesis, bad theology, and bad Christology. So all those years ago when the Left...
9 views0 comments
chudgins4
Nov 23, 20195 min read
Luke 23:33-43: A Rugged Cross, A Ragged King
When Jesus left Nazareth, where his parents lived, he “made his home in Capernaum by the sea” (Matt 4:13). When Chris and I stepped off...
1 view0 comments
chudgins4
Nov 23, 20197 min read
Philippians 4:4-9: The Peace of a Thankful Heart
Those of you who worship regularly at Butner Presbyterian Church know that I occasionally ask the congregation to participate in the...
9 views0 comments
chudgins4
Nov 9, 20196 min read
Luke 20:27-38: Life After Life . . . Death Before Death
I want you to forget about life after life, put it right out of your mind and do not give it another thought. Don’t get me wrong: I...
13 views0 comments
chudgins4
Oct 19, 20195 min read
Luke 18:1-8: Bothersome Widows and Limping Men
Back in the summer of 2013, like so many thousands of men, women, youth, and children who were fed up with certain actions being taken by...
5 views0 comments
chudgins4
Oct 12, 20197 min read
Luke 17:11-19: Faith in Strange Places
If you can imagine a map of Israel, you might close your eyes and see the small Sea of Galilee in the North feeding into the Jordan river...
13 views0 comments
chudgins4
Oct 6, 20196 min read
2 Timothy 1:1-14: Of Grandmothers and Mustard Seeds
“Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.” Can you recall a time when you were so discouraged that you...
2 views0 comments
bottom of page