Advent II, 2018
Sermons
Sermon Date: Sun, 12/09/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Luke 2:8-20
Sermon Date: Sun, 12/02/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
Advent I, 2018
Sermon Date: Sun, 11/25/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 18:33-37
Reign of Christ
Sermon Date: Sun, 11/18/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Matthew 6:25-33
OK, Confession time. Who is a worrywart? I’m a worrywart. That’s right, I fret over stuff, lots of stuff. Ask me about the church budget. OK, don’t ask me…
Sermon Date: Sun, 11/11/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Romans 12:9-21
Commitment Sunday 2018
Congratulations to Linn Coghill and Tom Vaughn for completing the half marathon yesterday. I don’t know about Tom, but I do know Linn ran a personal best!
Sermon Date: Sun, 11/04/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 12:28-34
So, how to cover all that is going on: Liam’s Baptism, Stewardship, the election, Pittsburgh, vandalism? We start with a story:
Sermon Date: Sun, 10/28/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 10:35-45
Reformation Sunday 2018
How many have heard a joke about how we Presbyterians practice baptism? Sprinkling, dry-cleaning, finger-dipping, you name it, it’s out there. Of course most of these come from folks with a tradition that does not baptize children and only baptizes by immersion.
Sermon Date: Sun, 10/21/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 10:46-52
Sermon Date: Sun, 10/14/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 10:17-31
Have you ever tried to get ready for a trip, only to be interrupted over and over? It is frustrating as a deadline approaches and some pressing need or another grabs your attention. It always seems there are about a hundred things to do when we are about to leave.
Sermon Date: Sun, 10/07/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 10:2-16
World Communion 2018
Sermon Date: Sun, 09/30/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 9:38-50
Sermon Date: Sun, 09/23/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 9:30-37
Sermon Date: Sun, 09/16/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 8:27-38
Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist, some say Elijah, still others, one of the prophets.”
Jesus asks them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Sermon Date: Sun, 09/09/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 7:24-37
Wow! Now here’s a food story to grab your attention. Jesus checks out of the crowd and the hectic pace of “healer-of-the-moment” celebrity and has the most politically incorrect encounter of his ministry. A poor woman pleads for help for her daughter and he calls her a dog. What is going on here?
Sermon Date: Sun, 09/02/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Song of Solomon 2:8-17
Sermon Date: Sun, 08/26/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 6:56-69
Wow! What a day. A baptism, a new family, new officers to be ordained and installed. It is a full liturgy day. It seems the only thing missing is communion. So let’s talk about that.
Sermon Date: Sun, 08/19/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Joshua 24:1-2a; 14-25
Sermon Date: Sun, 08/12/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: I Kings 19:4-8
Sermon Date: Sun, 07/29/2018
Speaker: Rev Mike Clang
Bible Text: John 6:1-21; Ephesians 3:14-21
Sermon Date: Sun, 07/22/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: I John 4:7-16
An old Zen parable:
Sermon Date: Sun, 07/15/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Luke 2:39-52
Sermon Date: Sun, 07/08/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 6:7-13
Camp Cuyamaca is owned by San Diego Schools. Every spring, sixth graders would descend on the camp for a full week. Sixth grade camp was a rite of passage for a generation of school children. Since 1946 over a million students have taken part in that adventure.
Sermon Date: Sun, 07/01/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Romans 13
Legend has it that when he emerged from Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman, “What kind of government are you giving us?” “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”
Sermon Date: Sun, 06/24/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 4: 35-41; Job 38:1-11
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon Date: Sun, 06/17/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 4:26-34
Sermon Date: Sun, 06/10/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Acts 4:13-21
Sermon Date: Sun, 05/27/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: II Corinthians 8:1-15
Trinity Sunday, 2018
Sermon Date: Sun, 05/20/2018
Speaker: Rev H Carson Rhyne, Jr
Bible Text: Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Romans 8: 22-27
Penecost Sunday
Today is Pentecost. 50 days after Easter. The day of the Holy Spirit. The day that makes Presbyterians a little nervous.
Sermon Date: Sun, 05/13/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Sermon Date: Sun, 05/06/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Proverbs 3:1-8; James 1:1-4
This week's meditation is The Letter of James from The Message.
Sermon Date: Sun, 04/29/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: I Corinthians 12:1-13
Easter V, 2018
Sermon Date: Sun, 04/22/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Colossians 3:12-17
Fourth Sunday after Easter, 2018
The second of our seven discipleship covenants is “Worship Weekly.” As you might imagine, I have been preaching on and encouraging folks coming to worship for over 30 years.
Sermon Date: Sun, 04/15/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Philippians 4:4-7
Third Sunday of Easter 2018
A recent cartoon spoke to the truth of 21st century life: A business man, suit on, briefcase in hand, stands outside a hut with the word “Guru” above the door. He looks at the bearded wise man and says, “What’s the meaning of life? But make it quick, I’ve got an important meeting in half an hour.”
Sermon Date: Sun, 04/01/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 20:1-19
Easter, 2018
For almost a year now we have been exploring significant words that speak to our faith. Our Easter word is serendipity. “The occurrence and development of events in a happy or beneficial way; The phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”
Sermon Date: Sun, 03/25/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 12:12-16
Palm Sunday 2018
“So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him…”
John tells us the most stripped down version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Here there is none of the elaborate preparation found in the other gospels. There is really only one detail not found in the other three, John is the only gospel to name the tree branches used to celebrate Jesus.
As we examine words of scripture that bear on our faith, it is fitting on Palm Sunday that our word is Palms.
Sermon Date: Sun, 03/18/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 12:20-33
Lent V, 2018
They must have heard stories about Jesus. Word had gotten around about this Jesus who brought a man back from the dead. Maybe one of the Greeks was a friend of a friend who knew the man born blind who could now see. Maybe they had even been in the crowd that waved palm branches that morning, calling out “Hosanna!” at the top of their lungs. Or maybe they simply wondered what all the hype was about, and they wanted to see for themselves if there was anything to the wild stories about this man called Jesus.
Sermon Date: Sun, 03/04/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: John 2:13-22
Lent III, 2018
The wireless communication read “To Titanic: Ice report in Lat 42.n to 41.25n Long 49w to Long 50.30w saw much heavy pack ice and great number of large icebergs also field ice. Weather good and clear.
9:40 pm, April 14.”
Sermon Date: Sun, 02/25/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Galatians 3;23-29; Cor. 10-18, 25-31
Lent II, 2018
I once killed a black fellow…
Actually, my Brutus stabbed Rodney’s Caesar in our fifth grade production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Rodney was one of two African-Americans in the class. They took an hour-long bus ride from East San Diego to our elementary school. All told, probably about a fifth of the school made that long morning bus ride while I walked four blocks to school. It seemed normal.
Sermon Date: Sun, 02/18/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Mark 1:9-15
Lent I, 2018
As we begin our Lenten journey this first Sunday, it is appropriate that our word for the day is Wilderness. In the starkest gospel version, Mark tells us the Holy Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness. He was there forty days, tempted by Satan and “staffed” by angels. Mark does not tells us what temptations Satan used or how the angels “waited” on Jesus.
Sermon Date: Sun, 02/11/2018
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Mapes III
Bible Text: Matthew 17:1-13
Transfiguration Sunday 2018