Archive for May, 2011

Sermon, May 29th

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

The following sermon was delivered on May 29th, 2011 by Rev. Christine Elliott at Calvary Church, United Methodist.

I wonder just how many of these coloring pages I completed in elementary school, featuring drawings of Greek gods and goddesses, as we learned the stories of Greek religion (then termed “mythology”). . . Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, Artemis (my favorite because she got to be out in the woods a lot. :)

Paul, the first Christian missionary, was struck by much more than bright Crayola colors as he walked around Athens in the year 52 of the Common Era – he saw statues erected to the Greek deities – altars everywhere he turned. Statues of gold, silver and precious stones.

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Sermon, May 22nd

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

The following sermon was delivered on May 22nd, 2011 by Rev. Christine Elliott at Calvary Church, United Methodist.

At the heart of Methodist Christianity is a single word, and that word is GRACE.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was raised in a Christian home. His father Samuel was a clergyman in the Church of England in the 1700′s. John lived in a parsonage in Epworth, England and learned of Jesus Christ literally at the knee of his mother Susanna, who was a hearthside theologian and John’s first mentor and teacher.

At the age of 5 John was the last member of the family to be rescued from a house fire – and ever after he thought of himself as “a brand plucked from the burning.” This traumatic event shaped him forever, causing him to wonder for what purpose God had spared his life. (more…)

Sermon, May 15th

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

The following sermon was delivered by Rev. Christine Elliot on May, 15th, 2011 at Calvary Church, United Methodist in Arlington Massachusetts.

The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known, most-loved pieces of the entire library known as the Holy Bible. Some say that in an age of increasing biblical illiteracy, the familiarity to many of this psalm is a very encouraging sign!

The fact that the psalm was written by, and for, an agrarian society – that its imagery is taken from the every day life of sheep herders – could potentially make it more difficult for people in our electronic age to grasp… (more…)

Sermon May 1, 2011

Friday, May 6th, 2011

The following sermon was delivered by Rev. Christine Elliott May 1st, 2011 at Calvary Church, United Methodist.

I’ve met many people who explain their absence from church and characterize their spiritual life by saying that they do believe in God – and they like to spend time in Nature. In response to that I have begun to say 2 Yes-es and a But. Yes to belief in God, Yes to time in Nature BUT…

You see over time I have come to a clear and firm conviction:

You can believe in God all by yourself.

BUT you cannot be a Christian alone. (more…)