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The Third Commandment

title slide with photo of Bluemont and Mayberry Churches

I’m sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday, but in changing over computers and programs, I ran into some technical issues! For some reason, I lost the footnotes. I’ve added the sources at the bottom.

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
July 12, 2026
Exodus 20:7, Revelation 5:9-12 

This sermon was taped at Bluemont on Thursday, July 9, 2026

At the beginning of worship:

Let me tell you a story about Brian, a friend from my elementary and junior high years. Although we attended separate schools, we grew up in the same church. We also joined the same scout troop and remained members until Brian moved with his family to South Carolina. The two of us competed against it other. We struggled to out rank the other in scouts. We both had our eyes on the same girl. And we both sought positions of authority. At one time or another, we both served as patrol leader and as the other’s assistant. Unlike me, Brian aspired to the presidency of our church’s Junior High youth group.  

I’ll never forget the night of the elections. A new school year began, so we reorganized the youth group. We had new kids aging up into the group and older ones, who had been leaders, moving into the high school group. Brian campaigned for the position of president. He coveted the position; a sin I’ll cover at the end of this series on the Commandments. 

That evening, however, Brian did something which worked against him. He volunteered to give the opening prayer. Generally, getting a young teenager to pray in public required serious arm twisting from our adult leaders. This evening, Brian’s hand shot up before they finished asking the question. None of us who heard that prayer will ever forget it. It went something like this, “O Lord, I want to be president. Please help me.” 

This prayer was too much for us budding Calvinists. Brian lost the election.  

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” the third commandment reads. Obeying this commandment is more than just refraining from mumbling God’s name in a fit when we curse and swear. Of course, we shouldn’t curse and swear. But there’s more to the commandment.  

Before reading the scripture: 

We are looking at the 3rd Commandment today. How to translate this commandment has been debated over the years. The King James Version translates it as “You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…” A recent Jewish translation reads, “You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.” In a moment we’ll hear another reading as we consider how we might apply this passage to our lives. All translations capture part of the truth. 

I will also read a passage from Revelation which shows how we should revere God. 

Read Exodus 20:7, Revelation 5:9-14

Like all the commandments, the third is simple and to the point. But reading it in different versions, we see the difficulty in translation. The Commandment comes with a warning, indicating we should take note of the commandment and how we violate it. God’s name is holy. It’s a name, as we profess in the Lord’s Prayer, to be hallowed. But its meaning goes beyond not swearing or trivializing God. The third commandment is not just a warning against profanity. However, this is often how we view the commandment: “don’t swear or curse and you’ll be alright.” By the time I’m through with this sermon, I hope you understand a deeper meaning. 

If our use of language is what this commandment is all about, then Hitler, who shunned profanity, could be an example of how to keep it. I think he broke this commandment as frequently as he did the others.

Let me begin with a definition of blasphemy. “Blasphemy is speech which attempts to make God a part of our lies.” The author of this definition goes on to say: “It’s a sign of our infidelity that we are no longer outraged by it.” Most all of us would agree saying “G-D you” is blasphemous. It’s calling on God to agree with our assessment that the object of our wrath deserves damnation. But that’s a clear-cut example. 

Yet, we’re guilty of blasphemy, of breaking the third commandment, whenever we invoke God’s name to get our way. We’re guilty when we fail to be honest with God. And we might even be guilty when we misrepresent ourselves to others. After all, when people know I am a Christian, they assume because of my identity in Christ, I am truthful. When I’m not, I stand guilty before God for using my relationship with my Savior to further a lie. If you’re a salesperson and use a Bible verse on honesty in your pitch, you better be careful. Another example would be Brian’s prayer, but I won’t say anything more about that. 

Joy Davidman, in her book I mentioned two weeks ago on the Ten Commandments, suggests this command is like a sign we might see on a fence around a power plant. “Warning: High Voltage.”  

We have a God of power, but we’re not to call on God for personal gain which would not bring him glory, nor are we to use his name in a superstitious manner. 

There is a great illustration of this in the old movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you remember, the movie pitted Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Karen Allen, his good-looking assistant, against Nazis. Everyone’s after the Ark of the Covenant. Jones, a scientist, is interested in the Ark for archeological reasons. The Nazi’s interest is more sinister. They hope the Ark can help their armies to dominate the world. At the climax of the movie, the soldiers of the Third Reich recovered the ark and capture Jones and his beautiful sidekick. Then a Nazi officer approaches the Ark chanting some ancient words, hoping to tap into its power. Opening the ark, he finds only sand. He laughs, thinking they have been fooled. Then the ark comes alive. The Nazis die. Jones and assistant are safe.  

Of course, Indiana Jones is fantasy, but in this one scene, the meaning of the third commandment is portrayed. At first, the ark seemed harmless. “It’s just sand,” the Nazi said as the grains poured through his hands. “It’s just words,” we might say. But what at first seemed so harmless becomes deadly. Seeking the power of the ancient ark for evil means, for a menacing purpose, the Nazis violate this commandment. They experience the wrath of a God who will not “hold guiltless those who take his name in vain.” It’s the same way with us taking God’s name in vain. At first, it may seem harmless. In time it can become deadly.

To fully understand this commandment, we need to consider the importance of a name. 

In the Hebrew Scriptures, there is an implied power which comes with the ability to name something. Think back to the creation account found in Genesis 2. First, God creates Adam. Seeing the man is lonely, God goes about creating animals and each specie he brings to Adam for him to name. The theological implication is that the power of naming places the human specie above the rest of the animal kingdom. God, on the other hand, names the first human and thereby shows his position over us. But God doesn’t give us his name. God tells Moses “I am who I am.” In other words, we are creatures created by a God whom we cannot control. Trying to control God violates this commandment.

Now, if we don’t really know God’s name, we might think we are unable to violate this commandment. But, as I’ve tried to impress upon you, this isn’t the case. For we can call upon God, even praying as Jesus did, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” We just need to make sure that our purposes are noble. 

Thomas Watson, a Puritan author from the 17th Century, in a commentary on the Westminster Catechism, includes our tendency toward hypocrisy among the ways we break this commandment. According to him, “professing God’s name and failing to live answerably to it,” violates the intent of the commandment. In other words, saying that we believe in God and then acting like we are a god, or doing those things our corrupted hearts desires rather than living by God’s law earns God’s displeasure.  

John Calvin, while discussing prayer, reminds us that “there are some who not only dare to pester God with all their follies, without any reverence or shame, and to lay before his throne anything that they have idly supposed might be good.” God’s name is holy; we should not be foolish enough to ask from God what is not good, nor should we invoke a name with such power for what is truly trivial. When we call upon God, let it be for noble purposes. In addition, as Christians we should not curse using God’s name. God is holy and to associate God’s holiness with something profane displeases our Creator.  

There is another area we need to examine in our discussion on this passage: that is the use of oaths. In writing about this commandment, Calvin devotes more space discussing the right and proper use of oaths than he does discussing the commandment itself. 

And a few months ago, when we worked through the Sermon on the Mount, I spent a lot of time discussing oaths. For Calvin, the problem wasn’t taking an oath; the problem resided in not abiding by or trivializing an oath. If at the end of such an oath, when we plead, “So help me God,” we better mean what we say. Or if we swear that something is true, it better be true. Otherwise, we take God’s name in vain.   

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” It’s a simple commandment with a clear warning and great implications. Don’t trivialize God. If you live your life as a Christian, be careful you don’t lie to God. Nor should you, by actions unbecoming of our Savior, lie to others about God.  Amen.  

Sources:

Calvin, John, Institutes, III.20.5

Davidman, Joy, Smoke on the Mountain (London: Hodder & Staunton, 1963).

Gowan, Donald, Genesis 1-11: From Eden to Babel (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1988).

Hauerwas, Stanley and William Williamson, The Truth About God; The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 48.

Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, KY:WJP, 2000).

Watson, Thomas, The Ten Commandments (First published as a part of A Body of Practical Divinity, 1692: London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970).

Wendel, Francois, Calvin: Origins and Development of his Religious Thought, Philip Mairet, translator (1950, Durham, NC: Labyrinth Press, 1987).

This version is revised from a sermon preached on June 24, 2007 at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, MI

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Review of June Readings

title slide with book covers

Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure 

Book cover

(New York: Avid Reader Press, 2022), 397 pages including index and an essay on sources titled “Acknowledgments). Audible Book by Simon & Schuster Audio, read by Jason Culp and is 15 hours and 21 minutes long.

This isn’t the first Life on the Mississippi I’ve read. I read another one. You probably heard about it. Mark Twain’s book with the same title which I read decades ago. Buck gives credit to Twain’s work,. Published later in his life, Twain elived his younger years as a pilot on the Mississippi as he traveled once again down the river.

Buck also gives credit to Harlan Hubbard’s Shantyboat: A River Way of Life. When I lived in Michigan, a neighbor had a copy of that book in his “Shack” on Cedar Creek. Whenever we were out at there, if I had a few free minutes, I’d pull it down and read. Hubbard and his wife journeyed down the Mississippi in the 1940s. Another mention in the book are the paintings of George Caleb Bringham. This reminded me of seeing his collection in a show at The Met in 2015. Visons of this show, titled: “Navigating the West George Caleb Bingham and the River,” ran through my head as I read.  Yes, I enjoyed Buck’s story and all his tangents. The book begins with the building of his boat. We then travel with him down the rivers. He launches on the Monongahela River, south of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh, he picks up the Ohio River, and floats it West to the Mississippi. From there, he makes his way down the Big Muddy to New Orleans. 

As Buck takes the reader down river, we learn about his own life. He’s a pilot who as a teenager, with his brother, flew across country. He also reenacted a wagon train journey along the Oregon Trail. We also learn of his mother’s recent death at an old age. The hours on the water give him much time to ponder her life and what she instilled into her children.

Lessons from the River

But this book isn’t just about personal stuff. Throughout the journey, we learn about the history of this great inland waterway. Buck introduces us to the flatboat, which were first floated down the river in the late 18th Century. By the early 19th Century, it was an industry. Farmers in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee built  boats. They load them with produce (or bourbon, the liquid form of corn) and floated to New Orleans. There, they often sold their boats for lumber, often for more than they had in them, before making their way overland back home. 

Buck doesn’t shy away from the negative side of life along the river. I never knew the river’s role in the Trail of Tears. Many of the Native Americans from the lower reaches of the Tennessee River were floated on flatboats from their homeland to a location along the Mississippi. There, they debarked overland to the new Indian Territories.

However, I did know the role the river played in moving slaves south to the cotton and sugar plantations along the Mississippi in the 1840s and 50s. By this time, the flatboats had mostly given way to the steamboats. Having chattel slaves on the boats showed America the ugly side of slavery, as depicted in Harriett Beecher Stow’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stow spent time along the river earlier in her marriage, giving her an insight into the ugly side of our nation. Today, huge barges carry grain to the port of New Orleans and shuttle coal between mines and mills along the Ohio. And a series of locks and dams control the river’s depth and make navigation possible year around.   

In addition to learning about the river, we also gain insight into Buck’s crew. They frequently turn over as various members came aboard as others returned to their homes and jobs. Some came back for multiple sections, but many just serve a week or two aboard The Patience. Mostly, the crew got along, but there were also some tensions which comes upon living on a tight wooden boat he built for the trip. His boat also had a motor, which would be necessary these days as he had to maneuver around large formations of barges. Telling the story of leaving the Ohio for the Mississippi is exciting. He had to dodged huge fleets of barrages on the three rivers.

Overall Review

This is one of the books I listened to on Audible, but also checked out a hard copy from the library so I could check things and see the maps and photos. While I enjoyed the book, it seemed to me Buck spent more time discussing the Ohio River than the Mississippi. The latter is now less wild and has been engineered into more of a straightaway with rock banks protecting the channel. While he dug into the history in places like Natchez, the reader gained less insights into other places like Vicksburg and Memphis.  Despite this, I enjoyed the trip.

Jonathan T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary 

(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 236 pages including index, footnotes, and sources.

Between February and mid-June, , I preached 17 sermons on the Sermon of the Mount. In addition to three commentaries on Matthew (Doug Hare, Robert Gundry, and Fredrick Dale Bruner), I depended heavily on this theological commentary.  While preaching, I mostly read the commentary sections of the book. Afterwards, I went back and read the opening chapters, which I found enlightening. 

Pennington’s thesis is that there was a conversation in Second Temple Judaism between the Hebrew people and the Greco-Roman world. This makes sense. The Jewish community was dispersed throughout the region during this time. Furthermore, those living in what had been ancient Israel were under the control of the Greeks and then the Romans.

Matthew wrote in Greek. Pennington follows his use of language and ties it to Greek philosophy. Jesus (and the Bible), like the Greeks are interested in how humans might flourish. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the beatitudes, which is often translated as “Blessed be the,” but the word there could also be translated as “Flourishing.” It’s a word with no good English equivalent. He suggests that Jesus, like the Greek philosophers, desire humans to flourish. Of course, there are other aspects to Jesus teachings. This includes his focus on our relationship to God and the eschatology found within in the Sermon. Pennington also links the sermon to the rest of Matthew’s gospel.

The Sermon also falls within the genre of Hebrew wisdom literature. Pennington suggests this conversation between philosophy informs Jesus’ teaching. 

I enjoyed this book and while I spent 17 weeks focusing on Jesus’ great sermon, I feel I could spend many more weeks digging deeper into it. 

Carrie Fountain, The Life 

 (New York: Penguin Poets, 2022), 91 pages. 

I enjoyed Fountain’s presentation at Calvin’s Festival of Faith and Writing and picked up this book at the Festival. I was also enamored with her when she complimented me on the sound of my voice as she signed her book. It doesn’t take much to impress me. But I am also impressed with this book and look forward to reading more of her poetry.  At the Festival, Fountain said she attempts to write a poem every day. “Most are not good, at least at first,” she admitted. . In time she returns to some of those poems and craft into a work to be published. 

These poems are tender. Most deal with her children and a few with her husband and family. She captures the essence of life at different intervals which makes for fascinating reading. Furthermore, her poems also bring in a dialogue with the divine, who gives us life and this world to enjoy.  

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We Always Stand Under God

Title slide with photos of Mayberry and Bluemont Presbyterian Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
July 5, 2026
2 Chronicles 7:12-22

Sermon recorded at Mayberry on Thursday, July 2, 2026

At the beginning of worship: 

Yesterday marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Those who signed that paper took a big risk. Breaking away from the Great Britain, they chanced being charged with treason. Not only did they risk their necks in a noose, but many jeopardized their businesses and fortunes.

But they had a dream. It wasn’t a perfect dream as they only called for independence for themselves and those like them. The Africans who made up a significant part of the colonies at the time, especially from Maryland south, were overlooked, even though one of the first killed at the Boston Massacre, often cited as the beginning of the Revolution, was African American.[1] Nor did they call for independence for Native Americans. In fact, over the next hundred years, their descendants and our ancestors would rob more land belonging to the native population. But their dream lived on. In time, and after more wars, those who were overlooked in the initial declaration begin to find freedom. 

One of the things we gleam from scripture is that all of us have flaws. There’s only been one perfect person, Jesus Christ. Even the great figures of scripture, like the founders of our nation, struggled to live a virtuous life. And we struggle, yet we must hold virtues as goals and strive to obtain them. Doing so, we help build a stronger and more just community. 

Before reading the Scriptures:

I’m stepping away from our journey through the Ten Commandments this Sunday as its Independence Day weekend. I want us to look at a passage from 2 Chronicles 7, which comes just after celebration dedicating Solomon’s temple. There is one verse in this passage, verse 14, often cited out-of-context, by those who consider themselves Christian Nationalist or Chrisitan Reconstructionist.[2] I want us to look at the entire passage, to see what it said to Solomon and what we might learn from it.

Let me say a bit about this book. Chronicles originally consisted of one volume, titled “The Events of the Days” by an unnamed “Chronicler.” When the Hebrew Bible was translated into the Greek, in the Septuagint, the book was split into two. Later, five centuries after Jesus, the book received its current name from Jerome, who translated the Hebrew and Greek texts into Latin.[3]His translation, known as the Vulgate, continued to be used for nearly 1500 years within the Roman Catholic Church.  

Let me also point out we find a similar passage in 1st Kings.[4]Revisionist history isn’t anything new. We find it even in the Biblical story. The two books of the Chronicles repeat a lot of is said in four books consisting of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd King. I confess I tend to prefer those four books than the Chronicles, for the later seems to try to clean things up a little too neatly. In Kings we learn of Solomons warts and all, especially later in his life as his foreign marriages brings idolatry into Israel, resulting in the divided kingdom. The split of the kingdoms exists in Chronicles, but they say nothing about Solomon’s sins. He stands as the ideal king: wise, loaded with gold, riches, and honored by all. 

While Chronicles doesn’t blame Solomon for the divided kingdom, it does provide us the warning Solomon received as we’ll see today.[5] Let’s look at this passage:

Read 2nd Chronicles 7:12-22

The hoopla of the temple’s dedication has come to an end. The vision of the temple had first been held by King David, who felt it wasn’t right to live in a fine palace while God’s visual presence remained in a tent. But God didn’t give David the opportunity to build the temple, even though he raised the money so that his son could take on the project.[6]

After David, Solomon built the temple and had a week of celebration as it opened. But the celebration is now done, the cleanup has begun. I image Solomon, exhausted, falls into his bed. Sometime at night, God visits. 

We’re not told this was a dream, but it could have been. It’s night. Solomon appears to have been alone. And we’re not given any descriptions of the Lord. So, a dream seems a likely explanation as to how this occurred. 

This encounter provides God’s answer to Solomon prayer in the previous chapter. Standing before the people at the altar, Solomon gave thanks and praise to God. Then he turned to future needs, praying for God to answer the prayers of his people when they are in distress from drought, pestilence, or enemies.[7] God answers, claiming the place of the temple as one he chose, not Solomon. Then God claims to be the one who brings drought, locust, and pestilence upon the people. In other words, this isn’t a random happening to Israel, but a punishment.[8]

Next, we come to verse 14, which I suggest often gets pulled out of context as it’s applied to our nation. This passage is addressed to Solomon and God provides a way out of ancient Israel’s distress. The people must humble themselves, pray and seek God, and change their wicked ways. If all that happens, God promises to hear from heaven and intervene on behalf of the people. This promise made to the nation of Israel, which ceased to exist shortly after Solomon’s death. The kingdom split into two, the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah. 

God further promises to maintain a king on David’s throne, that God’s name will forever be associated with the temple. Here, we get the sense of the Davidic kingdom being a forerunner of the coming kingdom in which the Messiah eternally assumes David’s throne. We celebrate this at Christmas, with Jesus born in David’s city of Bethlehem… 

Today, the promise is for the church, who worships the Jesus, the King who reigns on David’s throne. We always stand under God, whether or not we acknowledge it.

Next, God warns Solomon against three things: turning away from God, forsaking God’s commandments, especially the commandment against idolatry. In a statement that almost foreshadows the Babylonian exile, God tells Solomon he’ll “pluck up his people” and abandon the temple. At this point, God points out that others may ask what happened to God’s people. They will now serve as a visible proverb of what happens to those who turn away from God. 

There is one thing we should learn from this passage which reinforces my last two sermons on the First and the SecondCommandments. While God answers the prayers, God reminds Solomon who’s in charge. The king stands under God’s watch. While Solomon’s work in building the temple is explementary, the glory of the site belongs to God. Earlier in Chronicles, we learn Solomon’s skill at commerce. He forged ties to surrounding nations. He trades and imports things Israel lacked. Gold and silver and bronze and wood from the mountains of Lebanon.[9]God gave Solomon the ability to build the temple, but the temple belongs to the God who gave Solomon the ability, not to Solomon. 

This warning belongs to everyone. Glory belongs to God, not to us. We must be careful building monuments to ourselves. 

Perhaps the best epitaph on any of our gravestones would simply read, he or she “trusted in the Lord and was a good neighbor.” In the end, it’s about God and others, not about us. That was a message to Solomon and it’s this passage’s message to us. Pride in ourselves and even our country can get us in trouble. When we do great things, we need to thank God for the ability and the opportunity. Humility, which seemed to be in short supply in Solomon’s case as in our world today, needs to be nurtured. It’ll bring us closer to God and help us live in a noble manner while strengthening our communities.  Amen. 

[1]See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispus_Attucks.  Attucks is believed to be both Native American and African descent.  

[2] For more on this, see this essay by Russell Moore: https://www.russellmoore.com/2016/01/14/2-chronicles-714-isnt-about-american-politics/

[3] Mark A Throntviet, “1 Chronicles,” in The New Interpreters Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 571.  

[4] 1 Kings 9:1-9. For differences between Chronicles and Kings, see Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles: The Old Testament Library (London, 1993, Louisville, KY, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 613-614. 

[5] Solomon’s life in Chronicles ends after he ruled 40 years. Then he “went to sleep with his ancestors.” 2 Chronicles 8:30-31. The blame for the split rests on Solmon’s son Rehoboam

[6] See 1 Chronicles 22:6-9 and 29:1-9.

[7] Solomon’s prayer is found in 2 Chronicles 6:12-42.

[8] Japhet, 615. 

[9] See 2 Chronicles 1:14-2:16.

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Festival of Faith and Writing and My April Trip to Michigan

title slides with photos from trip

I’m delayed in finishing up this post on part two of my trip to Michigan for Calvin University’s Festival of Faith and Writing. To read part 1, click here. Sorry, but I didn’t take many photos at the Festival.

Friday, April 17, 2026 

Barbara Brown Taylor speaking at the Festival of faith & writing
Barbara Brown Taylor speaking at the end of the Conference

On Thursday morning I first attended a discussion between Robin Kimmerer and Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, moderated by Debra Rienstra. I’VE read all of Kimmerer’s books and have just finished Meyaard-Schaap’s book, Following Jesus in a Warming World.  I also read Rienstra’s weekly Refugia newsletter. The conversation started with an interesting twist. Kimmerer expressed curiosity as to why she was invited to a conference about faith. Not thinking of herself as a faith writer, she expressed interest into why so many Christians seem drawn to her work. Meyaard-Schaap responded that Christians long for a deeper story than we sometimes are fed, and that the Old Testament is essentially an indigenous story. Kimmerer is Native American. 

The 45-minute conversation provided many insights which ranged for what we think about the human body, to the land we inhabit, and to how fear is not sustainable. Everyone agreed in the need theologians to address the ecological crisis.

My second morning session was a conversation between Laurie Halse Anderson and Ayana Mathic titled “Rewriting the Record: Literature, Memory, and the Histories We Inherit.”  Deb Van Denen moderated the conversation. 

My next lecture was by Kiki Petrosing, titled “Spell, Ceremony, Miracle: The Literary Narrative of a Lapsed Catholic.” I was especially interested in hearing her conversation having read two of her books of poetry, Bright: A Memoir, and White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia.  I also learned more of her relationship to her mentor, Gregory Orr, as both have tragedy in their past. 

At lunch, I took part of a writing circle focusing on memoir. Courtney Ellis, who along with her husband, pastors a Presbyterian Church in California, led the discussion.  Most of the lunch hour focused on the mechanics of memoir writing, drawing heavily on Annie Dillard and Anne Lamont.  She reminded us of the difficulty of publishing memoirs unless we were able provide a different hook to make our story even more interesting.  This “hook,” can help us create a framework. She also reminded us how we can’t write everything and must make decisions as to what we should cut. As a preacher, she thinks about her stories from the pulpit and won’t include anything which she would feel uncomfortable saying in a sermon. She also encouraged us to write within a community (writing group) to get helpful critique. 

After lunch, I attended the most straightforward “how-to” lecture of the conference. Margot Stenbuck, an editor and author of A Grown Woman’s Guide to Online Dating,” talked about how to pitch non-fiction books. While her outline was straight and organized, with details about the cover letter and what to say not to say, she tied it all together referring to clips from the movie “Hitch.” In a humorous manner, she presented finding a publisher (or editor) akin to finding a spouse.

My closing lecture was Ross Gay, a poet, who describes himself as a student of joy. He mostly drew on his work, Why I Garden, which sold out, but I did come home with another of his book of poetry, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.  His readings were enjoyable, but I didn’t take many notes. However, I did appreciate a side comment made between poems as to his indebtedness to Amy Leech’s work. I recently read another of her books and reviewed it here. 

Saturday, April 18, 2026

I began the final day of the conference sitting in on a discussion between Ross Gay, whom I heard the evening before, and his friend Patrick Rosal.  Not only delightful, but the conversation showed their genuine friendship for each other. They play basketball together but now live far apart so they appreciated the festival bringing them together. Throughout the conversation they told stories about the other and spent a lot of time laughing and causing us to laugh. 

Next, I attended a conversation with Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and college professor. Back in the 1990s, as Taylor began her ascent as one of the great preachers of the generation, I spent a week with her and 12 other preachers in San Francisco. A lot has changed since then as she left the church for the college classroom. For much of this presentation, she talked being “a free-range preacher.”  While she no longer a pastor of a congregation, she still gets invited to preach in churches all over the nation.  She joked about this new role, comparing herself as the babysitter who brings with her a dart board and steel darts.  The other thing which impressed me is how she still draws and relies on her mentor from seminary, the late Fred Craddock.  She mentioned him several times including his saying, “you’re a preacher. You hold the camera; you don’t get in front of it.” 

At lunch, I was with the second meeting of the memoir writing group. Courtney Ellis began with an exercise. We had to give two sentences of a scene from our story. Then, each of us had to ask questions based on those two sentences, to help the writer draw deeper into the story.  After this exercise, she provided a few closing insights into publishing and the role of social media. 

After lunch, I attended a conversation titled “Witnessing What’s There: Writing and Attention in a Wounded World” which featured Daniel Jose’ Camaco and Alejendra Oliva with Alisa Tigchelaar moderating.  The conversation centered around their work as activist writers in a conflicted world of immigration. Then I attended Christine Byl’s talk titled Place and Landscape as Character. Living between Montana and Alaska, Bly has written about her work building trails and living in remote areas. 

The closing plenary lecture featured Barbara Brown Taylor. As always, she was amazing as she spoke about the power of words. As she often does, nature played a role in her insights. She also drew from her recent book, Holy Envy, in which she writes about engagements with students from other faiths through her teachings. Part of her talk she included in a recent Substack post. 

After leaving the conference, driving back to the hotel and thinking about dinner, I spied Red Lobster. For some reason, I recalled a day of Christmas shopping with my daughter twenty years earlier.  At this point in her life, people thought she was Dakota Fanning, the child music star. Twice that morning, in stores, people had told her she looked like the star. Then, at lunch at Red Lobster, the waitress fawned all over her, again, thinking she was Dakota Fanning. I’m not sure what came over me, but I suggested she sign a napkin Dakota and leave it on the table. While I thought it would be a good joke, my daughter conscience wouldn’t allow it. I pulled in for a late dinner, recalling the events of twenty years earlier, before heading back to the hotel. 

Sunday, April 19, 2026 

Sunday morning, I attended The Church of the Master, which has over the years done incredible work with worship. I have attended this church many times, going back before living in Michigan. Several times when staying with Jack Stewart, we’d attend church there. The last time, they’d just called a woman from Scotland as pastor, and I really enjoyed her sermon. This church also an incredible group of congregants who were the intelligentsia within the Christian Reformed Church. But this time, the preaching wasn’t overly impressive. But I enjoyed other parts of the service. The most unique thing was the detailed bulletin that didn’t name any of the clergy participating. 

After church, I headed to Hastings. While I waited to meet my friend Bob for lunch, I walked along the riverwalk which runs where the old Michigan Central Line used to be. There, along the Thornapple River, was a series of monuments consisting of pages from a children’s book about an owl in Central Park in New York City. At each stop, there was a place for those walking to stop and read. This new feature was dedicated to Jane Arnold, a former 1st Grade teacher from Hastings who was a member of the church when I served this community. I had heard but forgotten that she had died. 

Bob at Cedar Creek
Bob at Cedar Creek

After lunch, Bob and I headed down to Pierce Cedar Creek, where we hiked back in the woods by Cedar Creek, where I had walked and skied or snowshoed many times when I lived in Hastings. The leaves on trees were just beginning to unfurl, allowing the flowers along the ground to put on a display. I estimated nature here is about two weeks behind what where it’s at in the Virginia Mountains. 

Swamp marigold amongst skunk cabbage
Swamp marigold amongst skunk cabbage

It’s always a joy to be in the woods with Bob as his botanical knowledge far exceeds mine. We looked at the small flowers blooming before the forest canopy closed in and shaded the ground. The swamp marigolds amongst the skunk cabbage in the lowlands were especially beautiful. 

That night, we had decided to eat ice cream for dinner at the new Culvers in town. We stayed up late talking. 

Cedar Creek

Monday, April 20, 2026

Jim paddling a canoe in winter
Nim paddling in the bow in winter

On Monday, I met Jim, my winter canoe partner, for breakfast at Richies. It was good to be served by Sandy, who still waits on tables there, and to see a lot of old regulars from when I lived in town. After lunch, I meet with the other Jim, who was my assistant at the church when I was there. He doesn’t get out much these days as he cares for his wife and depends on a walker or cane to get around. 

Afterwards, I called the finance manager at First Presbyterian Church. Nancy lost her husband a little over a year ago from a heart attack just a month after he’d retired. She had planned to retire a year earlier but stayed on a second year to have a place to go and to let the church minister to her in her grief. I had talked to her after Dave’s death, and wrote to her, but hadn’t seen her since I left Hastings. Nancy now plans to retire after the books close this year. 

author standing by his portrait
Standing by my portriat

I dropped by the church to see her, which seemed odd as this was the first time I had been in the church since I left in the summer of 2014. I had called Nancy, the church’s finance manager, to see if I could visit. She seemed delighted and had some time before a 1 PM finance meeting. Nancy has been the finance director for the past 25 years, including all the time I was at the church. She had planned to retire a year earlier, but then her husband who had just retired, died from a massive heart attack. I talked to her afterwards and wrote to her, but had not seen her since that tragic event and wanted to drop by. Nancy insisted on showing me my “full-sized” portrait on a hallway in the church. We talked about old times and how she was doing without Dave, along with what her kids (and grandkids) are doing.  She introduced me to their pastor (the second one since I left). I stayed long enough to greet those on the finance committee, all who were in the church when I was the pastor. 

When I left the church, I stopped for a quick lunch and then drove to South Bend. I picked dinner as I knew I would be boarding the train after the dining car closed. Next, I dropped the rental car off at Enterprise and had them give me a lift back to the train station.  A little after nine, I boarded the train and headed east, running through the towns and cities below Lake Erie. I slept. I don’t even remember stopping in Cleveland. 

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Selie by train
Selfie by train in Cumberland MD

I woke up early in the morning, just before we pulled into Pittsburgh, watching another familiar area as the train ran along the Ohio River and then over the Allegheny and into the Steel City.  I noticed a bicyclist getting on the train at the stop in Pittsburgh. It was 4:30 AM. Soon, I was back asleep, but at breakfast I talked to the bicyclist who’d just completed the C&O Canal and the Great Allegheny Passage train, which brother and I had done last May. This was his fourth ride on the trail and now headed back to his home to Washington, DC. 

Breakfast became an interesting place to meet folks. There was an attorney who worked for the District Attorney in Austin, Texas. Another woman had spent the past six years taking care of her sister in Salt Lake City, Utah. She decided to buy a rail pass and was heading to Miami.  After a stop in Washington, I boarded the Southern Crescent for the last leg of my ride through the Virginia Countryside. Sitting next to me was a guy named Brandon, heading to Charlotte to see his brother who was in a traveling theater group. Brandon lives in Narobi, Kenya and works as an attorney for the United Nations.  I enjoyed our conversation.  I arrived back in Danville, from where I started a week earlier, a little after 11 PM. 

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The Second Commandment

Title slide with photos of Mayberry & Bluemont Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 4
June 28, 2026

This version of the sermon recorded on Friday, June 26, 2026 at Bluemont.

At the beginning of worship:

This has been a long and hard week. Thursday, I had an all-Commissioner meeting of Presbytery in Roanoke. I arose up early to get the trash out before driving up to the Star City. When I opened my email, I learned that Loren, the interim pastor between Stewart’s retirement and my coming, lost her husband. 


While in Roanoke, I planned to visit Peggy Slate in the hospital. Peggy ran the Higher Ground Retreat Center, just north of Bluemont. She also kept Wild Goose on track. I texted her daughter to let her and her father know my plans. In the middle of my meeting, I received a text saying Peggy’s kidneys failed and was moving to hospice at noon. 

Then about 2:30, I received another text saying she died, not long after arriving at hospice. I left the meeting and spent time with her husband Guydell and children.

Then, after I got home, Barbara Wagonner texted that Mel Condit, a recent new member at Mayberry, died. For the past several months, Mel battled cancer. He was released from the hospital just a few days earlier. A wonderful addition to our church and community, Mel will be missed. 

I’m older than Loren’s husband, the same age as Peggy, and a bit younger than Mel. Thursday, it hit hard. Our time on earth is short; life is precious. We should make the best of it, and should comfort one another during times of grief. 

Before reading the Scripture:

Last week, we looked at the first commandment which excludes all other gods. Today, we’ll look at the second commandment which forbids any physical representation of either another god or the one true God. At Sinai, the idea of no idols showed a radical departure from the norm. At this time, everyone used art to depict deities. Israel stood alone and offered a new way of looking at God. 

There is only one holy God who must not be depicted in artwork. This doesn’t mean that art is bad; it’s just not to be used to depict the one beyond our comprehension. Instead of knowing God through paintings or sculpture, we meet God in scripture. Even objects in church—from the Bible on the pulpit to fancy windows—must not be worshipped.[1]

In their deliverance from Egypt, Israel encountered the living God, whose reality can be described, and then only partially, with language.[2]  

Today’s text is from Exodus 20, verses 4-6, and Deuteronomy 4:15-20, where we’re given more reasons to have no idols. 

Read Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 4:15-20

A salty old sailor sat through a sermon at the Seaman’s mission. The preacher went on and on with the dos and don’ts of the Ten Commandments, visibly shaking the old seaman. “What’s the matter,” his buddy asked. “Well,” he said pondering, “at least I ain’t made no graven images.”

God, in the Second Commandment, goes to great lengths to stress the importance of not having idol in any form. Whether it comes from the heavens, the earth or the waters, idols are off-limits. God is creator, not a creature. God is the artist, not the subject of art and therefore is not to be portrayed in artwork, which draws upon the created world. The Almighty refuses to be objectified. If we objectify God, we then assume we can handle God. 

We might wonder why God gets so upset over idols. After all, why would a a great and powerful God be threaten by us worship of something less than himself? Yet, idolatry is always more a reflection on us than upon God; God isn’t threatened by our misguided actions. God has the power over all other make-believe gods and there is no danger of him losing his position as the Creator and the Sustainer of the world. Instead of God taking this personally and being upset, God’s concern is our well-being. 

As Bob Dylan sings, “you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”[3] In a study on the Ten Commandments, the authors note: 

“modernity did not succeed in killing the gods, rather it succeeded in fostering rampant superstition. Modern people like to think that as we become more educated, liberal, enlightened, the less we need to worship gods. No. We appear to have been created to worship…[4]  

We’re created restless, with a longing, an emptiness. We’re created with this desire that we try to fill. God created us this way so that we might see the need to have him fill our restless desire to worship something beyond ourselves. But God wants us to come freely, which means that we will also be tempted to create our own substitute for God. All of us have this desire for fulfillment; idolatry is when we try to satisfy it with something that is less than God.[5]   

Joy Davidson, who would later marry C. S. Lewis, wrote a commentary on the Ten Commandments titled, Smoke on the Mountain. Addressing this commandment, she said, “idolatry lies not in the idol, but in the worshipper.” 

The horror of idols is that they’re impotent, they’re without power, and they can give us nothing. Instead, idols rob us of the power we have within ourselves and from God through the Holy Spirit.[6]Certainly our idolatry have become more sophisticated. We gave up on Aaron’s golden calf and miniature statues of Artemis which endeared the Ephesians.[7] But are we putting our trust in God, or in something else? What is it that we worship? What do we do with our desire to connect to something beyond ourselves? Do we go to God or to something less that has only enough power to rob us of a relationship to the living God?

Let’s ask ourselves? What are our Golden Calves today? What keeps us from fully enjoying God? When I look at the walls in my office, I see the various token representations of my accomplishments. I feel proud and might think to myself, “I’ve done some neat things.” Some of you have accomplished a lot more. But when I think, “Gee Jeff, you’re good,” those mementos become first cousins to that sacred cow of Sinai. What is it that we value the most? 

Our accomplishments, our diplomas, our homes, our jobs, our cars and boats and motorcycles, our families? These good things can also be substitutes for God. God wants us to enjoy the finer things in creation, but he alone should be the object of our devotion. Akin to how one spouse will covet a devoted relationship from the other, so God desires our devotion. 

God provides a reason for such a relationship. If we, who have been chosen by God, worship something else, we’re cursed. Yet God offers even more abundant blessings if we keep it.

Let’s talk about this curse. We may think it unfair God’s wrath is not only experienced by the idolater. It extends to his or her offspring for three to four generations. Yet, if idolaters share the wrong message with their children, how will they hear? The message of the idol will be carried on within the family for generations and the barrier they built between them and God will continue. 

Psychologically, this curse plays out in the family systems of alcoholics and drug addicts. There are books written about the phenomena, such as Adult Children of Alcoholics.[8] Someone who is a dependent upon some substance is essentially an idolater. The substance becomes their God. And within their family, because of how people live with and around them, the abuser’s family carries the curse with them. 

John Calvin suggests the curse is not so much the result of God inflicting it, as the absence of God, which allows it to continue.[9]The curse continues until someone says “enough” and invites God back into their life. 

Now, consider the promised blessings. Idolatry brings a curse, but the blessing of faithfulness stands in sharp contrast. The curse continues for three or four generations, the blessing to the thousandth generation. God’s mercy overwhelms his wrath. Surely the Psalmists got it right when he proclaimed, “the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”[10] As human beings, we tend to be overly concerned with the wrath of God and the possibility of punishment. We forget how much greater God’s capacity to love is when compared to his anger. John Calvin, in his sermon on the Second Commandment proclaimed that it is “almost against God’s nature” to punish.[11]

God’s love is much greater than we can imagine, hence the reference to a 1000 blessed generations. Think about this. Biblical standards set a generation at 40 years. A 1000 generations would be 40,000 years, which would mean that we’re not yet at the 10% mark for the blessings bestowed on those like Joshua and Caleb who were faithful during the Exodus. The blessings from that era continue!

Surely this commandment means that we are not to depict God in any creaturely way.  But as Christians, we acknowledge that 1400 years after the commandments, God came to us as a man. In other words, God himself chose to relate to us in a way we can understand. Yet, interestingly, we’re not given a physical description of Jesus. The mystery of what God looks like continues! Instead, we’re told that we will meet him when we reach out to someone in need and that we’ll feel his presence when two or more are gathered in his name.[12] God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean we are allowed to worship a picture of Jesus, even if we had one. But the incarnation gives us a better understanding of the nature of the God we worship and adore. 

Through Christ, we can have even a more personal relationship with God, which is what God longs for and we need. We can’t have this relationship with a piece of art; nor can we have such relationship with a god who’s nothing more than a projection of our own wants and needs. We can only have such a relationship with the living God. Only such a God can offer us salvation and ever lasting life.   

Let me now say something about religious art. This is one of the areas we live out our faith in tension. Our devotion is to be to God, revealed through Jesus Christ. We all have crosses, Bibles, pictures supposedly representing Jesus, but none of these are to be worshipped even though sometimes, if used right, can help us focus more on God. 

In Reformed Churches, if you go back in history 150 years, you’d be surprised to find no pictures of Jesus and no crosses. If the sanctuary had stained glass, it was only decorative; they’d be no pictures of anyone in it. Over the past century and a half, we’ve back off such a strong prohibition against these types of art. However, we should remember no picture representing Jesus is accurate and be on guard that such art does not become a focus of our worship. For the God we worship transcends our abilities to create. And only a God who transcends our limited view has the power to be useful.

Think seriously about how you depict God. Make sure the God you worship isn’t some false god, but the God revealed in his Word, who has the power to create and to save. Amen.

This sermon was edited from a sermon preached in Hastings, Michigan in 2007.

[1] Daniel D. Patrick, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church Louisville, KY: WJKP, 2000), 56. 

[2] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), 114.

[3] Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody” (1979)

[4] Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Truth about God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 36.

[5] cf, Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing: The Search for A Christian Spirituality (NY: Doubleday, 1999), 3-5.

[6] Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments in terms of today (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963), 38-39.

[7] Acts 19:23ff.

[8] Janet Geringer Woititz, Ed.D., Adult Children of Alcoholics (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1983, 1990).

[9] cf, John Calvin, Institutes, II, vii, 18-20.

[10] Psalm 145:8.  Variations of this theme is found throughout the Old Testament.

[11] John Calvin, Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, translator. (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980), 78.

[12] See Matthew 18:20, 25:40.

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The First Commandment

Title slide with photo of Mayberry and Bluemont Presbyterian Churches.

Jeff Garrison
First Presbyterian Church
Exodus 20:1-4, Revelation 22:8-9
June 21, 2026

The sermon was recorded at Mayberry on Thursday, June 18, 2026

At the beginning of worship:

Happy Father’s Day to all who are fathers and all who have fathers. We begin today working through the Ten Commandments, We start with the first commandments which is to have no other gods before the one true God. As Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer to address God as “Father,” it’s a good day to begin this series. 

Throughout this summer, I plan to focus my sermons  on one of the Ten Commandments. By the time we’re done, I hope none of you will be under the illusion they’re the Ten Suggestions. Instead, consider the commandments as God’s gift; the boundaries in which we can have abundant life on earth. Envision the law as being fence posts staking out our territory. Within the boundaries, we have lots of freedom, but when we move beyond the fence, we damage our relationships with God and with others in the human family.  

The commandments were important for Martin Luther.  We think of Luther being so focused on grace, but he wrote that to know the commandments is to know the Bible. As a modern commentator writes, “to understand them properly, we must know the great overarching story—Creation, Exodus, kingship, prophets, exile, Jesus, death, resurrection and ascension.”[1]

Before reading the Scripture: 

As I focus on the Ten Commandments for this summer, I plan to draw from the commandments as presented in the book of Exodus. The Commandments can be found in two places in the Old Testament: Exodus and Deuteronomy. The same list, but they have some slight differences as the reason for obeying the commandments.  

Let me go over one additional thing about the Commandments. There are two ways of numbering them, both come up to ten. The traditional way, used by Jews use as well as those of us in the Reformed tradition, has the first commandment as having no other gods and the second as the probation against idols. However, some churches, notably the Roman Catholics and Lutherans, combine these two commandments then split what we think of as the tenth commandment, the probation against coveting, into two parts. 

Read Exodus 20:1-3, Revelation 22:8-9

We’re given a three-fold proof of why we are to have no other gods before the One True God—the Creator of heaven and earth. 

First, it’s the Lord who gives this commandment to us. “I am the Lord,” the fifth chapter beings. As Americans, we don’t tend to like titles like Lord and King and as we’ll celebrate in two weeks, we fought a revolution against such. But to understand what’s being said here, we should recall that in ancient times a “Lord” controlled lands and those who lived on it. This text implies that God, as Creator, rightful holds the title for the earth. As the Psalmist proclaims, the world and they that dwell therein” belong to God.[2]   

And just who is this God? The Confessions of the Presbyterian Church bring together many of the attributes of God found in Scripture. We speak of God as: “a Spirit, infinite in being, glory, blessedness and perfection.” God is “all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, all present, almighty, all knowing, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.”[3]That’s a mouthful.

Furthermore, we should remember on this Father’s Day that while we speak of God as “Father,” it’s metaphorical. Jesus uses such language in the Lord’s Prayer as a way for us to understand the relationship God desires. The same is true when Isaiah speaks of God as a caring mother.[4] God cares for us like parents care for children.

In addition, the male pronoun often used for God shows a limitation with the English language. Using the pronoun “He” or “Him” doesn’t mean God is a man. To think of God as a man puts God in a human category, which breaks this commandment. God exist beyond human sexual categories. 

When we think about God, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. As mere creatures, God exists beyond our imaginations. It’s easy when contemplating God to give up and resign ourselves to be unable to understand God and therefore drop our quest to know God. But God, as he lays out the commandments, encourages us. We’re reminded that not only is he Lord, he’s also our God. “I am the Lord, your God,” he says. God, the all-powerful creator, who rightfully claims ownership of Creation, is also “our God.” There is an intimacy expressed here. God isn’t just a Creator with no interest in us. God calls us and wants us to be a part of his family.. And God takes the initiative to enter a relationship with us, to be personally involved with us.

Abraham Heschel, the great Jewish philosopher of the 20thCentury titled one of his books, God in Search of Man. Even before we know God exists, God seeks us out. Think about how God works: God reached out to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses. God came in the life of Jesus Christ. God wants to be in a relationship with us and therefore calls us back to himself. And God could demand our allegiance based solely upon his rightful position as Creator. But God isn’t petty. By entering a relationship with us, by being OUR GOD, God earns our respect and allegiance. 

The second reason given to us to encourage our compliance with the first commandment is that God led our spiritual ancestors out of Egypt. Our Great God, the Creator of all, heard the cries of the Hebrew people as they labored, building pyramids and other sorts of monuments to the rulers of Egypt. Today we marvel over their work. We shouldn’t forget that the construction of these ancient wonders was done by the backbreaking labor of an enslaved people. But God heard their prayers. Over the sound of cracking whips, God heard their cries, just as he hears ours. Through the leadership of Moses and a host of special effects, God rescued his people. God is not a distant Creator, uninterested in what goes on in the world. Our God listens and answers prayers.

The third reason given for our obeying this commandment is that we were brought out of the house of slavery. Certainly, in the wilderness, as Moses recalled the Commandments, he was referring to Egypt and the 400-year period of bondage.  

Paralleling the land of Egypt and the house of slavery gives this sentence a nice ring. It’s balanced. But let’s take a bit of liberty with its original meaning and see if we can come up with a meaning for us today. The Exodus event provides a model of how God rescues his people. It’s an archetype which reminds us how our God works in the world. With this understanding, we can make this third reason to obey the commandment apply to us personally. We obey because we’ve experienced release from bondage, whatever the form of slavery it might have been.

Has God helped you kick the smoking habit, beat drugs, get control over alcohol abuse, recover from an accident, a job loss, a divorce, or regain self-esteem? Regardless of what it was, if God helps us regain control, we are indebted in him. Therefore, we should desire not to break the commandments.  

We’re given three reasons not to break this first commandment:  

1. God as Creator desires a relationship with us.  

2.  God shows his faithfulness by delivering our spiritual ancestors from bondage in Egypt.  

3. God has or can deliver us from whatever enslaves us, from whatever holds us back from being who he has created us to be.

These are three good reasons not to have any false gods. Now let’s consider for a few minutes what it means to have no other gods before our One True God. It is interesting the way this commandment reads: NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME. If God is, as we proclaim, all-knowing and all-powerful, then having any other gods would be to have them in front of God. So, we’re not to have any other gods. 

In Israel’s time, the Hebrew people found themselves constantly lured into worshipping their neighbor’s gods. This was especially true if their neighbor had a better harvest in a particular year. They’d want to do whatever they could to get a competitive advantage, so if they thought their neighbor’s gods looked favorably upon them, they’d in turn pray to these false gods and end up experiencing the rage of the Living God.

Having no other gods goes beyond the command to make no idols—we’ll discuss that one next week.  It means not elevating ourselves too high or not putting what should be our trust in God into some form of superstitious behavior. Think of the angel John wanted to worship in the book of Revelation. The angel quickly corrected John. We don’t lift any other being to be equivalent or even closely equivalent to God. 

Having no other gods mean we let God be God and we trust and depend upon him. God gives life. We need to remember this for whenever we put something between God and us, we find our lifeline compromised. If you have difficulty breathing and are on oxygen, you want to be careful not to stand on the tubing between you and the oxygen tank. Otherwise, you won’t get the air you need and might pass out or even die. It’s the same way with God. God desires for us to draw our life from him and to live abundantly. We don’t want to cut off our supply of his life-giving breath, but we do this anytime we place something between God and us.  

Examine yourself. Take an inventory; see where you do not completely trust God. Are there areas in your life where you’ve relegated God to second or third place and made something else more important? If so, and we’re all guilty at one time or another, confess your sins. Work toward cleaning up those areas in your life so you can live life to its fullness, as God intends.  Let us pray: 

Almighty God, you are the source of life. Through Jesus Christ, you save us from your wrath and our sinfulness. You call us to be your people and command us not to have any other gods before you. That’s easier said than done. We don’t always fully trust you and find ourselves placing other things in front of you: families, occupations, wealth, accomplishments, abilities, intellect, nation, even our church. Forgive us and fill us with your vision so we may grow into a deeper relationship with you.  Amen. 

[1] Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Truth About God; The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 30.

[2] Psalm 98:7, KJV.

[3] Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 7.

[4] Isaiah 66:13.

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My Thoughts on Christian Nationalism

Christian Nationalism title slide with two photos: of a cross and a flag

This year we have added a new item to worship titled “A Minute for Theology.”  The congregation gets to ask me questions about theology or the church, and I try to provide a brief explanation. This past week, I tackled a couple questions on Christian Nationalism. What it is, they they’ve only recently heard of it, and if we’re a part of such a movement. Expanding from the notes I made, this is my answer. 

My answer:  Let me answer the last phrase of the question first. No, I do not consider us a part of the Christian Nationalist movement. Speaking for myself, I certainly don’t consider myself a Chrisitan Nationalist. Personally, I think the movement verges on heresy. I see it as an attempt to usurp the Christian faith for political agenda. The Christian faith is built upon a vision from Jesus to bring people of all nations and races together.  As Paul writes, there is no longer Greek or Jew, slave or free, male or female, for we are all to be one in Christ Jesus.[1]

America has often held contrasting ideals. Think of the wonderful words of the Declaration of Independence about freedom and equality. Those elegant words were written by a slaveholder and signed by slaveholders. 

In religion, there is the enlightenment belief which acknowledges the importance of religion. But the Founders of our nation shunned the European notion of a state religion. Enshrined in our Constitution is a clause that the government shall not infringe on our right to worship as we choose and there shall be a separation between church and state. The second ideal in contrast to the first comes from John’s gospel. In America, this became prominent during the First and Second Great Awakening. It’s that Jesus is the only way.[2]  As a nation, we’ve tried to hold these two ideals in tension. But there have always been dissenters who insists they are right while other views have no value.  Such people fail to show the grace a graceful God calls us to show to others.

Let me give you an example. Around the nation’s centennial in 1876, a movement arose to enshrine within the constitution an amendment declaring America as a Christian nation. It didn’t pass. While some Christians supported it, others saw the problem with the amendment and rose up in opposition. 

As followers of Jesus, our ultimate loyalty is to always remains with him and not with a nation, which is a human construct.  Nations come and go.  This doesn’t mean we should not strive to be good citizens of the earthly nation in which we live. However, our first loyalty, our primary citizenship, is to God’s Kingdom. We’re still called to work hard within our nation so that it and the people within it may prosper.  As Jeremiah told those in Jerusalem who were exiled to Babylon,” seek the welfare of the city in which you live.”[3]

Those who claim to be Christian Nationalist see our nation as exclusively Christian. Those who are not Christians are pushed to the side. To find support for such a ideal, they must go back to the Old Testament model of Israel as God’s chosen people. But such a nation ceased to exist in 587 BC, when Babylon defeated them and took many of them off into exile. After exile, the nation seldom lived independently but generally existed under the authority of foreign powers. Even modern Israel is not a nation as set forth by Moses and the prophets, but a secular construct.  While we can learn from the Old Testament, there is nothing in the New Testament about Christians running the government. Instead, in places like Romans 13, you find a lot about us living under the government of a foreign power. 

The New Covenant, established by Christ, expands this idea of the chosen people to include people of every nation and race. This goes back to God’s intention as all people are created in God’s image.[4] As followers of the man for Galilee, we must resist movements like Christian Nationalist who attempt to divide the world up into the chosen (their nation or those who believe like them) and all others. 

While we are to work hard for our nation and those who live within it, we also live with a vision of a new kingdom,. This kingdom began with Jesus, And we’ll belong to this kingdom long after the nations of earth cease to exist. 

Jimmy Hendrix said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we will have peace.” That may be a little simplistic, but we also find truth here. The power of love is to what Jesus calls us. The love of power seems to me to be what Christian nationalist desire. Jesus warns us about desiring earthly power.  That’s a key tenet of the Sermon on the Mount, from which I’ve recently preached 17 sermons. The state has the power of the sword. Jesus also told the disciples that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.[5]

While the church shouldn’t take a prominent role in the government, as individual followers of Christ we should use our faith to make decisions at the ballot box. And if elected, by serving in the government. But even then, we are called to work for the benefit of all Americans regardless of their faith or lack of faith..  The idea our nation primary  serves a particular religious sect goes against the founding principles of our country. And for Christians, it goes against the teachings of Jesus. 

[1] Galatians 3:29.

[2] John 14:6.

[3] Jeremiah 29:7. 

[4] Genesis 1:27. 

[5]h Matthew 26:52.

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Two Houses, Two Builders, Jesus Conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount

Title slide with photos of Mayberry and Bluemont Presbyterian Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
June 14, 2026
Matthew 7:24-8:1

Sermon recorded at Bluemont on Friday, June 12, 2026

At the Beginning of Worship:  

Beginning next Sunday, we’ll start a journey through the Ten Commandments. Ever since the movie with Charlton Heston as Moses came out back when my parents were dating, there have been attempts to have the tablets displayed in courthouses and schools. But just knowing the 10 Commandments doesn’t make us better people.[1] Instead, we need to understand what they mean and integrate them into our lives. As the prophet Jeremiah suggests, we need God to write his law on our hearts.[2] It’s my hope we will gain some insight into how the law should be applied in our lives today. 

But before I jump back into the Old Testament, we’ll finish our review of Jesus’ greatest sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In a way, this has been Jesus’ sermon on the 10 Commandments, as he reinterprets the law to a new standard. We all come up short. When Jesus finishes this sermon, we understand we can’t do it ourselves; we’re totally dependent upon God’s grace.   

Before reading the Scripture:

Today’s scripture completes the Sermon on the Mount. I’ll read from Matthew 7: 24 through 8:1. 

Let me give you a bit of insight into the Greek used by Matthew here. Jesus draws from both the Old Testament and the virtue tradition coming out of Greek philosophy.[3] In this passage Jesus contrasts the wise and foolish man. In the Greek, the wise man is one who is virtuous. The foolish one is a moros, from which we get the English word, “Moron.”[4] (You may remember that tidbit.) 

A second thing. The last word in the Greek within this sermon is “great.” Throughout the sermon, Jesus encouraged his listeners to strive for righteousness, not greatness. And the ending “great” refers not to an achievement, but to the fall of those who have not built a life with Christ as a foundation.[5] There is a warning here. As Jesus reminded us earlier in the sermon, we’re to first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.[6]

READ MATTHEW 7:24-8:1

Did you ever think we’d get to the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount? We’ve been working our way through this passage since the first of February, with a break on Palm Sunday and Easter, and a few Sundays I’ve been away. For those counting, this is my 17th sermon on these three chapters!  

Let me say a bit about the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not a sermon in the fashion we typically think. Instead of standing at a pulpit or on a stage or up on a rock and waving his hands as he expounds upon scripture, Jesus sits. Most likely the crowd stood. Having your audience stand is an old trick which assures everyone stays awake. Sitting down while teaching and preaching was the preferred method for rabbis, as well as Greek philosophers of the time. So, Jesus sits as a rabbi, or a teacher, and instructs his disciples and those in the crowd how they should live.

As we have seen over the past few months, Jesus upsets the apple cart. In the Beatitudes, he speaks of a great reversal: of how the last will be first, of the meek inheriting the earth. He admonishes the crowd to strive for heavenly treasure instead of worldly wealth. He reminds them our valuables will increases our fears as we worry about theft, rust, and rot. 

Throughout this sermon, Jesus raises the bar. No longer can his followers take the Ten Commandments literally, checking off each item as having been observed, and patting themselves on their backs for getting a passing grade. For Jesus tells us that hate is equivalent to murder, lust can be as dangerous as adultery. Jesus also warns his followers about the danger of misleading new converts, how they must watch out for false teachers, and how they should pray privately and not for show. 

By this point in Jesus’ address, he’s managed to offend just about everyone. As they stand on that hill, surrounding Jesus while swatting flies and fanning themselves, they realize Jesus isn’t letting anyone off easily. The rich and powerful are offended. The religious and political leaders are offended. Even the pious, those who dedicated their lives to keeping the commandments are offended. You’d think the crowds would have thinned out, but that’s not the case. They stick around because Jesus teaches with authority. Matthew here drops a hint of what’s to come. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus proclaims, “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.”[7] The crowds witnessed his authority on the mountain.

Yet, I expect most are unsure of their ability to meet the mark, and Jesus heightens their tension when he acknowledges that not everyone who calls his name will enter the kingdom of heaven. For Jesus, having a saving faith is more than just knowing the right religious language. As we saw two weeks ago, Jesus even warns, in words which send fear into the hearts of any preacher who listens, that some who do great things in his name will find the door to paradise closed. 

A saving faith requires action; a saving faith requires us to take his words to heart and strive to do God’s will. Yes, Jesus wants us to be good. Yes, Jesus wants us to bear fruit. But our good deeds and fruit bearing must be done in accordance with the will of God and not be based upon our egoistic desire to do something great… 

To explain this, Jesus tells a parable about the building of a house. Two guys set out to build a house and, from all we know, both are built equally well. We assume that from the outside, both houses appear solid. To find fault in the one house, you must look at the foundation. 

This isn’t the story of the three little pigs—where two of them become barbeque for the wolf because they use inferior building materials. We assume both builders employ the best construction practices. They select only good and straight lumber. They both use architectural grade shingles. But there’s a difference. One takes the time to set his foundation upon rock. The other guy builds on sand. Maybe he justified this as saving money on excavation. Or maybe he built on a beach to have a great view. Image both guys building equally nice homes. The only difference is that one can withstand the onslaught of a flood while the other crumbles as we’ve seen video in news reports of houses around Cape Hatteras tumbling into the sea.

This parable reminds us of the story of Noah. Noah, a faithful man, listened to God and followed instructions. He found himself safe during the storm in which all others drown.[8] Noah trusted in God, not in the long-term weather forecasts, or even in his ability to save himself. He listened to God. After all, it wasn’t his idea to build a boat. By listening to God, he accomplished far more than he could have on his own.

One thing we should gleam from this parable is the fact the storm came. Both the wise and the foolish experienced the onslaught of the storm. Jesus echoes what he said earlier about how God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on the just and unjust.[9]There is a message here for us. Matthew’s audience, as we see in the opening Beatitudes, probably faced persecution. By recalling this parable, he reminds his readers to be prepared, to have a good foundation in Christ so that when things become difficult, they will persevere. 

To do the will of God is not just hearing God call; to do the will of God is not just an understanding of our duty to our creator; to do God’s will requires that we internalize Jesus’ words. We must make Jesus and his teaching the rule of our lives. The question, “What would Jesus do?” which has become somewhat of a cliché, should become for us an internal compass, directing our lives in a manner that will bring him, and not us, glory.

To do the will of God is not necessarily to do what is popular. In fact, it’s likely to result in unpopular behavior. Think about old Noah—his wife and neighbors complain about that piece of junk he’s constructing out in the backyard. Doing God’s will is not going to help us be seen as “cool.” It may even mean going against what is considered politically correct from any perspective—conservative and progressive. Doing the will of God means we will not base our decision on what would make us popular with our peers, but on what kind of actions honor and glorify God…

So, why should we seek and do the will of God, especially if it’s going to force us to look beyond our self-interest and cost us in social standing? Why shouldn’t we just seek the easy way, to go along with the crowds and to do what is expedient? Why not just take the wide road, the interstate of popularity? It’s the sure way to success according to worldly standards. Why? Because in the end, what others think about us as well as what we’ve accomplished and accumulated on this planet will not manner. In the end, all that will matter is whether we’ll hear the words echoed from later in Matthew’s gospel, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”[10]

Peter was right when Jesus asked him and the other disciples if they wanted to join the crowds who were abandoning him. Peter said, “Lord, where else can we go? Only you have the words of eternal life.”[11]

There were two houses. One withstood the storm; the other fell and great was its fall. So ends Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus presents a clear alternative. Follow me and seek to do God’s will and you will persevere through the storms of life and find the door to paradise open. Or don’t follow me and seek to fulfill your own desires and the storms will overwhelm you and the door to paradise will remain locked. Which will it be? Will we seek the kingdom of God? If so, we must seek to do and live in accordance with God’s will. Amen.   

[1] For my take on the 10 Commandments, see https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/27/thoughts-on-the-ten-commandments/

[2] Jeremiah 31:33. 

[3] Most likely, Jesus did speak Greek, but Aramaic. But when translated into the Greek, Matthew uses key Greek terms. 

[4] Jonathan T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 280.

[5] Fredrick Dale Buner, The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (1990: Grand Rapids, MI Eerdmans, 2004), 361. 

[6] Matthew 6:33. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2026/05/03/dont-worry/

[7] Matthew 28:18.

[8] Genesis 9. 

[9] Matthew 5:45. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2026/03/22/turning-the-other-cheek-and-loving-our-enemies/

[10] Matthew 25:21, 23. 

[11] John 6:68-69

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Review of May Readings

title slide with photos of the books reviewed in the post

I have been away on vacation and will try to get back around soon and catch up with folks. I’ll tell you more about my travels later, but let me catch up on my readings…

Karen Russell, The Antidote A Novel 

Cover photo of the Antidote

(New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 2025), 422 pages, some photos and notes. (Audible, 16 hours and 55 minutes). 

This novel is set in Uz, Nebraska in 1935, at the height of the Dust Bowl. The story takes place between two well-known events, the Black Sunday dust storm and the flooding of the Republican River. The town of Uz is fictional, borrowed from the home of Job in the Bible. The book of Job comes up frequently in the novel as the people in this town struggle and many leave in response to the drought and dust. Job ends with God speaking through a whirlwind. In The Antidote, near the end, a tornado sweeps through Oletsky’s property. While God doesn’t speak from the storm, the message is clear. 

Russell tells the story of Uz through several characters. There is Harp Oletsky, a bachelor farmer whose crop seems immune to the dust storm destroying everyone else’s fields. Harp lives with his niece, Asphodel Oletsky, an orphan high schooler, who loves basketball.   In town, there is a Prairie Witch, later identified as Antonina Rossi. She can take memories from people, saving them from their unpleasant past. The Sheriff uses her skills at the jail, which in time we learn is a means to cover up misconduct. Her talents allow people to forget the past and avoid being haunted by their deeds.  Another important character is Cleo Allfrey, an African American woman sent by the government to photograph the disaster on the plains. When her camera is stolen, she buys another which has special abilities she only learns after the film is developed. The camera captures views from the past. And finally, we have Harp’s scarecrow and the Sheriff’s cat. Both observe and become involve in that which happens

During the months in which the novel takes place, the Uz girls’ basketball team, even after their coach leaves, wins the state championship.  The sheriff is in a political race. He thinks he has the election in hand because he solved a serial killing of women in Nebraska, one in which the killer places a rabbit foot on the victim’s body. But then, the killings continue and the man convicted of the murders sits on death row with people wondering if he was guilty. 

When circumstances bring together Harp, the prairie witch, the photographer, and his niece, things come to a head. They learn not only the truth of the evil sheriff, but also of their past. Harp retrieves his father’s memories, long stored with an old witch of another town. Learning the truth of his past bothers him. He knows how his family who were forced out of Poland by the Germans in the late 19th Century, But now he’s haunted for they did the same thing, taking land from Native Americans. They also learn of modern racial tensions with African Americans.  Harp envisions a new society addressing the evils of the past. Of course, this vision almost leads to Harp’s murder by those who want to hold on to a mythological view of pioneer families taming the wilderness. 

This is a great book which I almost gave up on because of the supernatural elements in the story. I’m glad I stuck with it. Russell uses language beautifully. Her work raises questions as to how we remember the past and what role it plays in the present. She also provides insight into racism. In an age in which we want to sanctify the past mythologies, she reminds us of that we’d like to forget, and the loss it will be if the past can be whitewashed.  There are other themes, too, within the novel including how people handle loss and face difficulties.  I recommend it and hope to discuss the book with others who have read it. 

For those interested in a non-fiction book on the Dust Bowl, I highly recommend Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.

Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz 

Cover photo of "The Splendid and the Vile"

(Crown: New York, 2020), 584 pages with sources and index.

May 1940 was the worse time to be asked to convene a new government. The nation was at war. British soldiers sent to Norway to fight against the German invaders needed to be extracted. The British Expeditionary Force in Europe faced a German onslaught through the Low Countries, as they attempted to outflanking the French and British armies.  And it kept going downhill as France fell back and many, but not all, of the British soldiers on France soil found themselves with their backs to the sea at Dunkirk. And then France surrendered and the United Kingdom had to deal with their large and modern navy in the hands of the Germans. Shortly after France fell, the bombings began. Tragedy filled Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister.

Larson focuses on this year in his usual detailed style, drawing on the life not only of Churchill, but others around him. We learn about the capable men, such as Lord Beaverbrook, whom he recruited to increase aircraft production. We also learn about his enemies such as Herman Goring, the head of the German Luftwaffe and Rudolf Hess, who attempted an unusual means of diplomacy.  

The reader is also drawn into Churchill’s family and personal life. We learn about struggle with personal finances, his unique relationship with his wife, and the struggle with his children. Churchill had many weird habits such as regular baths from which he worked as the bathroom became crowded with advisors and secretaries. Like Stalin, he also seemed unable to sleep till long after midnight. He enjoyed good food and drink, but he also felt a connection to the people of the nation. Often, after a major bombing, Churchill visited the burning cities and connected with those suffering. This endeared him to the nation. 

Of course, Churchill needed rest and a respite from the trials he faced as a leader in war. Friends stepped in to provide him with various retreats, such as Chequers, which became his home away from home on weekends. 

The reader also learns of Churchill’s hope throughout this dark period that America would enter the war.  He kept in constant contact with American diplomats in Britain, as well President Roosevelt. But America, at this time, attempted to remain in isolation. Congress tied Roosevelt hands. The American President struggled to gain approval to provide Great Britain with old and obsolete navy destroyers through what would become the Lend-Lease act. Of course, that would change in December 1941, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But in 1940 and most of 1941, no one saw the attack on the horizon.  While that attack brought America into the war, the German attack on Russia in June of 1941 helped reduce the pressure on the British Isles. 

This book provides an interesting history lesson, reminding Americans World War 2 started over two years before Pearl Harbor. The book should also provide thoughtful readers a warning of the danger of American isolationism. 

Kyle Meyaard Schaap, Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action 

title page photo of Following Jesus in a Warming World

(Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2023), 200 pages including notes. 

I heard Meyaard-Schaap at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin University in April and picked up his book right afterwards.  Coming from a conservative Christian background, he takes on the evangelical wing of Protestantism for ignoring the issues of environmentalism. He even challenges this attitude as failing to live up to their “pro-life” rhetoric.  

Much of the book involves Meyaard-Schaap recalling the “Big Story” of scripture. Moving from Genesis to Revelation, he interprets the Bible as God’s love story for the world. He challenges, with scripture, those who believe God will destroy this world and create a new one. As he points out the passage at the end of Revelation about a new heaven and earth should be translated as a restored heaven and earth. The word used here isn’t the same word we might use for a newly built house. Instead, John in Revelation uses kainos, a word implying that God doesn’t start over but restores his masterpiece (page 59). Just as the world is transformed, so will we. We see this promise in Paul as well as in Revelation. 

Another area of scripture which Meyaard-Schaap focuses is on the meaning of “good news.” He makes the case that Jesus’ message of hope is for the poor in the world, who face the blunt of challenges with climate change. This is true in our own country as the poor often live in the most dangerous places such as next to freeways with exhaust or by chemical plants which spews pollution. But such a crisis becomes greater by those living in places where sea level rise creates a life-threatening challenge. This is another reason for us to be concerned about the environment and pollution. 

In addition to providing reasons for Jesus’ followers to be concerned over climate change, Meyaard-Schaap provides ways that individuals and groups of Christianns can become involved in the debate. He encourages others to join in telling stories of the dangers and of redemption. Finally, he encourages us to be joyful even amidst the tragedy around us. After all, God loves this world and those of us in it, which is indeed good news. 

Tony Horwitz, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War 

Book cover for Midnight Rising
Version 1.0.0

(New York: Henry Holt, 2011), 365 pages including notes, indexes, and photos. (Audible, 11 hours and 5 minutes). 

This book sat on on my TBR pile for a while. Reading Horwitz’s wife book on his death brought the book back to my attention. Unlike most of Horwitz’s books I’ve read, this book is void of humor. The books I’ve read by Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic, One for the Road, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, and Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide), he travels to learn about history and places. While the subject matter may not be very funny, his encounters as he travels can be funny and delightful. With Midnight Rising, he sticks to writing straight history as an academic exploring what some suggest is America’s first homegrown terrorist and others saw as a well-meaning but misguided fighter to end slavery. 

John Brown was a complicated man.  Coming from a strict Calvinist background, he broke with his father’s pacifist views and later moved to Kansas just for the purpose of fighting the spread of slavery. Steeped in the Old Testament stories, he saw himself as a modern-day Gideon, leading a small group of freedmen and slaves to strike a blow against the slave economy of the South. I was amazed Brown had pondered his vision of an insurrection starting in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) for so long. He even discussed his plan with many other people including Frederick Douglass. While Douglass desired an end to slavery, he felt Brown’s plan foolish and refused to join him. 

But Brown and his sons were gained some support, both from northern abolitionists who financed his operation and a few followers who joined in the raid. They set up in a house in Maryland, north of the city and scouted out the city and countryside before they began their campaign. Many of those who joined Brown knew they would likely give their lives to the cause. Ironically, within Harpers Ferry lived many free blacks. The first death at the railroad bridge at the beginning of the raid was a free black who worked for the railroad.  Brown was able to surprise Harpers Ferry, but the raid began to quickly fall apart as townsfolks took up arms and fought back. Brown and most of his men found themselves pinned down in a firehouse. Their capture came when a contingent of Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee rushed the building. Wounded, Brown was tried while resting on a cot in the courtroom.  Brown and several of his men were executed for their role in the attempted rebellion in nearby Charlestown.  Before his death, Brown predicted the upcoming war between slaveholding and free states, which erupted in 1861. 

This book provides a good study into Brown’s plans and the fatal attack in 1859 in Harpers Ferry.  The next time I visit the town, I will have a better understanding of what happened there so long ago. While the fire house still stands, much of the industrial machinery was removed during the Civil War, leaving the sleepy town without evidence of its industrial past. 

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Wolves in Sheep Clothing

Title slide with photo of the two churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
May 31, 2026
Matthew 7:15-23

This sermon was recorded at Mayberry on May 28, 2026. I am sorry that I had previously posted the sermon from the previous week, but corrected it on June 19 when I was informed of my mistake.

At the beginning of worship: 

At the men’s breakfast and Bible study this week, the movie, The Apostle, came up. Some of us watched it one evening during a movie night at Mayberry a few years ago. Robert Devall plays Sonny. A high-flying Pentecostal preacher, Sonny jets around the country preaching revivals. In his absence, his youth pastor and his wife become a little too friendly. Sonny takes a baseball bat to the man who later dies. 

Now wanted by the law, Sonny flees. He heads to the bayous of Louisiana, where he reinvents himself. He starts a church which consists of outcasts and, slowly, it begins to flourish. We get a sense Sonny delights in the joy of working with these people, who are completely different from the affluence of his former suburban church. The church cares for one another and does great things which draws the attention of a local radio station. His ex-wife hears Sonny’s voice on air and reports him. Deputies show up to arrest Sonny. But even then, he continues to witness to the love of Jesus as he encourages his people to keep up the good work. The movie ends with Sonny, on a chain gain, working on a ditch bank, while continuing to witness for Jesus. 

Today we’re looking at a passage where Jesus warns us that even some who seem to do great things for God, are not on God’s side. This is a sobering passage. 

Before reading the Scripture:

We’re in the last section of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Last week, we began this section looking at the narrow gate and the hard road to which Jesus calls us. This week, we’ll look at the false prophets, those who beckon us through the wrong gate and down the wide path to destruction. 

Here, we learn from Jesus that one of the great dangers of the church is not persecution, something the early church faced, but false teachers. Augustine, the great 4th Century Theologian, is to have said, “even in the very name of Christ we must be on our guard against heretics.”[1]

By the 4th Century, many heretics had come and gone such as the Marcionites and Docetites, along with the Pelagianists, Augustine’s nemeses.[2] But such heretical teaching wasn’t new. New Testaments writers express concern over “anti-Christs.”[3]Even in the Old Testament, concerned existed over false prophets and unscrupulous shepherds.[4]

A danger within religious traditions are those who use such traditions for their own benefit, instead of seeking God’s glory. One of the interesting things we find is that while such teachers are dangerous, God can still work through them and do great things through them, such as casting out demons. Jesus’ concern, as we’ll see here, isn’t in the work of these false prophets, but in how their hearts turn from God. They may do great things, but for the wrong reasons. They may be like the Pharisees who eat up their praise of the people with harden hearts. . 

This is another hard passage, especially for preachers. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t appear in the Revised Common Lectionary. 

Read Matthew 7:15-23

Here’s a question for you. Is Jesus addressing religious leaders in this passage? Or, does this text apply to all of us? If you believe he’s only addressing leaders, then you have my permission to take a nap, and I’ll preach to myself. But only if you’re not in a position of leadership or listen to those in leadership. 

Consider this, all of us, as I have pointed out numerous times, have a Christian vocation. We’re all a priest within the Priesthood of All Believers. So, listen up.

As we are Jesus’ hands and feet and mouths on earth, we have a responsibility as we saw last week, to enter the right or narrow gate and to walk the hard path which leads to life. The gate is our conversion; the walk is our ethics, how we live our lives as followers of Jesus. But, as this passage shows, we can be misled. We can get so excited about results that we fail to look for the rot inside. Results and success do not make us a Christian. This is an important distinction. Faithfulness, regardless of success, is how Christ judges.

In this passage, Jesus uses two different images for the false prophet. The disguised wolf, the enemy of the sheep (including the metaphorical sheep within the church) and a fruit tree. When the wolf removes his clothes, it’s too late. He’s already inside the herd, where he will destroy the sheep. The fruit tree is known by its fruit, but that takes a while. Unlike a wolf, the bad tree is only known after the harvest. 


Jesus then imagines these imposters coming before him at judgment. Despite all they’ve done, their hearts were not right and Jesus, quoting Psalm 8, sends them away.[5] Despite their good deeds, they are not saved.

First Presbyterian Church of Virginia City, Nevada, 2018
First Presbyterian Church of Virginia City

In 1913, the Reverend William Laughlin assumed the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Virginia City, Nevada. His story was that while he attended seminary, he didn’t feel ready for the ministry and taught school. He also appeared to have done some lecturing on the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits of the day. An editor from a newspaper in Elko, Nevada, praised him as a “polished lecturer full of Celtic fire” who “would soon become recognized as one of the most profound pulpit orators in the West.”[6]

But by 1913, when he accepted the call to the church in Virginia City, the heyday of the Comstock Lode was thirty years in the past. The town continued to lose population. Only a few mines kept digging. The mills which processed the ore, mostly reworked old tailings with better technology to capture the silver and gold missed by previous generations. 

C Street, Virginia City, Winter 1988
Virginia City, 1988

Laughlin was a firebrand. He started new programs at the church including a Boy Scout troop. This was only 3 years after the Boy Scouts of America was organized. His preaching excited people and excerpts from his humorous sermons often appeared in the newspaper. The church started again holding socials and events for the Sunday School. At a time when the city declined, things happened at the Presbyterian Church. 

But then, the Rev. McCleery, Presbyterian pastor in Carson City, became suspicious. I’m not sure why. Maybe someone gave him a tip. He began to dig and found Laughlin had been in a Methodist minister in Franklinville, New York. After facing charges of immortality, he resigned and moved to Canada.

Laughlin later served Methodist Churches there, along with North Dakota and Idaho. In each place, across two countries, his past caught up with him, and he was exposed as an imposter. In Idaho, he abandoned his wife and kids and refused to support them, moving on. Kind of like Sonny in the movie The Apostle. In 1913, you didn’t have a social security number to help track people from one place to another. In June of 1915, to the shock of the congregation, Laughlin abruptly resigned. Then everyone learned the Presbytery were bringing charges against him. They found him guilty. He was defrocked. 

Virginia City with mine shaft hoisting in foreground
Virginia City, 2012

Did Laughlin do some good things in his time in Virginia City? Yes. At least from the newspaper reports, it certainly sounds like he did. The same is true with Sonny in the movie, “The Apostle.”  But both were morally flawed. That doesn’t mean that God can’t use them to achieve certain objectives, just as God used the Persian King Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.[7]

What none of us know is whether either Laughlin or Sonny trusted in Jesus. Were their hearts ever cleansed by Jesus’ saving grace? Or were they just in it for their own benefit. While I would like to think they were in it for more than themselves, that’s between them and God.  

This passage warns those who serve the church to make sure we do God’s work and not work for our own glory own. But there is also a message here for others within the community of believers. Do not be astonished by the powers some portray. The Bible never hides the idea that others may have miraculous powers, so we are not to be lured by their strange abilities. Think of the Egyptian magicians who matched the first of Moses tricks before Pharoah.[8] For the first several plagues, the magicians went go toe-to-toe with Moses, except that the snake Moses turned his staff into who ate the snake Pharoah’s magicians conjured up. Only after the first few plagues did the magicians give up and say, this is from the hands of God. 

It’s easy for us to be astonished by others who seem to do great things, even those who collect great wealth, but we shouldn’t succumb to envy or covet their position in life. We are unable to know the condition of their hearts, nor can we know their relationship with God. We will all be judged by our hearts and our faithfulness, not our wealth or success. Beware of the wolves hiding in fleece or rotted trees. Instead, seek out those whose hearts are humble and whose lives are faithful. Amen. 

[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (1990, Grand Rapids, MI, 1990), 355. Bruner takes this quote of Augustine from the Catena Aurea: A Commentary of the Four Gospels: Collected out of the Works of the Fathers by St. Thomas Aquinas (13th Century).

[2] Marcionites (2nd Century) saw God as only love and no judgment, Docetism (3rd Century) thought Jesus only “seemed to be” human.” Pelagius (early 4th Century) seems to have denied Original Sin. 

[3] 1 John 2:18

[4] Deuteronomy 18:20-22 and Ezekiel 34 

[5] Psalm 6:8. Jesus quotes from the Psalm from the Greek Septuagint text. 

[6] My sources for Laughlin’s story come from a variety of newspapers and minutes of Session and the Presbytery of Nevada. I drew the story from my dissertation, “Presbyterians and Miners: The Church’s Response to the Comstock Lode), San Francisco Theological Seminary, 2002 (see pages 95-100). 

[7] 2 Chronicles 36:22-23. 

[8] The Egyptian magicians were able to turn a stick into a snake (Exodus 7:10-12), create dead fish in the Nile (Exodus 7::21-22), and bring forth frogs (Exodus 8:6-7). But they were unable to created gnats (8:19) and the boils Moses called down even fell on the magicians (Exodus 9:11).