St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, EPC

St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, EPC
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Updated Biweekly

Sermon podcasts of St. Patrick Presbyterian Church in Collierville, TN (from 2017 forward). Check out our old podcast for sermons prior to 2017 - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st-patrick-presbyterian-church/id860820566?mt=2

Episodes

  1. 11h ago

    The New Birth and Its Fruits

    There are things in this world that defy explanation. There are events that happen that you would say are impossible. I just read an account of that in David Grann’s book, The Wager. It is the story of HMS Wager, a British ship that was lost at sea rounding Cape Horn—the southern tip of South America in 1741. It was reported by other ships in the squadron that it just vanished. However 2 years later, various factions of the ship made it back to England, telling tales of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder. You read the book, and you can’t believe it is possible that anyone would survive this shipwreck given the weather, the desolate island they were initially stranded on, the privation they endured, and the navigational feats they achieved, and yet they did. It has been a week like that for me. On Sunday I will tell you another story where the seemingly impossible happens. That is not just from my estimation of the situation, but also from everyone I asked, including the car body shop I went to. He heard my story and looked at one of his guys who worked for him and said, “I don’t believe in all our years here we have ever seen this before". We do love stories of the unlikely and the unimaginable, don’t we? Well, this week we turn to look at how the redemption that Jesus accomplished at the cross actually comes to us, and let me just say this—in the Gospel, the impossible becomes possible. I will say no more until Sunday! I hope you will join us. I don’t know about you, but it was good to get back into a rhythm this past week. Now if we could just get some coo

  2. Aug 23

    It Is Finished

    The first debate I ever heard about the atonement of Jesus was at my grandparents' house in Northeast Mississippi. I was only about ten or eleven at the time, but from time to time the debate would come back up. My grandfather was a Calvinist, and my grandmother was not. My grandparents were some of the finest people I have ever known. They loved the Lord a whole lot. I have my grandfather's Bible, which has a cloth cover sewn on it, and I can still see him in a recliner reading it after lunch until he fell asleep for a short nap before we headed out to the fields. My grandmother was quietly poetic, and I can still see her at the stove with a calico apron on, a spatula in hand, a little flour on her face—grinning as she quoted some piece of poetry to my cousin and me. They rarely argued, and this point of theology may have been the only argument they engaged. But here is what would happen. A conversation about Jesus's death on the cross would begin, and my grandmother would say this—and when she said it, she would direct her scripture to my grandfather. She would say, "Olen, Jesus said, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you under my wings, but you would not.' See, Olen, that is free will—'you would not.'" She would articulate this with poetic flair and pathos. My grandfather was a man of few words and, totally undaunted by the passion of her delivery, would say this: "Now, Marie, the angel that announced Jesus's mission said this: 'You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' See, Marie—'his people.'" This Sunday we will be talking about the atonement of Jesus and looking at the story of the cross and why the whole image of Christianity is gathered up in this one symbol. We will be pondering the question: did Jesus really make an atonement for sin, or just make atonement possible? I hope to see you Sunday as we continue to marvel at the grace of God!

  3. Aug 16

    Blessed, Blameless, Beloved

    I didn’t grow up in Reformed theology circles. We were part of a branch of Presbyterianism that had rejected its confessional roots and only partially retained the governmental structure. I think I knew in my late teens there was something called “5-point Calvinism,” but I didn’t know what that meant, or anyone who believed in it (other than my grandfather’s hermit cousin). Fast forward 25 years, and now it’s not just an optional feature of the Presbyterian package for me. It’s a foundational part of how I understand the God of redemption. I teach it several times a year and each time my faith is always enriched.    One of the things I’ve heard many times along my own journey of discovery is someone claiming to be a “4-point” Calvinist. Often the “point” these folks don’t want to adopt is the one of the two we’re talking about the few weeks: unconditional election and limited atonement. But the deeper concern is actually a collection of unspoken logical implications drawn from the flow of the entire argument. When I learned what they were objecting to, I was quick to recognize the logical inconsistency of this pick-and-choose method. The whole rational nature of the doctrines of grace collapses under that kind of buffet-style theology. Why would people do that?   What takes much longer and much more love is to see how this is not a quibble with the theology, but commitment to God’s holiness paired with a confession of grief. When you are a broken person in relationship with broken people, Biblical terms like election and predestination (and theological counterparts like eternal security and assurance of salvation) aren’t just ideas. They carry heavy implications for those we care about. We are not just rational creatures. We are affectionate too, and very protective of our loves. And the secret is that this tension we feel is not just a problem: it’s a hint at the solution.    This week, I hope to help us repent of a separation between the rational and relational aspects of our souls that puts us between the rock of our salvation and the hard places of our experience.  If God is as gracious as we Reformed folks claim He is, then the way we talk about the so-called “doctrines of grace” should reflect that. And He certainly is.

  4. Aug 9

    Dead Men Walking

    I am not much for throwing out Latin terms. Long ago I took Latin and was not very good at it, but sometimes an old term just needs to be used, and if we don't know it, we just need to. Sola Gratia is the name of a new series we are starting this week and will run for the next five weeks. Sola Gratia means grace alone. It was one of five solas that came out of the Protestant Reformation—like battle cries, or things we hold dear and must never forget, or we will lose something that must not be lost. If you have been around here for a while, it will sound familiar to you, because it is one of our four core values—"Grace is Everything." It's not just a core value; it is, we might say, the core value which makes all our other values possible. Grace alone is what the gospel is all about. For the next five weeks we will look at the gospel and ask the question, "Why is grace everything?" Sunday we will look at what we might call a biblical anthropology, or who we are as human beings before God—what is our essence as image bearers of God, and how has sin affected us. It is a bleak picture, and one in which, if we do not understand it, grace will just be something, not everything. I hope you will join us Sunday!

  • 4 Episodes

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Sermon podcasts of St. Patrick Presbyterian Church in Collierville, TN (from 2017 forward). Check out our old podcast for sermons prior to 2017 - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/st-patrick-presbyterian-church/id860820566?mt=2

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