Covenant Presbyterian Church Augusta

This week we continue our Double Take Series of Sermons with our wonderful pastors, Rev. Katelyn Gordon Cooke and Rev. Andy Cooke.  During a recent conversation with some Covenant youth, one of the teenagers said this about their sibling: "Sometimes it's hard to believe we're related. We're just so different." I imagine some of you reading this email have had that thought about your own sibling or others siblings you know. Just because we share DNA and grow up in the same family doesn't mean that we're necessarily alike in personality or preferences.The differences between sisters Mary and Martha are front and center in this week's gospel reading from Luke. When Jesus comes to visit them, Martha goes into super-hostess mode while Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to his teachings. In this week's Double Take sermon where Andy and I each preach a brief sermon on the same Scripture passage, we'll share two perspectives on what these two sisters can teach us about what it looks like to be faithful.

Pastor Andy Cooke said he really enjoyed preaching the first Double Take sermon last week. Katelyn and I each preached half of a sermon, which is what we are doing throughout the month of July. We are in Luke 10 again this week, specifically the story of the Good Samaritan. Last week, we heard about Jesus sending out 72 "missionaries" to towns in the area and telling them to carry no purse, bag, or sandals. They all go out and after some time, they return. Then, he tells them the story of the Good Samaritan.It is good that these two stories appear so close together in Luke's gospel. In the first, the disciples of Jesus are learning to receive hospitality from others. In the second, the disciples are learning to give hospitality to others. They are both important practices in Christian faith.

This week you get not one but two messages from Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke and Pastor Andy Cooke.  This Sunday, we start our Double Take sermon series where Andy and I each preach a sermon on the same Scripture passage. This week's reading from Luke 10 includes some hard (and somewhat confusing?) words from Jesus, and it also includes some pertinent reminders for this weekend when we'll celebrate Independence Day and commission our high school youth and their chaperones who will be going to Montreat Youth Conference next week. 

Guest minister Amy Hobby Rickard says she loves the fruits and vegetables that are available to us this time of year. June is when the juicy locally grown tomatoes and peaches make it to farm stands, and neighbors beg you to take the zucchini proliferating in their garden.  None of this fruit happens by accident. It requires planting and careful cultivation. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is no different.Our passage from Galatians 5 may be familiar to you as Paul shares an extensive list of negative acts and habits that are unfortunately present in many of our lives, and a counter list of positive character traits that God wishes to see in us. We will explore how these ideas were presented to their original audience in the ancient congregation in Galatia, how they can inform us today, and how we can cultivate our own spiritual gardens.

This Sunday will conclude our Greatest Hits sermon series. Pastor Andy Cooke repreaches a sermon from August 7, 2022 entitled "The Audience." This sermon draws heavily from another sermon that one of our first pastors, French O'Shields, preached here 65 years ago this month. When I first came across that old sermon, I felt that it would be important for you to hear it and I re-worked it into the sermon that I preached in 2022. With that history, it seemed perfect for our Greatest Hits series.French O'Shields preached his sermon in June, and I preached mine in August. They were both internally focused sermons meant for those dedicated church worshipers who were attending in that time of the year when the pews were not quite as full. Basically, these sermons were meant to help us re-think what it is that we are doing when we gather for worship.

This Sunday will be a liturgical mash-up of sorts. As Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke explains, on the liturgical calendar, it's Trinity Sunday; we'll still have our Pentecost decorations up; and I'll be preaching an Easter sermon from 2019 as part of our Greatest Hits sermon series. So exciting! :)Each of those events and theological doctrines - Jesus' resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, and the reality of God as three-in-one - issues its own invitation that we get comfortable with mystery. Resurrection is beyond our full knowing as is the Holy Spirit and the Triune God. There's a gift here, I think, in that we are not expected to know everything but instead get to appreciate the wonder, beauty, and faithfulness of the God who created us and claims us.

Recently, Pastor Andy Cooke said he watched A Complete Unknown, the movie about Bob Dylan that was released last year. Near the end of the movie, he is performing at the Newport Folk Festival and playing his new songs with an electric guitar rather than his old folk songs on an acoustic guitar. The audience revolts and starts throwing trash on the stage! They want the songs that they know and love, not the new ones.Pastor Andy says he's often lamented the fact that this is reversed for preachers. People want something new rather than a sermon that they appreciated from long ago. During the month of June, we're experimenting with a reversal of this mindset. This Sunday is the second week of our "Greatest Hits" sermon series during which Katelyn and I will (re)preach some favorite sermons that we've preached during our time at Covenant. This Sunday will be an adaptation of the Pentecost sermon that I preached on June 9, 2019.

This Sunday is the first week of our "Greatest Hits" sermon series during which Andy and I will (re)preach some favorite sermons that we've preached during our time at Covenant. To kick off the series, Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke is  preaching a sermon from early November 2022. We had just started our "Heart and Home" stewardship campaign, which included our annual stewardship campaign for 2023 as well as a three-year Home Improvement Plan.In the Friday email on November 4, 2022, I wrote, "There's a well-known quote from Teresa of Avila that goes, 'Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion upon the world.' It's also true that we are an extension, an expression of God's heart in the world, and that's what we're exploring together in worship this Sunday as part of our conversations about stewardship of time, talent, and treasure." This is still true for us today,

This week's reading from the Gospel of John includes some of my favorite verses of Scripture. Jesus says to his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." I don't know about you, but I need to hear those words from Jesus on a daily - and sometimes hourly - basis. as Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke tells us, there's a lot about our world and in our personal lives that is troubling and that makes me afraid. I need that encouragement and invitation from Jesus to receive his peace.

I've been looking forward to this Sunday for some time. During our worship service, we will recognize and celebrate our confirmands. They have attended confirmation classes, completed their confirmation journals, created faith statements, and met with mentors and elders. This Sunday is the last step on their confirmation journey, and I hope that you will join us and show your support for them.The sermon text will be Acts 11, where God shows Peter a new way to follow Christ that he could never have previously imagined. We often view faith as static, but as Pastor Andy Cooke tells us, it is interesting to watch God change the rules for this old disciple. As we watch these confirmands assume their new roles in the church, I have to wonder what changes God might bring through their involvement that we could never have previously imagined.