Milford Presbyterian Church Sermons

Sermon from Sunday, February 14, 2021. Enigma (Part 6). Mark 11:12-17. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. In a very familiar episode of the gospel story, Jesus overturns the tables of money changers in the temple. But just before he does this, he does a strange thing we’re not so familiar with: he curses a fig tree because he’s hungry and it has no fruit to offer him. This bizarre scene may look like a small tantrum, but in reality it is a symbol meant to help us understand Jesus’ more dramatic action in the temple.

Sermon from Sunday, February 7, 2021. Enigma (Part 5). Luke 16:1-13. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. In what is generally regarded as Jesus’ most difficult parable, Jesus seems to be praising the cunning and dishonesty of a manager who defrauds his master to save his own skin. Somewhere in this unsavory behavior is a lesson for Christian discipleship, but it certainly doesn’t jump off the page.

Sermon from Sunday, January 31, 2021. Enigma (Part 4). Luke 22:35-38. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. As Jesus nears the end of his ministry and prepares for his confrontation with authorities, he seems to command his disciples to take up arms - a very striking departure from the tone and substance of his teaching up to that point. His followers are eager to oblige his request, but in their hurry to answer the call to arms, they reveal how much they (and we) still have to learn about Jesus and his kingdom.

Sermon from Sunday, January 24, 2021. Enigma (Part 3). Mark 7:24-30. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Jesus encounters a Gentile woman who seeks healing for her daughter. While it may seem like the set-up for a straightforward miracle story, it is anything but. In this desperate woman, Jesus is confronted with the question of how broad his ministry is really supposed to be, and by extension, how expansive the good news of the kingdom of God will ultimately become.

Sermon from Sunday, January 17, 2021. Enigma (Part 2). Luke 14:25-33. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Jesus makes demands of his disciples so stringent and uncompromising that we can’t help but wonder if anyone can truly follow him. The reason his demand seems so unreasonable to us is that we struggle to put our loves in the proper order - but doing so is a prerequisite for discipleship.

Sermon from Sunday, January 10, 2021. Enigma (Part 1). Mark 4:10-12. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Jesus explains to his disciples why he teaches in parables, and his explanation is far from satisfying. The fact that Jesus is difficult to understand - perhaps even intentionally so - may tell us just as much about ourselves as it does about him.

Sermon from Sunday, January 3, 2021. John 1:10-18. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. As a part of John’s unique telling of the Christmas story - the coming of God in the flesh - he tells us that Jesus gives us power to become children of God. This is much more than the bestowal of special status upon those who accept Jesus; it is our induction into the way of discipleship. It is a call to us to follow Jesus, not upward to heaven but downward in humility and service.

Sermon from Sunday, December 20, 2020. Home for the Holidays (Part 4). John 1:1-5, 14. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. John’s house at Christmastime isn’t really decorated for the season, but that’s because John is just too busy embedding himself in the deep, theological meaning and purpose of the celebration. The gathering at his home is not so much a Christmas party as it is an engaged and impassioned discussion. With the benefit of other evangelists already having told the story of Jesus’s birth, John is free to go all the way back to the very beginning.

Sermon from Sunday, December 13, 2020. Home for the Holidays (Part 3). Luke 2:1-14. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Luke’s house at Christmastime is as festive as festive gets. Luke gives us the Christmas story that we know and love, the story that dominates the religious imagery and iconography of this season. The deep significance of Luke’s telling, however, goes beyond scenes of quiet stables and starlit fields; it is embedded in the characters who make up the stories and the world they inhabit - a world that is being made ready for the coming kingdom of God.

Sermon from Sunday, December 6, 2020. Home for the Holidays (Part 2). Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15, 19-23. Matthew’s house at Christmastime is a crowded place - it’s a family reunion, and there are many familiar faces and many unfamiliar, but all sharing in a common lineage. Pictures on the wall connect the living family to many who came before. The celebration of the coming of Jesus is the joyous recognition that the Savior is born into the long history of God’s loving covenant with God’s people - the family of God.

Sermon from Sunday, November 29, 2020. Home for the Holidays (Part 1). Mark 1:1-11. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The home of Mark the evangelist is spare and unadorned at Christmastime. In fact, there is not a single holiday decoration anywhere in the place. But it would be too hasty to conclude that Mark doesn’t care (or know) about the Christmas story. Instead, it is more a question of the particular way that Mark wants us to think about the coming of God into the world - which is, after all, what Christmas is really about.

Sermon from Sunday, November 22, 2020. Ephesians (Part 5). Ephesians 6:10-17. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Paul urges the Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God in order to defend against the assaults of the evil forces that are all around us. The challenges of living in a manner worthy of our calling in Christ are very real, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Sermon from Sunday, November 15, 2020. Ephesians (Part 4). Ephesians 5:8-20. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. Paul uses Light and Darkness to help the church understand its relationship to the world. But we need to be careful not to assume that the divisions between the two are perfectly clear, nor that living as Christians in the world is a simple matter of sheltering ourselves from the world. The days may be evil but God is good, and that has profound implications for who God is calling the church to be.

Sermon from Sunday, November 8, 2020. Ephesians (Part 3). Ephesians 4:1-16. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. When the resurrection power of God is at work in God’s people, we - who once were dead - are rescued and made alive in Christ. And having been saved by the grace of God, our life together as a Christian community takes a different shape: instead of being characterized by division and contempt, it is defined by humility, peace, and unity.

Sermon from Sunday, November 1, 2020. Ephesians (Part 2). Ephesians 2:1-10. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. For Protestant Christians, this portion of Ephesians forms a theological center of gravity for the whole of the Gospel: we are saved by grace. And despite the many complications Christians have constructed around the notion of salvation, it really is almost this simple. And that is Paul’s point as he writes this letter to the church. God’s gracious power is at work in us, rescuing us from the messes we make of ourselves and of this world.

Sermon from Sunday, October 25, 2020. Ephesians (Part 1). Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church is simple: that they would see and experience the power of God at work among them and through them. At a time when so much seems to be out of control and we so often experience feelings of powerlessness, could there be any better prayer for the church today?

Sermon from Sunday, October 18, 2020. Holy Habits (Part 6). Romans 12:1-2. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. There is a great deal of overlap between worshiping and attending a worship service, but they are not the same thing. What happens when the community gathers for worship is a condensed and enhanced form of the kind of self-offering that God asks of us every day of the week. To worship is to make ourselves a living sacrifice for the health of our souls and for the good of the kingdom.

Sermon from Sunday, October 11, 2020. Holy Habits (Part 5). Isaiah 58:1-12 & Matthew 6:25-34. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. The ancient practice of fasting has fallen by the wayside for many Christians - especially Protestants - in recent generations. As a result, we struggle to understand how giving up food deepens our connection to God. But fasting, more than just going hungry, is about discovering what we hunger for in life. And it is only after we are aware of and honest about this that we can begin to set our priorities in the proper order.

Sermon from Sunday, October 4, 2020. Holy Habits (Part 4). Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 & Matthew 6:1-6. Pastor Bryant Anderson preaching. In the classic lists of spiritual disciplines, we usually find solitude: the practice of intentionally removing oneself not only from people but also from the noise and distractions that daily life brings. But because solitude has become an unintentional reality for many of us during this pandemic, it is also important at this moment to acknowledge the companion discipline of community, which may actually require more focused effort right now. The two disciplines - solitude and community - work hand-in-hand to nourish our souls and strengthen our spirits.

Sermon from Sunday, September 27, 2020. Holy Habits (Part 3). Luke 12:13-21. The pitfalls of wealth and possessions are many and dangerous, and scripture is uncommonly univocal on the matter. What is less clear is what we are supposed to do about it. Sometimes we assume that the answer is to rid ourselves of our possessions, which is impractical (and even irresponsible) in the modern world. Poverty may be the opposite of wealth, but that does not necessarily make it the antidote of wealth’s perils. Rather, the answer is the hard, steady, lifelong discipline of generosity.