First Presbyterian Church News (Clarksville, TN)

  Lent & Easter 2024 Sermon Series Christian Somatics: A Celebration of Incarnation February 14 - March 31 We are called to follow Jesus with our whole self. This is what Jesus meant when he affirmed that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our “self” or “me-ness” does not just live in our heads or our minds. We are also our bodies. ( Soma is the Greek word for “body” in the New Testament.) Our “self” is just as much in our shoulders, knees, and toes as it is in our head. I am my body and you are your body. In this series we will go to Scripture to learn what it means to follow Christ with our whole body. Along the way, each Sunday we will introduce a new body-prayer practice into our discipleship: somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, mindful movement, attuned touch, and the like, as we seek to become more and more like Christ. Ash ...

Christian Friendship in an Epidemic of Loneliness April 9-May 21, 2023 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), loneliness is on the rise and is now considered epidemic in many countries, including the U.S.  This epidemic of loneliness is a public health issue and a significant risk factor for physical and mental problems, including heart disease, depression, and anxiety.  In this context, it is very good news that the Christian Gospel offers salvation, even from an epidemic of loneliness, through the formation of genuine friendships based in faith, hope, and love.  In an age when many live alone, and are living further from family and friends--an age in which the promises of social media and digital communication have proven false, or at least problematic--our faith offers an opportunity to reimagine and renew our friendships, our lives together, and our community.  Now more than ever we need genuine Christian friendship. Join us this Easter season as we ex...

Any particular color, as an artistic or literary symbol, may take on any number of meanings.  It is often the wider context that lends a color its true significance...  As we enter Advent 2021--another season of waiting and preparation for the advent , the coming arrival of the Christ--we are asking ourselves, what do these colors mean in the context of Christmas?  This is nothing new. For centuries Christians have assigned particular meanings to these colors:  Red is traditionally seen as a means of expressing belief in the eternal and abundant life we have received through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Green is for new birth to a living hope of eternal life in Christ.  Gold represents worship and God's gifts that are given to be shared.  Blue is a reminder that some people experience heartache and pain even, especially, at Christmas. And  White  reminds us that Christ came so that our lives may also reflect the fullness of God's good...

  As has long been noted, at least since the church historian Eusebius ( Ecclesiastical History , VII.25.11), the writer of the letters of I-III John is anonymous, referring to himself only as  ‘ὁ πρεσβύτερος’  ( presbyteros ),  "The Elder."  The latter two letters are personal, addressed to an individual, hardly a page of papyrus for each.  They are a post script and a p.p.s. to the longer and more general first letter, which reads more  like a treatise than a letter (like Romans or Ephesians).  It has none of the usual features of a letter, opening with a poem-like section and ending abruptly.  There is no salutation or greetings, no indication of sender or recipient.  Taken together, the three letters contain a full explanation of Christian life and doctrine in somewhat symphonic form, like a piece of music that returns to themes and notes with variations: light and darkness, love and hate, truth and lie, sin and righteousness. Join u...

Amos, What Do You See? This week, Amos sees the Lord standing beside the altar in the sanctuary, striking the capitals on the pillars until the whole building collapses, shaking even the foundations.  He hears a hymn--usually a source of encouragement--but this time it contains an ominous warning.  Finally, in the last vision of the book, he sees a sieve.  With the sieve, God is cleaning the grain: sifting out every stray piece of chaff, all the stones and pebbles of every size, and every bit of dirt.  The cleaning requires removal and destruction of the debris. Israel's response, to the bitter end, is to ridicule the prophet.  They treat him like Henny Penny--echoing his words, but mixed with laughter: "the sky is falling, the sky is falling."  They ignore him.  They think he is a boy crying wolf. But Amos has seen what he has seen.  Disaster may not fall today or tomorrow, but it will come, especially if Israel does not take the warning to hear...

 Sermon Series:  Responding to the Divine Invitation The Bible contains a set of personal invitations from God to us to live a full, abundant, free life -- to enter into life eternal.  All we need to do is respond!  The primary invitation is to enter into relationship with God, our Creator.  All of these biblical invitations reach their fulfillment in the personal invitation to a life-giving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  In the gospels Jesus invites those who want that life-giving relationship to respond to his invitation and call.  Join us in August for a new series of sermons to help us R.S.V.P. to those invitations. August 8      Psalm 66:1-20 & John 1:35-51      Come and See August 15    Isaiah 28:9-13 & Matthew 11:25-30    Come and Rest August 22      Matthew 19:16-22 & John 12:20-26      Come and Follow August 29  ...

A Basket of Summer Fruit  Amos 8:2-3  ...“Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by.  The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” Once again, what seems at first to be a scene of prosperity and plenty, a sign of progress and the conclusion of a successful harvest, is overshadowed by the oppression of the poor and economic injustice.  With Amos's southern drawl the Hebrew word for "a basket of ripe fruit" (probably figs) and "the end" or a "cutting off" sound the same.  You may think all is well, Amos warns, because the economic engine is still spinning, but the grim reaper's scythe is there in the harvest photo.  This week's oracles come as a warning to those who cannot slow down, who are obsessed with work and with the al...

  "Amos, What Do You See?" As our summertime sermon series continues this week, Amos recounts a set of three visions, culminating with one in which the Lord is standing beside a wall  built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.  To make sure that Amos gets the picture, God asks Amos the question we have been repeating every week: “Amos, what do you see?” And when Amos answers correctly, “A plumb line,” the Lord says “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel." (Amos 7:7-8) Join us this week as we ask what sort of plumb line God has set in the midst of the church today and just what sort of message God wants us to take away from these visions shown to Amos nearly 3,000 years ago.