Reflections from Irvington United Methodist Church
Here you will find random reflections on God, Jesus, the Spirit, and walking in faith. You might find short devotionals, sermon notes, and or other thoughts from our pastors to encourage and challenge your walk with the Lord.
The Circle of Gratitude
by: Denise Robinson
11/21/2022
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The Circle of Gratitude
Eph. 1:15-19; Ps. 100; 1 Thess. 5:16-18
A Catholic priest, a Methodist minister, and a rabbi want to see who’s best at doing their job. So, they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins: “I found the bear by the stream, read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his first communion.” The Methodist minister says, “I found a bear by the stream, preached
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Weird Bible Stories: Radical Love
by: Denise Robinson
11/15/2022
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Weird Bible Stories: Radical Love
2 Kings 6:1-7; John 3:16-17
We’re at the end of a short sermon series looking at Weird … strange … odd Bible stories and focusing on why they are in the Bible and what message they have for us today. We’ve learned about Balaam and his talking donkey, a king who received a message written by a disembodied hand, and a prophet of God who never suffered physical death but was taken up into the clouds in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire.
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Weird Bible Stories: Taken
by: Denise Robinson
11/07/2022
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Weird Bible Stories: Taken
2 Kings 2:9-11; Matthew 27:50-53
In the 2008 movie, Taken, Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA officer who springs into action when his seventeen-year-old daughter and her friend are kidnapped by Albanian human traffickers while travelling in France on vacation. The movie, if you haven’t seen it, is rather far-fetched when it comes to all the situations Neeson gets into and out of. But no Hollywood movie can begin to compare to today’s Weird Bible Story:
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Weird Bible Stories: Handwriting on a Wall
by: Denise Robinson
11/01/2022
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Weird Bible Stories: Handwriting on a Wall
Daniel 5:5-9; Jeremiah 31:31-33
For every occasion there is a cliché to go along with it. There’s “a penny saved is a penny (earned)” attributed to Ben Franklin. Or “the early bird gets, or catches, the (worm)” attributed to I don’t know who. Many of our sayings come from the Bible. “By the skin of my (teeth)” – Job 19. “Out of the mouths of (babes)” – Psalm 8. “Rise and (shine)” – Isaiah 60. “United we stand, divided we (fall)” – M
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Weird Bible Stories: A Talking Donkey
by: Denise Robinson
10/19/2022
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Weird Bible Stories: A Talking Donkey?
Numbers 22; Acts 4:13-14
It’s October in Irvington and weird defines our community this month more than usual … so, I thought perhaps for the next few weeks we’d look at some weird stories in the Bible. There are events in the Bible which are difficult for us, as human beings, to understand – God speaking our world into existence, the human birth of Jesus Christ, the miracles Jesus performed including his own resurrection from the dead,
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The Day the Crayons Came Home
by: Denise Robinson
10/17/2022
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The Gospel in Children’s Stories: The Day the Crayons Came Home
Ps. 34:1-4,22; Luke 15:18-20
Several weeks ago, we began this sermon series looking at the good news of Jesus Christ through the lens of popular children’s stories. We began with The Day the Crayons Quit, where we first met Duncan and his underappreciated and complaining crayons. This morning we end this series by returning to Duncan whose crayons have resolved their issues and they are happily coloring together
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Green Eggs and Ham
by: Denise Robinson
09/29/2022
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The Gospel in Children’s Stories: Green Eggs and Ham
2 Cor. 5:11-17; John 6:60-69
Before we dive into our sermon for this morning, here are a few Dr. Seuss trivia questions. What was Dr. Seuss’ real name? Theodor (Ted) Seuss Geisel. Was he really a doctor? No, but his father wanted him to be one, so he borrowed the title when he began to write. What was the first Dr. Seuss book to be published? And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It was rejected 28 times before it
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by: Denise Robinson
09/18/2022
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The Gospel in Children’s Stories: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
John 6:35-40; Matthew 5:6
We are born hungry. In the most literal sense, one of the first things a newborn does, after its first cry, is eat. A baby doesn’t need to learn to cry when he or she is hungry, but it doesn’t take long for that same baby to learn that when it cries someone will come along with food. But hunger isn’t just about food. Hunger is defined as “having a strong desire or craving for something.”
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The Day the Crayons Quit
by: Denise Robinson
09/13/2022
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The Gospel in Children’s Stories: The Day the Crayons Quit
Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:1-8
Have you ever wanted to just quit? Stay in bed and pull the covers back over your head? Tell your employer to take your job and … look elsewhere. Run away from home. Well, in our non-Bible story that Lori read for us, The Day the Crayons Quit, Duncan has a problem: he just wants to color, but his crayons have sent him letters of complaint saying they have had enough and want to qu
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The Church
by: Denise Robinson
09/05/2022
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Wesley’s Greatest Hits: The Church
1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Ephesians 4:1-6
We’re in the last week of a sermon series called Wesley’s Greatest Hits, in which we’ve been examining some Wesleyan truths about faith as preached by the founder of Methodism. Thus far we have learned that in a word, the purpose of Christianity is salvation, that is the forgiveness of sin and the restoration of a right relationship with God; the means through which we are drawn to God is by God’s grac
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True Religion
by: Denise Robinson
08/29/2022
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Wesley’s Greatest Hits: True Religion
Matthew 5:13-16; 1 John 3:18
We’re in the fourth week of a sermon series called Wesley’s Greatest Hits, in which we’ve been examining some Wesleyan truths about faith as preached by the founder of Methodism. Thus far we have learned that in a word, the purpose of Christianity is salvation, that is the forgiveness of sin and the restoration of a right relationship with God; the means through which we are drawn to God is by God’s grace; an
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The Image of God
by: Denise Robinson
08/23/2022
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Wesley’s Greatest Hits: The Image of God
Genesis 1:26-27,31; Romans 5:12-21
If, as we learned from two of John Wesley’s sermons, that the word “salvation” sums up the purpose of Christianity and the word “grace” sums up our Wesleyan understanding of how God draws back into a right relationship with Him, we probably have unanswered questions. Of course, I think one of my finer qualities is that I always have questions! The one for this morning begins with, “Why?” Why does God
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The Means of Grace
by: Denise Robinson
08/16/2022
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Wesley’s Greatest Hits: The Means of Grace
Luke 18:1-7; Malachi 3:6-7
If there is one word that more than any other sums up Wesleyan theology, that word would be “grace.” While other pastors and theologians of his day preached of the wrath and judgment of God to frighten people into the pews of the churches, Wesley took a different approach. The grace of God, he said, should so overwhelm us that we respond willingly out of love. Which is not to say Wesley didn’t believe in a
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The Way of Salvation
by: Denise Robinson
08/08/2022
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Wesley’s Greatest Hits: The Way of Salvation
John 3:16-18; Ephesians 2:8-9
It seems, more and more, loaded words are all around us making us cautious about what we say and to whom. What’s a loaded word? The term is used to refer to a word or phrase that induces a strong emotional response and carries a positive or negative connotation beyond its literal meaning. Are we experiencing global warming or climate change or a shifting climate? Do we have bureaucrats and public serv
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Colossians: A New Life in Christ
by: Denise Robinson
08/01/2022
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A New Life in Christ
Colossians 3:1-17
For the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at lessons from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The letter was written to a church Paul neither started nor visited but, as we learned last week, he was responding to a report of false teaching in the church that went to the very core of the Christian faith: When it comes to salvation, is Jesus Christ enough? Paul opened his letter by commending the believers in Colossae for their
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