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.
Faith Under Construction: Build an Altar
by: Denise Robinson
05/01/2022
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Under Construction: Build an Altar
Genesis 35:1-3; 1 Pet. 2:4-5
I was sitting in traffic on 465 a couple weeks ago listening to a podcast and did a double take when I heard the podcaster use a phrase I had never heard before: they referred to road construction as the “immaculate congestion.” I’m not sure about the immaculate part, but if you’ve tried to get around the city for the past year it can be difficult. Summer used to be the season for road construction, but now it s
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One Sermon Above All
by: Denise Robinson
04/18/2022
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One Sermon Above All
Luke 24:1-5; 1 Cor. 15:13-19
At Easter we get to the heart of our faith and we lay it all on the table. We proclaim to the world the same Jesus who died on a cross, rose from the dead on the third day. These are not symbolic words or metaphorical words – they are literal words of the Christian faith, memorialized in the earliest creeds of the Church. Later in the service we will be joining in The Apostles’ Creed, the oldest creed of the church; these wor
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Why A Palm Sunday
by: Denise Robinson
04/11/2022
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Why a Palm Sunday?
Matthew 21:1-9; Zechariah 9:9-10
How many Palm Sunday sermons do you think you’ve heard by now? For many of you, the number would be one a year for most, if not all of your lives. For some, the number may not be nearly so high. For me, there were the years of growing up in the church, followed by a long absence with none, then one a year ever since. Bottom line, I’ve heard a lot of sermons with donkeys and palm branches and hosannas. But it’s never been ex
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When Nothing Seems to Be Happening
by: Denise Robinson
04/04/2022
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When Nothing Seems to Be Happening
Luke 19:1-10; Matthew 20:25-28
Have you ever had someone ask you what you’ve been up to or what you did yesterday, and your response was nothing really? Many of us seem to be constantly on the go, but we all have those days – are maybe hours – when we find ourselves with nothing to do or when what we did what so unimportant, we simply forgot how we spent the day. There are likely things we could do or perhaps should do – like laundry or cle
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Gethsemane: I'm Not as Sure as When I Started
by: Denise Robinson
03/28/2022
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Gethsemane: I’m Not as Sure as When I Started
Luke 23:39-46; Hebrews 10:19-25
Gethsemane: the place Jesus went to pray before his crucifixion and death. This season of Lent, we are going with Jesus to Gethsemane as he prepares for his final week on earth to see what lessons there are for us in that place. Two weeks ago, we looked at how Jesus prayed in Gethsemane; how, for the first time in his ministry, Jesus didn’t want to be alone but wanted friends with him as he prayed
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Gethsemane: Take This Cup Away from Me
by: Denise Robinson
03/23/2022
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Gethsemane: Take This Cup Away from Me
Mark 14:32-38; Matthew 6:10
Gethsemane: the place Jesus went to pray before his crucifixion and death. This season of Lent, we are going with Jesus to Gethsemane as he prepares for his final week on earth to see what lessons there are for us in that place. Last week we looked at how Jesus, for the first time in his ministry, did not want to pray alone; he wanted friends with him as he prayed to give him comfort and strength. If Jesus ne
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Gethsemane: Will No One Stay Awake with Me?
by: Denise Robinson
03/16/2022
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Gethsemane: Will No One Stay Awake with Me?
Matthew 26:36-46; Matthew 6:5-6
Gethsemane: the place Jesus went to pray before his crucifixion and death. It may well have been the place, other than Bethlehem when he was born, where Jesus was most human. Last week, Jesus, knowing full well what was going to happen, set his face to Jerusalem. He made the decision to go, set out on the road with his disciples, and overcame obstacles and opportunities to get there. For the next few
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Gethsemane: He Set His Face to Jerusalem
by: Denise Robinson
03/10/2022
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He Set His Face to Jerusalem
Matthew 16:21-28; Luke 9:51
Have you ever set your face to do something? We might say instead that we made a plan or set our minds to something. It might be a major life decision such as getting married, having a family, buying a house, preparing to go to college, or changing jobs. Small decisions may be made on the spur of the moment, but in larger, more impactful, matters we tend to weigh the pros and cons, consider possible outcomes for oursel
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Dare to Be a Disciple
by: Denise Robinson
02/28/2022
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Dare to Be a Disciple: How Far are You Willing to Go?
Matthew 17:1-8: Philippians 2:12-16
This morning we are ending our sermon series, Dare to Be a Disciple. For the past few Sundays, we’ve looked at the lives of several of the disciples to see what they can teach us about this way of life called discipleship. Each Sunday we’ve seen a different side to what a commitment to Christ looks like: keep asking questions and seeking answers, above all else love others, don’t be afr
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Defeated Judas
by: Denise Robinson
02/21/2022
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Defeated Judas
Mark 14:17-21; Matthew 27:3-5; John 17:11-12
Judas Iscariot. The name alone conjures up all kinds of images: a kiss by a friend, a stab in the back by a traitor, thirty pieces of silver. Many of us, if asked to name the twelve disciples called by Jesus, would immediately come up with the big three – Peter, James, and John; and then maybe we might name Matthew and Thomas. The others: James the lesser, Simon the zealot, Philip, Bartholomew
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Divided Peter
by: Denise Robinson
02/15/2022
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Divided Peter
Matthew 14:25-33; Matthew 16:15-23; Mark 14:27-31, 66-72
The New Testament gives a more complete picture of the disciple Simon, better known to us as Peter, than of any other disciple. Two weeks ago, we began looking at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ through the lives of those Jesus first called to be disciples. From Thomas we learned that a disciple will have doubts from time to time but never stops asking questions and s
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Devoted John
by: Denise Robinson
02/07/2022
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Devoted John
Acts 4:1-3, 16-20; Mark 10:35-45; 1 John 2:3-6
Last week we began a sermon series focused on discipleship. The word “disciple” is one of those “churchy” words we talk about, but don’t do a good job of defining. We don’t really understand what it means to be a disciple or what being one looks like in real life. As we learned last week, in examining what we know of the disciple we call Doubting Thomas, discipleship involves more than procla
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Doubting Thomas
by: Denise Robinson
02/03/2022
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Dare to Be a Disciple: Doubting Thomas
John 14:1-7; John 20:24-29
In the church we talk a lot about discipleship. We talk about how we are called to be disciples and to make disciples of others. But what does it mean to be a disciple? How do we know if we are one? And if we suspect we aren’t one, how do we become one? This morning we begin a new sermon series called “Dare to Be a Disciple,” and over the next few weeks we are going to explore discipleship through the lives of
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Revision: Forgiveness
by: Denise Robinson
01/26/2022
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Revision: Forgiveness
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 18:21-22; Romans 8:1
Riding in his Popemobile across St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot by Mehmet Ali Aqca, who had escaped from a Turkish prison after receiving a life sentence for murdering a journalist. Two of the four shots struck the pope in his lower abdomen. Aqca, and an accomplice, were captured, arrested, and jailed. The pope survived his injuries, and then asked Catholics to pray for Aqca,
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Revision: Priorities
by: Denise Robinson
01/17/2022
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Revision: Priorities
Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Romans 12:9-21
We are in a series looking at revising our faith. Revision is an interesting word. When we revise something, we consider what we’ve done before, find mistakes, consider different possibilities, and change or alter course. Last week we looked at the simple word “Hope.” So much in our lives hinges on whether we have a sense of hope or a sense of hopelessness. For the Israelite people at the time of 2 Chronicles, they had b
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