By Jim McCoy

• The Day the Circus Left Town by Jim McCoy (1/26/2017)
  Micah 6:1-8 Psalm 15 I Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12

  Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward [human beings]. Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?

• Found in Translation by Jim McCoy (6/23/2016)
  Sixth Sunday after Pentecost 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Psalm 77 Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-61 “My 1865 Webster’s defines translation as ‘being conveyed from one place to another; removed to heaven without dying.’ We must have an art that translates, conveys us to the heaven of that deepest reality which otherwise ‘we may die without ever having known’; that transmits us there, not in the sense of bringing information to the receiver but of putting the receiver in the place of the event – alive.” -- Denise Levertov, “Great Possessions” “The Tr...
• When the Wars Are Done by Jim McCoy (4/8/2016)
  Third Sunday of Easter John 21:1-19 The start of baseball season brings the usual acknowledgement of Jackie Robinson’s 1947 breaking of the color line in Major League Baseball. The pleasant plaudits often mask the upheaval, furor, and continuing effects of that event in history. In his acclaimed elegy to the 1950’s Brooklyn Dodgers, sports journalist Roger Kahn, writing from the perspective of 20 year-hindsight, says,

  That time seems simpler than today, but mostly because the past always seems simpler when the wars are done. Jackie Robinson was a focus. At big, dark Number 42, forces converged: white hatred for his black pride, for his prophetic defiance and simply for his colo...

• Stranded on Olympus by Jim McCoy (9/4/2015)
  Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Mark 7:24-37 James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17  

  The appropriate response to the depiction of Christ’s suffering and broken flesh is not empathy leading to philanthropic action or political activism on behalf of the less fortunate other.  Rather, it is meant to provoke repentance and conversion.                                                                

                                               Luke B...
• Abiding Fruit by Jim McCoy (4/29/2015)
  Fifth Sunday of Easter John 15:1-8 While admiring a tree in full bloom, Joseph Parker, a Congregational minister in Victorian England, noticed that under the wide-spreading branches there was a huge limb of the tree withering away. He realized that “the same sun that created the blossom was causing the tree branch to wither.”

  To the living tree whose roots were struck into the earth the sun was giving life, but to the branch cut away, having nothing but itself to live upon, the sun was pouring down arrows of destruction. The great sun, so hospitably full of light, kind, friendly, was feeding, like a mother-nurse, the living tree, and was killing with pitiless fire the sundered branch.

• What Sort of Greeting? by Jim McCoy (12/19/2014)
  Fourth Sunday of Advent 2 Samuel 7:1-11,16 Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38   The Christmas story has its own vocabulary. This week’s Gospel passage has been called the Annunciation, which means ‘announcement.’ Not in the sense of ‘before we get started, let me share a few announcements,’ but more like ‘we interrupt this program to bring you an important announcement.’ A mysterious messenger breaks into the life of a young, poor, unmarried woman, telling her she will have a baby. About the baby, Gabriel said, “He will be great, and will ...
• They Cried to the Lord by Jim McCoy (10/17/2014)
  Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Exodus 33:12-23 Psalm 99 I Thessalonians 1:1-10 Matthew 22:15-22 “They cried to the Lord, and the Lord answered them” (Psalm 99:6b) The Psalmist’s words will be the entrance into this week’s Scripture passages. The hope as we gather in our respective places of worship is that the words of the texts will not only say something, but also do something. Paul Simon’s song “Wartime Prayers” helps bridge that divide. Simon, who admits he is as surprised as anyone a...
• Life Threatening by Jim McCoy (8/29/2014)
  Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Exodus 3:1-15 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 The news story reported that the injuries of the accident victims were “serious but not life threatening.”  It struck me that in addition to being a welcome medical diagnosis, that phrase is also a not-so-welcome description of a very prevalent misunderstanding of discipleship.  Serious, earnest, studious?  Certainly.  But life threatening?  That’s just not in our fram...
• Passages by Jim McCoy (5/30/2014)
  Seventh Sunday of Easter Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 I Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11 My friend Stan Dotson claims that texts are called “passages” because they offer us passage. They can take us somewhere. The culmination of this week’s Gospel passage, Jesus’ prayer “that they may be one, as we are one,” takes me to a question posed by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: “How do black people and white people become one in Christ Jesus? And what does that look like?” (Free To Be Bound: Church Beyond the Color Line, p. 61). Given the demographics of the part of the county where I live in western North C...
• Break in the Cup by Jim McCoy (3/20/2014)
  Third Sunday in Lent Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 David Wilcox calls "Break in the Cup" the “anti-love song,” his protest against the romantic mythology that says all we have to do is find that one person who will make us forever happy, and how hard could that possibly be?