Central Presbyterian Church of Haverstraw

06/15/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/one-for-all

From "All for One," the sermon for June 14, 2026:

So Abram went. Upon those three words hinges the hope of the whole fallen world. Abram trusts in God’s promises and goes where God calls him. And because Abram went, we have come. Because Abram went where God called him, so we have come here where God has called us. Think about it. If Abram doesn’t trust God’s promises then, none of us would do so now. Abram’s faith makes our faith possible.

Without Abram’s trust in God, the Promised Land is a promise unfulfilled, and all the families of the earth do not know God’s blessing. Without Abram’s trust in God, there is no Isaac, no Jacob, no Joseph, no people of Israel. Without Israel there is no Jesus. Without Jesus there is no life, no hope, no salvation. Sin and death would continue to hold dominion over us. We would be subjects of the forces of empire rather than citizens of the kingdom of God. Rather than blessed are the poor, we’d have greed is good. Rather than blessed are the peacemakers, we’d have might makes right. Rather than the last shall be first, we’d have everyone for themselves.

That is the power of what God can do through one person. Through one person God can work blessing for all people. Through one person, Abram, God can build a nation. From one nation, Israel, God can send a Savior for the entire world. Through that one Savior, Jesus Christ, God can redeem all the pain, all the suffering, all the sin, and all the death that have plagued humankind from our earliest days.

So Abram went . Upon those three words hinges the hope of the whole fallen world.

06/08/2026

06/07/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/the-least-exclusive-club

From "The Least-Exclusive Club," the sermon for June 7, 2026:

And here’s the irony: for all their objections to the company that Jesus keeps, the Pharisees are also welcome at the table. They’re not excluded. They’re on the guest list, but so is everybody else. That’s because Christianity is the least-exclusive party there is. Everyone’s invited because we’re all sinners in need of God’s grace. Whether we are Pharisees sitting next to tax collectors and sinners or tax collectors and sinners sitting next to Pharisees, we are in good company…for in Jesus Christ we are not defined by our past because by his grace he is making us new.

What greater proof of that is there than Matthew himself? After the story of his calling, Matthew does not appear again in this or any other Gospel. And yet one of the four Gospels is attributed to this former tax collector. He is not remembered for what he did but for who he became in Jesus Christ. The same is true for you, you saints of the Church.

The only thing that defines you , ironically, has nothing to do with you; rather it is what God has done for you in Jesus Christ that is your defining trait.

06/01/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/made-to-order

From "Made to Order," the sermon for May 31, 2026:

Because when we rebel against the rule of love that God has ordained for all things, chaos ensues. Grudges are held. Scores are kept. Relationships fail. Families divide. Foreigners are scapegoated. The poor are pitied. Prisoners are forgotten. And we are held captive by our fears, by our anxieties, by our most self-seeking impulses. Entropy. Disorder. Chaos.

Against such forces of chaos, whether they come within or from without, we can do but one thing. “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” So said the 20th century Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Let me say that again. “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

Man! That makes prayer sound exciting, doesn't it? Participating in an uprising?! Are Christians allowed to do that? Not only are we allowed to, the Jesus calls us to do just that. Every time we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we join Jesus in praying for the reordering of the world in line with God’s good plan.

When we rebel against the rule of love that God has ordained for all things, chaos ensues.

05/28/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/church-for-the-gifted

From "Church for the Gifted," the sermon for May 24, 2026:

To put it another way, the nature of the gifts themselves testifies to the giver. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discernment of spirits, tongues, the interpretation of tongues…these are ways that Christ equips the church to be the church, which is to say, his church. With wisdom that looks like foolishness to the world Christ empowers us to proclaim the cross as the means of salvation. With a knowledge of God that is imparted first to shepherds and fishermen rather than to scholars and kings, Christ shows us that humility is the height of divine knowledge. With prophetic words that speak truth to power, Christ compels our witness to the world.

The important thing is that the Holy Spirit gives us the gifts we need to serve the community where we are.

05/21/2026

A photo gallery from the Hudson River Presbytery’s Nurturing Leadership Conference last Saturday, which Central Presbyterian Church was privileged to host.

05/20/2026

Community Giveaway
Thurs., May 21, 4 PM

05/17/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/gospel-glory

From "Gospel Glory," the sermon for May 17, 2026:

“I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do,” Jesus says in verse 4. Let’s dwell on what that means, on what Jesus is really saying. “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.” The work that God gave Jesus to do was to proclaim the kingdom of God, a kingdom unlike any this world has ever seen. Jesus proclaimed that kingdom in word and deed…in healing the sick, in feeding the hungry, in releasing the captives, in proclaiming good news to the poor…and in offering himself up to death. Jesus finishes the work that God gave him to do by dying on the cross! His glory is not self-aggrandizing but self-emptying. As we say in the affirmation of faith each week, “We believe in Christ Jesus…who though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself.”

“But emptied himself.” Jesus empties himself of power so that we might be raised with him in the power of his resurrection. Jesus empties himself of life so that we might receive eternal life. Eternal life, meaning pearly gates and clouds and everyone playing a harp? Lord, I sure hope not! Give me a drum set over a harp any day. More importantly, that is not the vision that Jesus presents of eternal life. He lays out quite clearly in his prayer just what he means by “eternal life” as if one of the disciples had asked him point blank, “What is eternal life?” “And this is eternal life,” Jesus says, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

Here again we see the irony of the gospel at work . Gospel glory does not wear a crown, it’s nailed to a cross.

05/10/2026

https://cpchaverstraw.org/sermons/anyway-anyhow-anywhere

From "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," the sermon for May 10, 2026:

All throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, we see God working in the most surprising ways: revealing the divine presence not to a powerful empire like Egypt but to a nation of slaves like the Hebrews; taking flesh not as a royal prince born in a palace but as the son of a carpenter born in a manger; selecting as his disciples not the best and the brightest from the big city but fishermen and tax collectors from the countryside; and achieving victory not by conquering his enemies but by being crucified for them, which is to say, for us.

God can and does work through anyone. The young and the not so young. The lifelong Christian and the recent convert. And God can work anywhere. In the pulpit and in the pews. In church sanctuaries and on street corners. In persecuted and persecutor, in Jerusalem and Athens. How, where and through whom is God working today? Like one of my favorite bands, The Who, once sang, anyway, anyhow, anywhere God chooses.

We make idols to put a face on our gods, but the true God has already done that for us in Jesus Christ.