Hebron Presbyterian Church

06/03/2026

Wednesday Evening Prayer for June 3 - we are in the 34th week of our 40 week stroll through the book of Acts. This week it’s Acts 25:1-12. Join us!

Hebron Presbyterian Church, Shepherdsville, Kentucky, Wednesday Eve...

06/03/2026

June 3
First Reading Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
Psalm Psalm 65
Second Reading Galatians 2:11-21
Gospel Matthew 14:1-12

“…he has put a sense of past and future into their minds.”
-Ecclesiastes 3:11

Ecclesiastes is a wonderful, thoughtful book. It asks questions that bring together philosophy and theology. Today’s passage includes the refrain about there being a time for everything under heaven. People that may not know those words are scripture are familiar with them from the longtime popularity of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!”.

It is a good book to read slowly and to contemplate and engage the questions it asks as you go. Beyond that it throws out ideas and assertions that are worthy of pausing and considering, giving time to let them breathe and knock around in our minds a bit. In 3:11 the writer points out a hallmark of what makes us human. God has gifted us with a sense of the past and an awareness of the future. We know that this moment is not everything; it came from somewhere and it will lead somewhere.

Because of our awareness of our past, we have memories, and those memories hold a huge sway in our lives. They give us confidence or they fill us with regret. We arrive in the present moment with all of those memories inside of us, shaping us and impacting the way we respond to present circumstances that may or may not have anything to do with what has gone before.

Similarly, we know that there will be a next hour, minute, day, and year. We know that what we do now in this moment, we will have to live with in all of those subsequent moments. This knowledge can inspire us and it can make us anxious. We stand here in the present moment, but our minds are already exploring where our actions and choices may take us.

In the next part of this phrase, it goes on to say that all of this awareness, does nothing to help us know the totality of what God is doing. It puts into sharp relief the tension that exists between our limited awareness and the sweep of God’s activity beginning with creation and continuing to wherever it is headed. Scripture gives us guidance, but we can find ourselves frustrated knowing there is a tomorrow, knowing there are choices to be made and actions to be taken, and not knowing beforehand what the outcomes of those choices and actions will be. We arrive then, at the place of necessary faith, hope, and trust in the God who loves us and gave us these gifts, both of looking back and looking forward.

06/02/2026

June 2
First Reading Ecclesiastes 2:16-26
Psalm Psalm 54
Second Reading Galatians 1:18-2:10
Gospel Matthew 13:53-58

“And he did not do many deeds of power there because of their unbelief.”
-Matthew 13:58

This is a very specific passage in terms of a thing happening in a particular place with a particular context and particular people. Jesus has gone home, has done some public speaking and the people just aren’t sure they like what they’ve heard. They know who Jesus is and so they know who he cannot be. Who he cannot be is who his words are asserting he is. See, it feels very dialed into that specific circumstance. Until. Until we get to the sentence at the last that puts the bow on the story.

At that point it becomes a story in which any of us could make an appearance. It becomes a cautionary story for people of faith who are aiming to follow Jesus. It’s about what we’ve decided is possible and what we’ve determined is impossible. Even if we believe all the things we say we believe about Jesus, we have to be aware there is a part of our mind that is thinking that there are things in our experience that are not possible. This story indicates that a big part of experiencing the possibility bending power of God at work is jettisoning our unbelief.

It’s not that Jesus was incapable of deeds of power. It’s that their “unbelief” put up a barrier to even allowing Jesus the space to show them otherwise. It is self-defeating to pray for something while at the same time thinking in our rational mind that the thing is impossible. The point of this passage is not for us to shake our heads at the unbelief of the people of Jesus’ hometown. The point is to help us remove whatever boundaries we might be building around what we imagine God can do in our world. One example: it is easy to imagine that peace on earth is a pipe dream. We’ve demonstrated it’s an impossibility. Still, we pray for it, and still scripture attests that it is God’s will. God doesn’t will impossible things. God wills the future. The call here is to believe it, expect it, work towards it.

06/01/2026

June 1
First Reading Ecclesiastes 2:1-15
Psalm Psalm 57
Second Reading Galatians 1:1-17
Gospel Matthew 13:44-52

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
-Matthew 13:45

In my hobby, comic books collecting, there exists the concept of a collector’s “holy grail book.” That is the book that person is most keen on having as a part of their collection. For me that book is Brave and the Bold #28, the first appearance of the Justice League of America, from February/March 1960.

So I might hear today’s parable as, “the kingdom of heaven is like a comic book collector who finds one comic book of great value. Having found that book that has so captured his imagination, he sells everything he has and buys it.”

I really wouldn’t sell everything to buy one book, not even Brave and the Bold #28. My wife, who is not a comic book collector and therefore is able to offer input as an objective onlooker, might question that, but I do think I’d stop somewhere short of selling everything. The story is not about pearls or comic books however, it is about the kingdom of God. The pearl, and in my adaptation the comic book, are just there to illustrate things that we can know very well, so that we are able to recognize the best of the best when it comes along.

The kingdom of God is the best of the best. It is what we are all built for and it is what we are longing for. Life is often occupied with that thing which will fulfill us, make us whole, quiet our sense of unrest and longing. When we find faith and a relationship with Christ, we experience something unique that can not be matched in any other way or any other place. That is to discover the path - in following Jesus - to the kingdom of God.

This parable teaches us that the mark of true discipleship is that when we become followers of Jesus, everything else falls into line behind that one priority. Anything else that seemed to hold value, is put in perspective and found lacking. Our fulfillment in life will be found in placing that relationship with Christ as our first priority, and our joy will be in living into that relationship day by day through all the days, months, and years of our lives.

06/01/2026

May 31
First Reading Job 38:1-11, 42:1-6
Psalm Psalm 103
Second Reading Revelation 19:4-16
Gospel John 1:29-34

“…I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me that I did not know.”
-Job 42:3

“Then I saw heaven opened and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war.”
-Revelation 19:11

How shall we speak of God?

The Bible does it all the time. We likely do it fairly often. We grow accustomed to talking about God, which is a good thing, but perhaps our familiarity causes us to lose a bit of perspective on the one of whom we are speaking. Jesus offers us a wonderful entry way to speak about God because, in his humanity we find a language we can understand and to which we can relate. Again, that is a good thing, and a central benefit of the Incarnation. But God is also…God. Vast, in some ways unknowable - beyond our bandwidth to comprehend.

The Job and Revelation passages for today, both serve as reminders of the challenge of speaking of God. Chapter 42 of Job is something of a summation of all that has gone before in the Job story. In it Job speaks in humility to God, saying simply “I have uttered what I did not understand.” He has made assumptions and drawn conclusions about God and God’s activity based on the limited perspective of his view of the world. Here he simply confesses that there is no way in which he can imagine the scope of God’s vision.

Revelation offers an attempt at a description of the praise going on in heaven. If you spend any time reading Revelation you know the challenge of following the symbolism and the visions of the book. The writer’s language is limited by the capacity of our language. It is inspiring in places and foreboding in others. It is an attempt to speak of things - things that Job learned are beyond our understanding - in some way that we can, well…understand them.

These passages are helpful to us in reminding us that at the center of our faith is God. God who came to us out of love, and saves us out of grace. God who chooses to be known to us, and who through Christ, through the Spirit, and through creation invites us to a greater knowing and deeper relationship, but who ultimately is still beyond any ability of ours to contain or explain.

05/31/2026

Sunday Morning Worship from Hebron for May 31.
Come on in!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

05/30/2026

May 30
First Reading Proverbs 25:15-28
Psalm Psalm 56
Second Reading 1 Timothy 6:6-21
Gospel Matthew 13:36-43

“If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat, and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink, for you will heap coals of fire on their heads and the Lord will reward you.”
-Proverbs 25:21-22

Something to keep ever before us when we read New Testament scripture is how very much the people in those scriptures and writing those scriptures were shaped by the Hebrew Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. Paul is a prime example. Paul offers many direct quotations of Old Testament scripture and additionally many allusions. He was familiar with the Hebrew Bible. Those listening to him were in many instances familiar with the Hebrew Bible. If someone quoted the preamble to the United States constitution to you without citing their source, there is a good chance you would know what was happening. That’s how it would have been for Paul and his audience.

We can miss this connective tissue at times. Typically we can still understand what Paul is doing and we can benefit from reading these passages independent of knowing their source. But knowing what Paul is doing can at times deepen our understanding, and, at the very least, remind us of how deeply embedded Paul was in the Jewish faith. The short passage above from Proverbs is one such place where Paul incorporates ancient wisdom into his teaching. Listen for Romans 12:20-21…

“Instead, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

What Paul does here is very similar to what preachers do on a regular basis, bringing an ancient text forward to inform a contemporary teaching. It is also a great reminder to all of us to continue to read the Bible. All of it. The more we read, the more we will be able to reference it in ways that are practical, helpful, and life-giving, and the more we will see it showing up in all aspects of our lives.

05/30/2026

Thanks to everyone who made it out for our clean-up day on this beautiful Saturday morning. You accomplished a lot! Apologies to anyone I missed in pics.

05/30/2026

Weekly Check-In Vol.5 #21
May 31, 2026

Following Pentecost Sunday last week, we will be continuing to explore the Holy Spirit tomorrow and through Sunday, June 28. We’ll be turning to a variety of texts from throughout scripture that give us insight into the work of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit helps us to have a greater understanding of God.
Tomorrow is also the second Sunday of our Adult Sunday School Class on the Holy Spirit. We meet at 9:45 a.m. and would love for you to join us.

*****

Work Day Today, Saturday, May 30 from 9:00 a.m. - noon. Your help is invited and welcome as we do some cleaning up around the church building.

Tuesday Prayer Group: Prayer Group will meet this Tuesday, May June 2 at 11 a.m. in the Activities Building.

Graduate Recognition: We will honor our Hebron graduates on a Sunday in June, likely June 14. If you have anyone in your family or that you are aware of in the Hebron family who graduated from any level of school let us know so we can add their name to the list and celebrate them.

Celebrate Life!

George

05/29/2026

May 29
First Reading Proverbs 23:19 - 24:2
Psalm Psalm 130
Second Reading 1 Timothy 5:17-25
Gospel Matthew 13:31-35

“So also good works are conspicuous, they cannot remain hidden.”
-1 Timothy 5:25

Paul is offering Timothy practical advice for his own conduct and for conduct within the faith community. The past few days we’ve had readings from the Old Testament book of Proverbs, and while these instructions from Paul are different, they have some similarities in that much of it is practical, common sense advice. Don’t convict a person on the basis of one accusation, for instance. Instead, make sure there are two or three witnesses.

There is an ongoing dialogue in Christian theology between faith and works. The Reformed tradition of which I am a part as a Presbyterian, makes it clear that we are saved by God’s grace and not by our works. As a result of this it seems that whenever we talk about good works, we are very careful to also add in that they are a response to God, not something which can save us on their own.

I appreciate Paul’s instruction here about good works. He doesn’t suggest that they will save Timothy. What he does suggest is that they can be an important part of his witness. Not because Timothy should point them out and brag about them, but because good works done for the right reason will be a blessing and people will experience that and see that. “Good works…cannot remain hidden.” So in our following Jesus, let us aim to do good and trust that in it we point beyond ourselves to the One who we are following.