Woodhaven Presbyterian Podcast

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
May 16, 2010 - Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16: 9-15

I received my first call to ministry in a Dairy Queen.  After I had graduated Seminary I went down to Houston to visit one of my college roommates.  The trip was my own personal R&R after all my hard work in seminary.  During the long weekend I had only one important thing on my to-do list, which was to touch base with the chair of the APNC of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Denton Texas.  Now for those of you who don’t follow that acronym the APNC is the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee.  We had scheduled to touch base at 2:00 o’clock by phone and since I wasn’t going to be at home I agreed that I would call him; I was not going to miss that call.  Now this was in the early days of cell phones, and being a seminary student, I didn’t have one.  And so we started looking for a payphone, and I knew that I didn’t want to talk to the chairman of the pastor nominating committee that I hoped might one day offer me a call standing in a gas station with all the cars rushing by.  So I was looking for a payphone that was inside, someplace that was relatively quiet where I could talk and be heard.  And that’s when we saw it.  A Dairy Queen.  Bonus!  A telephone and ice cream!

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 The Ministry of Interruptions [16:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
March 14, 2010 — Fourth Sunday in Lent

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, the hobbits had an unusual birthday tradition.  Do you remember?  On ones birthday in Middle-earth, instead of receiving gifts from family and friends, one celebrates the occasion of his or her birth by giving presents to all their family and friends.  Sometimes they even throw large parties for everyone to come and celebrate.  Ask any child, and they will tell you that birthdays are all about presents, lots and lots of presents.  Even some of the adults I know relish in the idea of one day where everything is about me.  The hobbits’ way of thinking about birthdays is backwards here in regular earth, but when you think about it, it’s not a bad concept, especially to those who like presents, after all, your birthday comes only once a year, but in the course of a year in middle earth, you can celebrate many, many birthdays, as many as you have loved ones.  Perhaps this birthday tradition suggests that the hobbits may understand the story of the Prodigal Son very well.

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 More [17:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
January 3, 2010 - Epiphany Sunday
Matthew 2: 1-20

In the classic bathrobe Christmas pageant, the Wise Men are always the last to arrive.  And any child can tell you that it was because they were the ones who had the furthest to travel and because they had to stop and ask directions.  When the Wise Men make their entrance you know that the pageant has reached its grand finale, you can gather up all your goodies and wake whoever is sleeping on the pew next to you, and get ready for the final “Amen!”

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 An Epiphany Celebration [14:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
December 13, 2009 - Third Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-55
I remember when I learned that I was pregnant for the very first time.  I took the home pregnancy test first and, with cautious excitement, I went to the doctor for confirmation.  And once we were certain, we celebrated quietly — and then we waited.  Each day I woke up expecting to feel something different, but every morning was just like the one before.  After a month or so I began to wonder if I was really pregnant!  Here we had begun this life-altering event and yet nothing had changed.

(…excerpt from podcast)
 

 

 The Magnificat [17:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
December 6, 2009 - Second Sunday in Advent
Luke 3:1-18

Advent is a season of preparation.  We decorate our homes, our yards, and sometimes even our cars.  We buy gifts, and bake goodies, and host and attend holiday parties.  But does our Advent busy-ness prepare us for the coming of the Christ child?  John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  John’s voice called us to a different kind of preparation.  John calls on us to examine our lives and our world, and to make ready for the coming of Christ.

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 Standard Podcast [16:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
November 29, 2009 - First Sunday in Advent
Luke 21:25-36

“It’s the most, wonderful time of the year!”  I must confess I have been singing Christmas carols for 2 weeks already and today is only the first day of Advent.  I love Christmas.  Many of the old carols bring to mind happy memories of Christmases past: sitting on the organ bench with my great-grandmother, teaching her how to play “Pong” on our first Atari; my own grandmother making sure everyone had a bell to ring as we sang Jingle Bells, and though even as a child we knew it was a little bit hoaky, we all went along with it because we knew that without singing Christmas carols there would be no presents.  I remember Brianna’s first Christmas, she was only 2 months old, and I held her during the Christmas Eve worship service.  As we sang of the babe in Bethlehem, I looked down into her sweet little face and was overcome with awe, that my savior was once such a fragile child, whose mother Mary loved him as fiercely and tenderly as I loved my own child.

Today’s gospel reading does not bring any wonderful images of Christmas. 

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 A Sign of the Times [13:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
November 15, 2009 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
I Samuel 1:4-20, 2:1-10

Annie was an aspiring artist.  After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute, her professors encouraged her to pursue a post graduate degree, but Annie had different ideas.  She sold all her belongings and bought a plane ticket to Florence where she studied with the masters while waiting tables to pay rent on her room above the restaurant.  When she could string two days off together, she traveled throughout Italy to see the great masterpieces; she especially loved Rome and Venice.  She was a painter, and she loved the Italian artist, particularly Michelangelo.   It was not unusual for her to sit for hours and study a painting.  Annie could never pick a favorite painting, but Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam was definitely in her top ten.  At times she would simply study that small space between God’s fingertip and Adam’s.

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 Standard Podcast [16:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
November 8, 2009
Mark 12: 28-34

Are you a Republican or Democrat?  Are you pro-choice or pro-life?  Do you support building up our military or do you support more programs for the poor?  Do you support home schooling or public schooling?  Do you eat your bread with the butter side up or the butter side down?  These are the issues that divide us and whether we admit it or not we make decisions about people depending upon how they answer these questions.  We sum people up.  “Oh you’re one of them!  That’s too bad.  I was hoping we could be friends.”

Sometimes we make hard and fast rules about discussing religion and politics with friends.  In my extended family we have so many subjects that are off limits sometimes it is hard to find things to talk about.

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 November 8, 2009 [14:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
October 25, 2009 — Reformation Sunday
Mark 10:46-52

I don’t know what made me join the crowd that day.  I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t want to be left out.  I had heard of Jesus, who hadn’t?  Some thought he was the savior of the world, some thought he was the world’s biggest scam artist.  Me?  I don’t know.  I mean, I’ve heard about all those miracles, but I don’t know if I believed them or not.  It’s pretty amazing stuff: healing people, walking on water, feeding this huge crowd with only 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  I guess that’s why I joined the crowd, to see if it was true, to see if he was real.  He looked pretty normal to me, at least from what I could see, I couldn’t get very close.  

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 The Beggar's Coat [12:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rev. Julie Riley
Woodhaven Presbyterian Church
October 18, 2009 — 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 10: 32-45

Strike Three!  Three times Jesus predicted his passion and three times the disciples failed to understand him.  The way the writer of the Gospel of Mark portrays the disciples it is as if they are a bunch of fumbling, bumbling keystone cops. I think today’s reaction takes the cake.  On this, the third prediction, Jesus gives up on any subtle imagery and states as plainly as possible the events that face them at the end of this particular journey.  They arrive at Jerusalem, Jesus is betrayed, Jesus is condemned, is mocked, is killed.  I don’t know how much more graphic Jesus could have been without painting them a literal picture saturated with red blood.  And then as if they don’t even hear him, James and John come to him and ask for the places of honor on his right and on his left.  Of course they have no way of knowing that Jesus’ place of glory would be upon the cross, and on the right and on the left of him would be two criminals.

(…excerpt from podcast)

 

 Stumbling to Follow Jesus [19:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download