Psalm 11: When The Foundations Are Destroyed

This is a lightly edited version of a sermon I delivered last year at the opening worship gathering for Koinonia, the fellowship for Princeton Theological Seminary's PhD students. From 2011-2015, I served as Chaplain for the Koinonia fellowship. I felt urged to post it today, because not much has changed in the last twelve months, and my words convict me more than ever.

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If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me,
    “Flee like a bird to the mountains;
for look, the wicked bend the bow,
    they have fitted their arrow to the string,
    to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
If the foundations are destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?”
The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord’s throne is in heaven.
    His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
    and his soul hates the lover of violence.
On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur;
    a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
    the upright shall behold his face.

God's Own Heart

Image found at:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/
culture-mulcher/files/2010/09/my-son1.jpg

I have no regular pulpit, because I am not an ordained pastor. But I sometimes do preach. And today I had a sermon. This is what I would have preached on Sunday, August 9, 2015.

Insert Clever Title Here

I haven’t been posting often. Mostly because my writing attention has been going toward a dissertation (a book-length academic paper necessary to graduate from many PhD programs). But a post has been building up in me that begged to be written. I’ve learned to heed that voice. While writing this post, I also learned to kind of ignore it.

A few days ago, I read this article about yet another large PCUSA church leaving the denomination for the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. I have reconciled myself to the fact that nearly 200 churches have left the PCUSA to join ECO. What bothers me is not that they are leaving, but rather a consistent and ongoing claim made by many (not all, but many) of those who are doing so. Here are a few quotes from the article and from the letter written by the Session explaining their decision. From the article:

“The majority of those in support of the split say the national denomination is no longer consistent with their beliefs, chief of which they say is that Jesus Christ is the one path to salvation and the Bible is God's authoritative word.”