Tag: christianity

  • Luke 14: 25-33 / Offered to the Rockport PC, Port Murray, NJ Well, there you have it. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you have to hate your father and your mother, and your spouse and children, and your brothers and sisters, and even your life itself. You have to measure the…

  • Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA Luke 24 What we do here at this table is an extraordinary thing. Granted the elements that we begin with are quite ordinary – common bread, grape juice or wine, ordinary plates & cups, a cloth and a wooden table. Ordinary things – “signs” Augustine would have called them. In ancient…

  • Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA Offered on the Second Sunday after Pentecost 2010 I did something unusual [this morning] with the readings. If you noticed I placed the Gospel text first before the Psalm followed by the readings from Acts and the Revelation of John. I did that for a specific reason. It is that when…

  • Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA Presented during Easter Season in 1995 Last week we listened to a reading from the gospel of Luke. It retold the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. And if you listened closely, you know that Jesus stopped before ascending and turned to his disciples. He blessed them and as he began…

  • Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA Taken from Luke 12: 13-21, offered on August 3, 2025, at Hilltop Presbytery Church, Mendham, NJ The Story of the Greedy Farmer [I am providing the text from the Message – of particular interest is the transcription of verse 21] 13 Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to…

  • Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA In this passage in Luke this morning, we see Jesus considering the task he has at hand. Jesus is looking ahead at the many opportunities and possibilities that lie before him in his ministry. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” At the same time,…