Uncle Jay Explains 2008

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Saint Ruby Yenkala

I have noticed that there are people in this world that seem to change everyone around them. It seems like merely speaking with them, or shaking their hand, is enough to transform you. I believe that this is what Paul meant by a "fruit of the Spirit." Saint Ruby Yenkala was not always sunshine and roses, not always happiness. Sometimes, she was frustrating and infuriating, but she changed us, and I think, she changed us for the better, and she changed us for good. She was a white woman of Jesse Helm's generation who thought nothing of worshiping with, embracing, and helping people regardless of their color. She was a woman who should, by all rights, been sitting in the back of the church, keeping her mouth shut except to responsively pray or sing. And yet, ever since she walked in the door of Northminster, she was standing in church, telling us what was needed in the community, giving us the good news and the bad news. Ruby was Christ's eyes and ears and hands and fee...
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Love Not Fear

Well, I guess it's about time I took some time to describe what the title of the blog means. It's one of those cool phrases that change meaning depending on the punctuation, like "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen". Love, Not Fear: With the comma, it gives a choice. "God is love" says the Bible. "Fear not," it also says in numerous places. I think the choice the Bible wants us to make is pretty clear. And it is a choice. Love and fear are both emotions, and you can't really help what you feel, but you can help what you do. Love and fear are also verbs. I don't believe that God wants you to be so concerned with your own survival that you jump at shadows. When Christ calls us to love our neighbor, I don't think he means for us to fear our other neighbors. Now, there are a lot of people who say that I should not tell this to you young people. I constantly see advice that young people need to be made afraid for their futures, either their et...
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A Sermon: What Happens when I Try to Write a Sermon in McDonald’s (Text: Matthew 5:11-16)

[I preached this sermon on October 13, 2019 at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Pearl River, LA]   I have superpowers. No, I can’t fly or bend inch-thick iron bars or explain why there are 14 schools in the Big 10 football conference and 10 schools in the Big 12. But I have my own superpowers, and at the risk of drawing the attention of some three-lettered government agency, I’d like to tell you about one of them: super-hearing. I can’t hear dog whistles or people whispering a mile away. It’s more subtle than that, and I can’t really control it. Let me explain with an example. Last Saturday, I had nothing written down for this sermon, and it was starting to bother me. I had ideas, but I never know whether an idea is any good until I try to put it into actual words, in actual sentences and actual paragraphs. So, I got out of the house and went to McDonald’s to get a drink and try to write. I had a notebook, an obscene number of pencils and pens (just to be sure I h...
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