Ronnie McBrayer

"I suspect that knowing God’s will is not the real challenge for us. Knowing God’s will is the easy part. Doing it is the hard part. As living sacrifices we keep crawling off the altar when the flames get hot. No, I don’t know the will of God for you, but I do know that whatever it is, it will require courage instead of playing it safe; it will require the narrow path, not the smooth road; it will...

This Lenten talk from Psalm 32 is about weight; internal weight upon the conscience; let it be an act or a past behavior that worries your heart, that you cannot get off your mind. It hangs over your head like the Sword of Damocles. Exhausting you; robbing you of living; stealing from you your peace; you can’t really enjoy life as your eyes are always darting to see if the sword is yet in motion;...

Jesus' message from Luke 14 is simple, but start: "Violence will only lead to more violence. Compromise will only lead to more compromise. It’s death and destruction down both of those roads, as it has been for all of history. If you want a different outcome, you’re going to have to try something different!” Jesus could be accused of channeling Abraham Lincoln when he said, "My concern is not whet...

In this talk on the "Temptations of Jesus," Ronnie centers the reformer Roger Williams and his critique of corrupting power. Williams, the eventual founder of Rhode Island, rejected the use of abusive power as a means of religious ends; as a power-holding, power-wielding church would always become an oppressor of conscience. Williams wrote forcefully from his exile among the native tribes of New E...

Last in the series on Genesis: "'The answer is in the story, and the story is still being told.' That story - your story, our story - will keep being told as long as we live and breathe - and then long after we have lived and breathed - even as Joseph’s story is still being told today. And while there’s no magical place that can take away your suffering or erase your painful memories or immediatel...

God asks Jacob question: “What is your name?” It is an invitation to confess.  He answers, of course: “My name is Jacob.” I’m a rascal - trickster - a fraud. Never had the man been so honest. And that honesty - that confession - changed his life. God says in response, “Not anymore. You have wrestled with God and you have prevailed. Your name is now Israel.” Jacob wasn't blessed because he had work...

Ronnie's exploration of Genesis arrives at one of the book's most difficult passages: What Jews call, "The Binding of Isaac." Ronnie says, "All ancient religions were built on the same foundation: 'God is angry…We stand in constant danger of being destroyed…Only the blood of the most precious - the most innocent - can save us.' So, when God comes to Abraham with this sinister demand, it wouldn’t h...

In Part 6 of Ronnie's series on Genesis, he arrives at Abraham - and Ray Kinsella, portrayed by Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams." Both mean hear the Voice, and heed an inexplicable calling - an intuition, a vision, a dream - emerging from out of the ether. They "go the distance," to quote the Voice, displaying a tenacious faith that simply keeps going. 

The Dark Side, that monstrous, powerful energy from the Star Wars universe is, per George Lucas, "grasping, clutching, greedy desire. It is to want; to control; to have supreme power.” And so, we arrive at Genesis 11 and the remarkable story of the Tower of Babel; something I will refer to this morning as, “The Empire Strikes Back,” for that is exactly what happens here.  The whole post-flood popu...

Part 4 of Ronnie's series on the Book of Genesis highlights Noah and the Flood: "There are a lot of reasons the story of Noah and the Flood is told as it is. To show the superior powers around the nation of Israel that Yahweh remains supremely in command; to show that the Hebrew God is not capricious - that God is capable of emotion, regret, even change; to show that God ultimately commits himself...

From talk three of Ronnie's series on the book of Genesis: "We can’t really deny this gift of free will. We can only wrestled with it, because as a gift, it is the most problematic one God has given us. We have freedom, but it has its limits. Those limits make our choices in life extremely important. As El Jefe said to the Counselor: 'You are the world you have created.' What kind of world will it...

In Part 2 of Ronnie's series entitled, "Genesis At the Movies," he takes on the chaos of the pre-ordered universe; how God overcame darkness and confusion; and how we as God's creatures and Earth's inhabitants are called to foster, cultivate, and otherwise to cause Creation to flourish. Ronnie says, "This isn't  'environmentalism.'  No, this is stewardship of all: Natural resources, pristine lands...

In a new, ambitious Sunday morning series of talks, Ronnie dives headlong into the book of beginnings, the Book of Genesis. Each talk will have a movie theme, to engage the listener, this week's being "Back to the Future." Ronnie says: "The book of Genesis was not composed and collected as a scientific explanation for the formation of the Universe... as literal, datable, fixated history...or as  a...

"Yes, if I could tell of everything that will enter your life in the days, years, or even decades ahead, it just might kill you. But if you take a few moments to sit and think about everything you have already survived - you just might discover that you are tougher than you thought you were - more adaptive than you are giving yourself credit for - and have a wee but more faith than you thought you...

Ronnie shares the story of Gary and Ronda Fleming, emphasizing the hope that comes with the Advent season: "Ronnie, your introduction of Emily Dickinson's poem, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers,’ resulted in a momentary emotion-filled mental trip from the Simple Faith sanctuary to a time in the summer of 2014, where we had a personal and very profound experience with hope as a thing with feathers....

"What is really important you? Put another way, if you knew your time was short, on what or to whom would you focus your evaporating minutes? To what task would you give yourself? How would your priorities change? The truth is, your time is short, so these questions apply. "Your spirituality, faith, and overall wellbeing will grow stronger, deeper, livelier, and more vital as it becomes the more f...

"Yes, I am a follower of Jesus. Yes, sometimes I’m even a Christian - sometimes. That word becomes more and more problematic because of so much uncommon ground. Yes, there are a number of essential beliefs important to me and to which I hold - fewer though, as I get older. And yes, some of my beliefs are in conflict with the beliefs of others, and these conflicts are not easily dismissed - they ar...

Jesus wasn't the first Jewish rabbi to codify a "golden rule" or to emphasize the Great Commandment(s) to "Love God and love your neighbor." Jesus was - and is - however, the one to make the ethic of love normative for we who call ourselves Christian, for love is the only thing that can "tikkun olam." From the Hebrew: Love is the only thing that can "heal the world." Politics will not heal the wor...

"'Do not go gentle in that good night.' That’s the line that I see dancing behind the blind Bartimaeus story, this man persistent enough to not be left in the dark. Dylan Thomas was the Welsh poet who authored the furious, defiant lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night…burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' How was Bartimaeus’ sight restored? By a power o...

As it was in the days of Jesus, so it is today. This society is Machiavellian to its core - trunk, root, and branch. The end justifies the means. Do whatever it takes to reach your goal, no matter how dirty or how ugly or how corrupt. Politics - obviously so - from the most local election to the highest seat in the land. In our economics - so long as the shareholders make their money, do whatever...

"Teach us to number our days, wrote the Psalmist, "that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Certainly, the writer is instructing us all to count our days; that is, be aware of how brief life is. Going further, the writer is making sure that we make those few days of life, really count. Sure, we would all like to have a little extra time, but the only way to have extra time is to realize how little tim...

With the recent passing of songwriter, actor, and icon Kris Kristofferson, Ronnie took some time to reflect upon his life - a life that can never be duplicated. From the talk: "To know and become who you really are - who God made you to be - to take up the life that only you can live, a life that can never be replicated: This is the beginning of the soul’s fulfillment. But it often requires a givi...

"Hurricanes are the result of low-pressure systems moving across warm tropical wasters. Earthquakes are caused by the normal release of energy from the movement of tectonic plates. Sickness and disease are as old as the ecosystem that sustains humanity, and we are frail beings. Evil people - with twisted minds and monstrous intentions - will always live among us. This is the natural world - the na...

"There is a discernment, a knowing, that goes beyond - and exceeds mere intellect or intelligence. I’ll state what we all know: A person can have the highest of IQs, advanced degrees, technical proficiency, and have no common sense whatsoever; no problem solving ability. You can be intelligent - and still be stupid. You can have knowledge - more than most people around you - but still be a clueles...

"What are we to make of this strange and wonderful story, this encounter Jesus has with a foreign woman, this talk of dogs and outcasts? The story is told, once again, to reinforce a constant and primary theme of Jesus’ ethic and ministry: He is breaker of boundaries; literally and figuratively. He intentionally moves into the foreign places; into the marginal places; out to the borders; out to wh...