Stories & Sermons

“The Illegitimate Jesus” – Sermon By Rev. Brian Combs, 12/22/21 The first Christmas Eve was not a silent night, nor calm and bright.  Loaded camels snorted and saddled donkeys brayed as they passed the haggard couple already a week into the 80-mile walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  Joseph kept checking his empty wallet, anxious about paying the...

Eric can’t really not draw a crowd. I’ve taken a seat by him on the blacktop and, subsequently, two teenagers and their parents have as well. He’s showing us how Johnny Cash made that chuka-chuka percussion sound by strumming with a piece of folded-up loose-leaf paper. He’s spilling all the trade secrets before we’ve even exchanged a...

Eulogy for Nancy Bennett Written & Delivered by Rev. Brian Combs, 6/16/2021 Adopted at birth, Nancy Bennett grew up with autism in Connecticut before boarding school in Lenoir brought her to Western North Carolina.  Strolling the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach and skiing the Black Diamond at Cataloochee Mountain were her favorite pastimes.  But when life wasn’t an...

I often see Michael from my office window; sitting, smoking, waiting patiently until it is time to pick his two-year-old daughter up from daycare. For our staff, who care tremendously for Michael and his family, it has become painful to ask if they’ve been placed in housing yet. We’ve been asking for four years. The...