Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I shared with the people of Zion Lutheran Church, Baker, WV this morning. The text is Romans 15:4-13.              Hope…it’s a word we hear a lot. What does it mean? I hope it doesn’t snow. I hope I win the lottery. I hope I pass this exam. The Jewish people’s hope was in a messiah that was to come. When friends struggle with impossibly painful, awful situations, when asked if things will ever be any better, they may respond, “I hope so.” But biblical hope is more than crossing our fingers and wishing. The hope Paul speaks of in today’s reading from Romans is that “of Christian expectation…hope that faith affords” (BDAG). Hope is “to put one’s confidence in someone or something” (BDAG). And that someone or something is God.             What Paul says here begins with hope. It ends with hope. It’s like a shelf full of books with bookends. They are named hope. And the books the shelf contains are full of hope as well. Hope is at the beginning of Paul’s writing, ho

Thanks to Rev Abi for this morning's prayer. Lord, Come be the salt in our life that we then can be the salt in other’s lives. Lord, Teach us how to not be stumbling blocks in the little one’s lives. Lord, teach us to accept each other even though we are different in our practices and our form of worship and church government. Lord, Teach us to be the salt that this world needs. Lord, help us in our walk to be your disciples. Lord remind us it is for such a time as this that you have called us to be your disciples, to spread the salt of your grace and love in this world. Lord remind us to spread your hope in a world that sometimes feels hopeless. Amen flickr photo