Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached for the last Sunday of the Season of Creation: Mountain Sunday on 8/26/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was from Isaiah 65:17-25. Ray and I are fans of science fiction. Many are familiar with is the apocalyptic style of science fiction. You know the type, death and destruction everywhere from a deadly disease or another kind of catastrophe. Humanity and the entire earth are on the verge of extinction. Only a few people remain and they must try to survive and eventually rebuild their broken world. That’s a negative type of apocalyptic story. However, in Isaiah, we have apocalyptic literature full of joy and life. It is not about destruction, but rather about something altogether new that God is doing. God had allowed destruction when God’s people were disobedient, exemplified in the people of Judah being exiled to Babylon for several generations. However, God brought them back from exile and promised not just a new Jerusalem, but...

Here are some thoughts on this Sunday's text. This is our last Sunday of the Season of Creation, Mountain Sunday. This was sent electronically to the people of St.Timothy Lutheran Church. Isaiah 65:17-25 1 7 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies  at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall no...

This is the sermon I preached today in my Preaching Controversial Topics class. The audience I had in mind was that of my internship site last year, Grace Lutheran Church , Petersburg, WV.             I’d like us all to take a trip back in time to our childhoods. How many of us still remember the nursery rhymes we grew up hearing? Which one was your favorite? Was it Mary Had a Little Lamb or perhaps Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick? Maybe you can help me with one I remember from my childhood. If you know it, please join in: Old King Cole was a merry old soul And a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler he had a fiddle, And a very fine fiddle had he; Oh there's none so rare, as can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three. Does this nursery rhyme give you the warm fuzzies? Kindly… warm…King Cole…     ...

I love the mountains. They speak to me. Often when I've thought of their beauty, I imagined I would have to live in them to appreciate them. My internship site is in the valley, the Monongahela Valley to be precise. It's also referred to as the gorge. But do you know what surrounds this valley? Mountains! Whether I'm driving or visiting someone at the hospital or nursing home, I see the mountains. This morning, Pr. Larry, my supervisor, and I visited several people in the hospital. At the end of one of the corridors was a door to the outside. On each side of the door were narrow rectangular windows, giving us a wonderful view of those mountains. I never tire of looking at them. They renew and refresh me, making me stop and reflect upon God's goodness. Perhaps that's why the psalmist prayed,"I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come?" (Psalm 121:1).The mountains surround this little town just as God's love surrounds each of us...