Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I preached this morning at Zion Lutheran Church, Baker, WV. Text: Col 1:11-20 Being a part of our household can be quite an adventure and you just never know where it may lead. Those who know me well know I am not the most graceful or coordinated person. Inanimate objects in our home also suffer the consequences of getting bumped, knocked over, dropped, and sometimes broken. We keep a good supply of duct tape, glue, and other adhesives in stock. Things can be repaired or replaced. Super Glue is a wonderful invention. But what about our hearts, our emotions, our families, our church? It is not so easy to fix them. Super Glue is fine for things, but what about OUR brokenness? We all have circumstances we encounter in life. Sometimes it just becomes too much and we feel hopeless. And we wonder where God is in all of it. It just isn’t supposed to happen like that. Parents lose a child. A long marriage dissolves in the pain of divorce. The poet William Butler Yeats ex...

The semester is nearly done. I have two finals, then we're off to be with family for Christmas in Rochester, NY and New Years in RI. When we return in Jan., then I will be spending 2 1/2 weeks (3 Sundays) in Western MD/WV for my Jan. term. Today I supplied at Bender's Lutheran Church in Biglerville, PA, where I have spent the fall semester. The text was Luke 3:7-18 http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=127729731. Most of you know Amity, my husband, Ray’s Seeing Eye dog. She is half-black lab and half-golden retriever. Some of her physical and emotional traits are those of a lab, while others are those of a golden. Now we know she is a cross of only these two breeds, but she often acts as though she has a third breed in her, a pointer. The reason for this is, no matter what Amity is doing, when she’s outside she’s very curious. If she hears a car, sees another dog, or someone she knows, she freezes and stops and looks in the direction of whatever...