Claimed, gathered and sent

This past Sunday, as well as it being the Third Sunday of Easter, we celebrated Earth Day Sunday. At St. Timothy's , one of our lay people with a passion for stewardship of the earth, brought the message for the day. At St. Mark's , I preached. Below is what I shared with God's people at St. Mark's . The gospel was Luke 24:36b-48 . Have any of you ever read the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum? Granted, the title is a bit of an exaggeration, however it goes right to the core ways of how to behave with others in our world. 1. Share with others if you can. 2. Refrain from hitting. 3. Clean up after yourself. 4. Apologize when you hurt someone and so on. If you do these things you'll be well on your way to becoming a good citizen. What would you say if I told you that everything we need to know about Jesus Christ is found in this passage of Luke's gospel? In these verses, we find a concise summary of Je

On Sunday I had the privilege of leading worship and preaching at the church I'm serving and also a neighboring congregation. Our two churches are close geographically and for many years shared a pastor. This is the message I shared at my congregation. The text was John 6:51-58.             Our church has quite a reputation. Last week, for the celebration of Portville’s 175 th anniversary, many people made pies and other delicious baked goods. From what I have heard, many people were specifically looking for the goodies we made. They had purchased pies or fudge from us during the Heritage Days celebration. Our baked goods have achieved renown in the community.             We are a church who enjoys food and knows how to eat. Before I was officially called to be Bethel’s pastor, Ray and I had dinner together with the church council at Sprague’s. Pr. Dan Rumfelt shared that Bethel has a reputation. Then, he asked if the council knew what that reputation in the community is.