Words of Welcome

Mark 1:21-28 Jesus walks into the synagogue at Capernaum, immediately heads to the pulpit, and without so much as asking for permission from the synagogue leaders,  starts preaching.  After that, the place falls into chaos.   That’s because, no sooner had Jesus started preaching, when suddenly, a man stood up in the sanctuary, and started shouting Jesus.  The man, whom Mark says was possessed by an evil spirit, screamed at Jesus, demanding to know what Jesus would do with “us?”    Are you going to destroy us?  After all, “I know who you are.”  Yes, “you are the holy one of God.”    Picture yourself in such a congregation.  How would you have responded to all of this commotion?  Would you have been amazed and shaken, as Mark suggests was the case for this congregation?  I expect that like us, this congregation liked things to be done “decently and in order.”  What would you make of both the preacher and the respondent to this preacher?  Would you call the police? A

1 Samuel 3:1-10 When Teddy Roosevelt became President in 1901 he was the first President since James Buchanan who hadn’t been directly involved in the Civil War.  Though Grover Cleveland did pay a substitute to take his place in the Union Army. Bill Clinton was the first post-World War II generation President, and since Barack Obama’s election in 2008, it appears that the torch may be in the process of being passed once again. Passing the torch of responsibility from one generation to the next is inevitable –   in politics, in business, in sports, and in the church. At Central Woodward, we’re blessed with members who can remember the earliest days of this congregation, back when it sat on Woodward Avenue.  It’s good to hear your stories, and we’re hoping to get them down on video soon.  But a new day is dawning, and new generations are taking up the mantle of leadership.  And that’s the way it should be. The story of Eli and Samuel that we heard read this morning i

Genesis 1:1-5    “The end of something is better than its beginning.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 Common English Bible)    I thought you’d want to hear this word from Ecclesiastes, since we’re moving into a new year.  Beginnings are important, but endings are even more important.  A few years ago the Lions won all their preseason games and everyone expected good things, and then they lost the next sixteen in a row.  This year, the Lions had an up and down season, but they ended up in the playoffs – that was a much better conclusion.     Each of us has a story of beginnings to tell, what we don’t know is how things will turn out.   My own life began on March 3, 1958 in Los Angeles.   Five years later, I began my formal schooling as kindergartner in Mt. Shasta.  From then on,  for the next seventeen Septembers, I would begin a new school year.  After taking off two Septembers, I restarted school in January 1982, when I began my seminary career.  Of course I didn’t just start scho