Words of Welcome

  Luke 16:1-13 What qualities does a person need to be a good manager? Would you say that honesty is an important quality? If so, would you say the manager described in the parable we’ve heard this morning would qualify as a good hire? Not only did this manager squander his wealthy employer’s property, but once he realized he was going to be fired, he “shrewdly” made side deals with the people who were in debt to his employer in the hopes they would take him in once he was let go. Ultimately, when he was fired, his employer commended him for his shrewdness in making sure he had a way of supporting himself after his firing.   There is something rather strange about this parable. If you’re like me, you probably wonder why Jesus decided to tell this story. What was he trying to accomplish with it? There are no easy answers to these questions because even biblical scholars struggle to make sense of it.  While the wealthy employer commended the manager for his shrew...

    1 Timothy 1:12-17           We’ve heard a lot of bad news this past week. Of course, for this congregation, Marilyn’s death hits us hard because she has been such a steadfast part of the life of this congregation. She will be missed. But that’s not the only bad news we’ve heard this week. That’s because once again, gun violence is in the news. The most talked-about act of violence was the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. That same day, a student walked into a school in Colorado and wounded two classmates and then killed himself. Then I read the news of a father in Port Huron, who shot and killed his seventeen-year-old son and wounded his other two children. This kind of news, which seems increasingly more common, ends up numbing us to the ongoing violence in our world. People wonder where God is present in all of this. The word we hear this morning from 1 Timothy speaks of God’s mercy that strengthens us as we navigate this w...