Words of Welcome

    Jeremiah 29:1-7 I’ve lived in small towns and big cities, but I think you could call me a city boy. After all, I was born in Los Angeles and have spent the past seventeen years living in Metro Detroit! So, while I enjoy visiting small towns, I like the amenities that come with living in a metropolitan area. But big cities, like small towns, present their own kinds of challenges. The word we hear this morning from Jeremiah raises an important question. Are we willing to invest ourselves in making our communities more livable?  This word from the prophet Jeremiah comes in the form of a letter sent to the first wave of Jewish exiles that King Nebuchadnezzar sent to Babylon. When Jeremiah sent this letter, Jerusalem, along with its Temple, still stood. But, while these exiles, including the former king and his court, may have hoped they would return home soon, Jeremiah warned them that their exile would last for a long time. He told them to ignore the false prophets w...

  Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 While I once lived in a small town when I was a child, I’ve lived most of my adult life in cities. I started life in Los Angeles and lived briefly in San Francisco, but my first true memories are connected to my childhood in the small town of Mount Shasta. Although I tasted small-town life before I ever experienced city life, I know what it means to be a city boy, if you count the suburbs as the city! So, what responsibility do we have as suburbanites for the welfare of the city? That’s our question for today! We’ve heard a word from the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote a letter to Jewish exiles living in Babylon. These exiles included the elders, priests, prophets, and everyone else whom Nebuchadnezzar sent to Babylon in the first wave of exiles who accompanied King Jeconiah and his mother. This was before the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple a decade later. At that point, the exiles still hoped they could return to their homes in Jerusalem. Nevertheless...

Isaiah 62:1-5 A bride always stands out at a wedding. Even the groom is overshadowed by her presence. To give you a sense of the disparity between bride and groom, let me tell you about a Midwestern tradition called the groom’s cake. Being from the West Coast I’d never heard of such a thing, but in Kansas, it seems that every wedding reception has a groom’s cake. Compared to what has to be called the "bride’s cake," this little cake is humble and nondescript. It’s just a simple ordinary cake – no tiers, arches, or fountains. It’s just cake, frosting, and maybe the groom’s name. Perhaps the reason why a bride stands out on her wedding day is that she’s simply more beautiful than the groom. No one pays much attention when the groom and his attendants enter the sanctuary with little fanfare, but when the bride's maids begin to enter everyone pays attention. They know that the real show is about to begin. The crowd turns and watches expectantly, hoping to get a good look at t...