Words of Welcome

  Ephesians 2:11-22 Many of us will remember Ronald Reagan’s visit to West Berlin in 1987, during which he famously declared: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” While Mr. Gorbachev didn’t tear down the wall, it wasn’t long before the people of Berlin tore it down. Two years later, as the world watched on live TV, the people of East and West Berlin mounted the Berlin Wall and began tearing it down. For once, the East German police, who routinely shot people trying to escape across the wall, didn’t step in to stop it. Before long what had been two nations for four decades was once again united. I remember sitting glued to the TV watching the report, amazed at what was happening. At least for a moment, the world tingled with hope that this was a day of new beginnings for world history. We hoped for a moment that peace would come to a divided world. Things haven’t turned out as many of us hoped, but that image of a wall of hostility falling has stayed with me. What many of us di...

  Genesis 12:1-4 The words bless, blessed, and blessing, appear regularly in the Bible. Jesus offers nine blessings to begin the Sermon on the Mount ( Mt 5:1-12 ). We find many words of blessing filling the Psalms. The same is true of the Book of Genesis. In the first chapter of Genesis, we read that God blessed God’s human creation and then told them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” ( Gen. 1:28 ). This morning in our reading from Genesis 12 we hear God make a covenant of blessings with Abram, better known to us as Abraham. God tells Abram to pack up the family and head off to an unknown land. If Abram does this, God promises to bless him and make him a blessing to all the families of the earth. The promise of blessings sounds good, but on the flip side, this promise involves quite a bit of risk on Abram’s part. Nevertheless, ...

Acts 10:44-48 Last Sunday we heard a baptism story and witnessed Richard’s baptism. This morning we hear another baptism story that’s part of a much larger story that begins with an angelic visitation to a devout God-fearing Roman centurion who was stationed in Caesarea. The angel told Cornelius that his prayers had been answered and he should send for Peter who was staying in Joppa with Simon the Tanner. It was lunchtime when Cornelius’ messengers arrived at Simon’s house and Peter was up on the roof praying. While he prayed he had a food-related vision. In this vision, God told Peter not to consider things to be unclean if God declared them to be clean. So when went downstairs and greeted the messengers, he put two and two together and went with them.  When Peter entered the house of Cornelius, he confessed that he had always believed that it was unlawful for a Jew to be in the house of a Gentile, but apparently, God had changed the rules. What he had learned from the vision...

Genesis 12:1-4 The word “bless” is found in some form nearly 600 times in the New Revised Standard Version. When I looked up the words we translate bless, blessed, and blessing in my Bible dictionary, I discovered that the Hebrew words speak of health, longevity, and fertility. I also discovered that it can be translated as flourishing. So, if you say “I’m blessed,” or “what a blessing,” is this what you mean?  When Bruce Barkhauer was with us, he spoke of a "thread of hope" running through Scripture, linking creation to new creation. I believe that there is also a "thread of blessing" running through scripture that connects the call of Abram to Jesus, and through Jesus we are connected to the realm of God.  This morning we heard God call Abram to leave his homeland and migrate to a new land so that God could make him and his descendants a great nation so that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him or because of him. All he had to do...

Exodus 14:19-31 We cross borders all the time.  Crossing the border into Canada is relatively easy, as long as we have the proper identification.  If you’re trying to cross from Mexico into the United States without documentation, it can be incredibly difficult and dangerous.   The plight of the children fleeing the violence of Central America and the status of young adults who came here with their parents as small children and who have known no other world but America has raised important questions about the nation’s immigration laws. Many are asking whether they are fair and just and appropriate.  Then there’s the border dividing Detroit from its suburbs.  While no one has to present their papers to cross the divide that 8 Mile Road symbolizes, in the minds of many Detroit and the Suburbs are two different worlds.  In fact, crossing the border can be frightening for many – on both sides of the divide.  We cross borders every day of...

Galatians 3:23-29 “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”  Thus, saith Mark Twain (or at least the online quote pages say so).   What we wear does say something about us.  If you wear a suit and tie to work that suggests one thing, while overalls something else.  Shorts and a T-shirt are  something else still.  Some members of the clergy wear a collar, which suggests that they are working for God.  Some of us go incognito and don’t wear anything special. As women have entered the workforce and political life, they have wrestled with what to wear.  Remember how Hillary Clinton’s pant suites became the talk of the country during the 2008 primary season.  I think she called herself “Have Pant-Suit will travel.”  Wearing a dress might suggest that she was running for First Lady rather than President, so she chose the Pant-Suit.  Yes, clothes can speak volumes about who we are, where we come...