Words of Welcome

Proverbs 8:22-31 “In the beginning was the Word, . . . All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” ( John 1:1, 3 ).  And Holy Wisdom declares:  “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago . . . then I was beside him, like a master worker” ( Proverbs 8:22, 30 ).  Both Word and Wisdom are expressions of God’s nature and are partners with God in the work of creation.    Some in our society believe that one cannot be both a Creationist and an evolutionist. They say that we have to choose – God or science. For the past ten years I have been involved in an effort to counter that belief. For ten years I have invited the congregations I served to observe  Evolution Sunday  on a weekend near the birthday of Charles Darwin. While we didn’t get a birthday cake for Charles, we are joining hundreds of faith communities across the country and beyond by worshiping with Charles ...

1 John 4:7-12 When I was in high school, we often sang a song in Bible study that drew from the Song of Solomon.  It went like this: I am my beloved’s, and he is mine. His banner over me is Love.  ( Song of Songs 6:3; 2:4 ) Who is the beloved whose banner over me is love? If you read the Song of Solomon in a straightforward way, you’ll discover that this is a most explicit love song. But, down through the ages, Christians have read this song allegorically to describe Christ’s relationship with the church. Christ is the Beloved, and those over whom the banner of love flies belongs to him.      In one of the weddings at which I officiated, the Scripture text was taken from the Song of Solomon. Among the words shared that day were these: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, n...

Luke 12:4-7    Several decades before the American Revolution, a preacher got up to preach a sermon that has lived on in infamy.  Some of you may have read it as a high school student.  Perhaps you liked what you read, but I expect that it didn’t resonate with most of you. That preacher was named Jonathan Edwards and the context was the First Great Awakening that shook the American colonies in the 1740s.  It was titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” You might think that a sermon like this was preached by a backwoods fire and brimstone preacher.  The fact is, the person who delivered this sermon is one of America’s greatest intellects.  It was an expression of a revival that swept New England, dividing the region’s Congregationalists into Old Lights and New Lights.   The question of the day was whether the people and even their spiritual leaders were actually Christians.  Although Jonathan Edwards did speak of God’s mercy,...