Words of Welcome

  Romans 9:1-5 When you have something important to share that you think is life-changing, you hope people will respond positively. It doesn’t matter if you’re the president, governor, mayor, or, in my case, a preacher. It’s frustrating when people don’t respond the way you hope. So, I can feel Paul’s frustration, which he shares with his readers in the opening verses of Romans 9.   Paul closed the previous chapter with a heartfelt declaration, telling the Roman church that he was “convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” ( Rom. 8:38-39 ). Now, as we turn the page to chapter 9, we find Paul talking about the grief he felt for his fellow Jews who rejected his message about Jesus. In chapters nine through eleven, Paul addresses the failure of the Jewish people to receiv...

  Romans 8:12-25 This past week we experienced a heat dome that raised temperatures to more than 100 degrees, followed by a blast of the worst air in the world due to Canadian forest fires. Of course, a power outage led to the cancellation of the service on July 5th. In other words, we haven’t been experiencing the most pleasant weather of late.  I’m not sure if Paul had weather-related issues in mind when he wrote here in Romans 8 about the groaning of creation, but it does seem that creation has been groaning because the spirit of death and corruption is permeating creation.  Paul tells us that creation groans because it is waiting to be set free from its bondage to decay. You might say, that Creation is waiting for its redemption so it can start over from the beginning. According to Genesis 1 when God set about creating the universe, God declared that each element of creation was good, including God’s human creation. Unfortunately, things began to go bad in chap...

    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...

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Before leaving on my sabbatical, I preached a sermon from Genesis 12 entitled “Reclaiming a Founding Vision.”   In  Genesis 12  God covenants with Abraham and Sarah, promising to bless the nations through their descendants. That is, I believe, our founding vision.  In Christ we become children of Abraham so that we might be a blessing to the nations.   Sometimes we get so caught up in the business of religion that we forget our calling.  Fortunately, God remains faithful to this covenant, and has a way of rekindling that vision  in our hearts.  The title of that sermon, “Reclaiming a Founding Vision” served as theme of my sabbatical.  Since pastors are tempted to get focused on the mechanics of the institution rather than the vision that guides us a congregation, the sabbatical provided me the opportunity to remember and reclaim that vision for my life, so that I can lead this congregation in fulfilling our calli...

Genesis 12:1-9 Back in the 1970s millions of Americans watched a family’s story unfold in a TV mini-series that went by the title Roots .  Maybe you watched it.  It told the story of a young African man who was taken into slavery by the name of Kunte Kinte and his descendants.  It was and remains a powerful story, one that encouraged many other families to trace their own family origins.  After that people seemed to really get into their genealogies.  I know that some of you are hard at work tracing your own family histories.  Perhaps your interest in your roots was inspired by Alex Haley’s family history.   In just two weeks, I’ll be heading out on my three-month sabbatical.  Back when we were working on a grant proposal to fund the sabbatical I had to come up with a theme.  So,  I chose the theme – “Reclaiming a Founding Vision.”  Over the past year, even after we didn’t get the grant, I’ve been reworking th...

Genesis 12:1-9 The story of a family heading off to a strange land seems rather appropriate at this time in my life. Cheryl, Brett, and I are about to take such a journey. But, it’s not the first time I’ve done this. I remember setting off, years ago, from Klamath Falls, in my less-than-reliable Ford Maverick. With $500 in my pocket, I loaded up the car with my belongings, and headed south toward Pasadena, where I hoped to attend seminary. I didn’t have a place to live, a job, or even a letter of acceptance from Fuller Seminary. But, things seemed to work out. I found a room at the Pasadena YMCA, and a few weeks later, I got a job at a Christian bookstore. By then my little stash of cash had run low. But, I managed to make ends meet, even if I had to eat just one meal a day – and that was Poor Boy sandwiches and cheap kool-aid. The good thing, was that I lost a lot of weight! 1. Abram’s Journey and ours Abram and Sarai heard a call from God and headed out on an adventure that changed ...