Words of Welcome

  Pharaoh's Daughter Finding Baby Moses Konstantin Flavitsky, 1855 Exodus 1:8-2:10 When God appeared to Abraham in Haran, God asked him to pick up and move to an undisclosed location. In exchange for heading out on this adventure, God promised to make his descendants a blessing to the nations ( Gen. 12:1-9 ). As the story goes in Genesis, Abraham and three generations of his descendants carried that promise forward. Due to famine and the providential placement of Jacob’s son Joseph in a position of power, Jacob’s family ended up in Egypt where Joseph was Prime Minister. Although Joseph ended up in Egypt because of some family dysfunction, his presence in Egypt brought blessings to his family and to the nations.  When we turn from Genesis to Exodus, Abraham’s descendants still reside in Egypt. In fact, it’s four hundred years later and the family has been fruitful and multiplied. Their fortunes were about to change because a Pharaoh came to the throne of Egypt who knew not ...

Exodus 3:1-15 Moses was on his way to work tending sheep for his father-in-law. When he got to Mount Horeb, he noticed a bush burning on the horizon. Since that’s not an everyday occurrence, he decided to check out this strange sight. When he got to the bush, he heard a voice calling his name: “Moses, Moses.” And Moses replied, “Here I am.” Then the voice said, “don’t come any closer and remove your sandals because you’re standing on holy ground.”  When it comes to removing his sandals, Ron Allen and Clark Williamson comment that “to be invited to remove one’s sandals was to be welcomed. Moses is welcomed into relationship with God as God simultaneously draws an ultimate respect from Moses. Moses is no longer an ‘alien’ (Exod. 2:22) but a guest.” [ Preaching the Old Testament , p. 80]. Now, Moses is ready to hear the next word in which God declares: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  As we contempla...

Luke 4:16-21 Jesus was a church-going man. Actually, he was a synagogue-going man, but you know what I mean. So, when he went home for a visit after his ordination by the Holy Spirit and the training exercise in the desert, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath “as was his custom.” As is often the case when young adults return home, perhaps from college, they get asked to help with the service. In this case, the leaders asked Jesus to read the scriptures and share a word of interpretation. Now preaching in your home church can be a blessing or a curse, depending on what you have to say. Sometimes it’s not wise to go home and share everything you’ve learned at seminary. The people back home might not like those newfangled ideas you learned at school and won’t appreciate your message.  That’s what happened to Jesus after he opened the scroll to Isaiah 61 and read about how the Spirit fell on the messiah, anointing him to bring good news to the poor and preac...

Exodus 12:1-14 We have perfected eating on the run.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s running through the drive-thru window at the local fast-food restaurant or tossing a frozen dinner into the microwave!  When it comes to fast food, think about how far we’ve come from the early days of the TV dinner.  If you have to put those aluminum trays in the oven for 30 minutes, you might as well cook a full meal!!  Although the original Passover meal didn’t go quite as quickly as our modern fast food meals, you might say that the people of Israel were eating on the run the day they left Egypt for the Promised Land.  Isn’t that why they ate unleavened bread?