Words of Welcome

Joel 2:1-2, 12-19 Perhaps you’ve driven down a road to nowhere. You think you know where you’re going, but then the road runs out, and you find yourself sitting in a field. You’ve taken a wrong turn, and now you’re lost. At that point, you don’t have any other choice, except to turn around and retrace your steps, hoping that you’ll find your way home. When we hear these words of Scripture from Joel, what we hear is a wake up call. Joel says to the people of Israel on behalf of God: Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming it is near — (Joel 2:1). As we begin our Lenten journey tonight, we start with an invitation to reconsider the direction of our lives. Joel calls on us to think about whether or not we’re heading in the right direction. And then, should we discover that we’re heading in the wrong direction, we find ourselves being called upon to turn around and head the other directio...

Acts 9:1-19 Religion is a very personal thing that reaches down to the center of our being. Because it’s often hard to put what we believe into words, telling our faith stories can often be difficult. Not only that, but sometimes we can be intimidated by other people’s much more dramatic conversion stories. Charles Colson has it easy – after all he went from being a notorious political hack who ended up in prison to being a major religious leader. Then there’s St. Paul. Now, he had a story to tell. He started out as a major heresy hunter, breathing down the necks of Christians from Jerusalem to Damascus. That is, until the day Jesus knocked him off his horse and blinded him with a bright light. That’s a story that’s hard to beat. What are you supposed to say if you’ve been a Christian all your life, or even if you came to faith later in life, your story still isn’t as dramatic as Paul’s? Besides, since religion is personal, why can’t I just keep it to myself? 1. Witnes...

Colossians 1:15-20 I want to begin this morning by giving a big Happy 200th Birthday cheer to Charles Darwin. In case you missed it, on Thursday Darwin joined Abraham Lincoln in celebrating his 200th birthday. Now neither of them was around on Thursday to share in the festivities, but we can recognize and celebrate their legacy anyway. Now, one of my more famous predecessors as pastor here was a big fan of Abraham Lincoln. As I understand it, Edgar DeWitt Jones hosted an annual Lincoln Lecture, because the study of Lincoln was one of his passions. So in the spirit of my predecessor, I invite you to share in one of my passions by observing Evolution Weekend on the Sunday following Charles Darwin’s birthday. This year the number of churches, synagogues, and mosques participating has grown to about 1000. This event was born four years ago as an outreach of the Clergy Letter Project. That project produced a letter , which you will find in your bulletins this morning. The letter, which was...

The reflection below was written and shared by Emily Hill, member of the Christian Church of Birmingham/Central Woodward Christian Church Youth Group as part of a youth led worship service at Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It is a wonderful reflection, which I would like to share with you. Dr. Bob Cornwall Pastor ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Luke 15:11-32 Hi. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Emily, and I’m a junior in high school. Let me explain to you what being a junior in high school implies. It means a heavy academic schedule. A load of extracurriculars. ACT and SAT prep classes. College visits and research. Late nights. A reduced social life. The beginning step of your future. And while not necessarily everything I just said applies to all high school juniors, it’s not uncommon that two or three of them would. Recently at my school we had our finals...

I Corinthians 8:1-13 "Give me liberty or give me death." While this statement may sound extreme, this declaration by Patrick Henry has inspired generations of Americans to believe that death is preferable to living under tyranny. Patrick Henry had political freedom in mind, but is this the only kind of freedom there is in the world? When Paul says "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor. 3:17), he’s speaking to people living under Roman rule, and Rome was not a democracy. So freedom must be more than a political state of affairs. In a classic Peanuts comic strip Linus is holding a snowball and looking sheepishly into the sky, as Lucy walks by. She sees the snowball in his hand and says to him: "Life is full of choices! You may choose, if you wish, to throw that snowball at me. . . . You may also choose, if you so wish not to throw that snowball at me . . . Now, if you choose to throw that snowball at me, I wi...

Mark 1:14-20 I know that some of you here today, maybe Lance or Elmer, could tell some really good fish stories. You could talk about dragging a shed out onto the ice and doing some really fun ice fishing; or maybe you could tell us about going out on Lake Huron and catching a really big bass. Something like that. Alas I can’t join you in telling such tales. I’ve lived my life near rivers and streams and lakes and oceans, but I’ve only caught one small fish, and that was when I was but a child. Since I can’t tell a good fish story, I’m going to rely on a famous author. In The Old Man and the Sea , Ernest Hemingway told the story of Santiago the fisherman. Santiago was an old and experienced fisherman, but at one point he’d gone out to sea eighty-four straight times without catching a thing. He would have given up, except this young boy kept cajoling him and encouraging him to keep going in the hope of making that last big catch. Yes, it was that boy’s faith in his fishi...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 I don’t like to meddle in people’s lives, that is, unless, of course, they’re family members. That’s a whole different story! The reason I don’t like meddling from the pulpit is that when you start pointing fingers at the moral and ethical lapses of your church members, they’ve been known to point fingers back at you. So, when it comes to things like sex and food and drink – I try to leave things well enough alone. Of course, Paul doesn’t have any of my qualms. He’s quite happy to point fingers, and he isn’t afraid of having them pointed back at him. Alas, he’s braver than me! 1. The Personal: Sex, food, and Other Addictions The Corinthian letters, one of which we’re dealing with today, deal with a lot of moral and ethical issues. It seems that this church had more than its share of problems, with and sex and food right at the top of their list of concerns. It shouldn’t be surprising to us that this congregation struggled with what we would call addictive behavior...