Preachrblog

“ Strange Things” Acts 17:16-31 Easter 6 May 21, 2017 Perhaps you've noticed that during the Easter Season the Old Testament reading is replaced by reading from the book of Acts. This has tripped up more than one pastor over the years, as we are creatures of habit. And so I'm always wary about announcing “Today's Old Testament Reading is from the New Testament book of Acts”. One way of looking at this is that in these readings from Acts we are seeing the immediate “effects of Easter”, as the early church grew and the message of the Gospel spread. The risen Jesus had sent his apostles to carry that message from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and eventually, to the ends of the earth. Today, we pick up with St. Paul, who certainly traveled to the ends of the earth, on a visit to Athens, Greece. As was his custom, when Paul entered the city he first preached to the Jews in the synagogue. But he also made time to preach to the pagans of the city, and even...

Easter 5 John 14:1-14 “The One Way Jesus” (Mother's Day) Even though it's a secular holiday, we wish to take a moment to recognize Mothers' Day. We Christians give thanks to God for the blessings of motherhood: that God brought us into this world through our mothers. That he raised most of us and nurtured us through the care of a loving mother. That some of us have had the blessing of even becoming mothers and grandmothers ourselves. Not everyone enjoys all of these blessings, of course, and in this fallen world we recognize that even the mention of a mother reminds some of a mother lost or estranged, or a mother never known, or a mother they wish they could be. Nonetheless, we give thanks for the godly vocation that motherhood is, as we can also see a common mother of us all in the Holy Christian Church. While the modern, secular version of Mothers' Day dates back to 1914 (at least as a national holiday), there are ancient precedents for ...

The Shepherd or the Thief? Smack dab in the midst of this Easter season, like every year, we come upon “Good Shepherd Sunday”.  Today we hear from Jesus, who takes this grand scriptural metaphor of Shepherd and Sheep, and he applies it to himself and gives it even deeper meaning.  And while, at least around here, it seems, fewer and fewer people have first hand experience with shepherding, or with sheep, we can still learn from our Lord through this analogy of faith, he the Good Shepherd, we, the trusting sheep.  There are many ways this can teach us about the blessings we have in Christ, but several points this morning we will consider, based on this reading from John 10: First, some remarks concerning the nature of sheep. Then contrasting the Shepherd and the Thief or Stranger: Concerning their legitimacy, their voice, and finally their purpose. I saw recently on the internet (so it must be true), that the Merriam-Webster dictionary has updated its entries onc...