Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I know it is only the end of July, and usually our weekly readings this early in the year are not about stewardship, but this year we get one of the great stewardship stories early (Luke 12:13-21). In this story, a man asked Jesus to settle a family dispute about an inheritance, but Jesus didn't want to have anything to do with this man’s request. Instead,…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in each of us.
When I first began planning my sermon plans a few months ago, I was actually excited about preaching on this text. I mean, I find prayer to be a powerful thing and I love to talk about prayer. But, to be honest, after what has happened in the past month, the…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
In our Gospel text this week, Luke 11:1-13, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and Jesus offers them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus doesn’t stop there, though; he goes on to say that prayer is something we should do over and over again. Then he says, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I have been truly troubled over the events of the last week, as I am sure you have been, too! The brutal slaughter of five police officers in Dallas and the killing of two black men, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in St. Paul, by police all continue to point to the fact that these are troubled days in our world.
It seems…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in each of us.
I would bet I really didn’t need to read this Gospel story today, did I? After all, we all know the story. We know about the priest and the Levite who saw this beaten, wounded man by the road and passed by on the other side, even though he was a fellow Jew.…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week and that you were able to also celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends.
I love the 4th of July. It is a great time to relax with family and friends, to watch parades, and to enjoy fireworks, but it is also a time to remember and give thanks for the abundance of blessings and freedoms we have…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
In my note last week, I talked about how it is not our job to save people; our job, as followers of Jesus, is to share the good news. That is, we only have to tell the story and share with people what God has done for us in our lives, and then our mission is complete. But if truth be told, we want more.…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in each of us.
As we have been reading through this Gospel of Luke, we know Jesus had been busy teaching, healing, and sharing the story of God’s redeeming work in the world. His disciples have come to realize and proclaim him to be the Messiah. Three of his disciples…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
It seems like every time I look at my Facebook page these days, someone is posting a photo where they are on their vacation. I guess it is that time of year when everyone is taking vacation or preparing travel somewhere for vacation.
In Jesus’ day, taking a vacation was not really something people…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in each of us.
For the past several weeks now, we have heard about the great healing works of Jesus. We have read stories about how he healed the centurion’s slave without even being in her presence. We read about how he raised the dead man in Nain so the man could continue…