1/1/2008
PASTORAL PONDERINGS
Psalm 103:
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefit
Dear Friends,
Today I received some e mails from my Seminary classmates reflecting on the past year and their future plans. This got me to pondering 2007 and visioning the future. I am truly humbled at how richly God has bless my family and myself in the past year. We are so fortunate to lead the lives we live.
Driving into the church parking lot, I looked at the food pantry and thought how hard life is for most of our guests. As I look ahead to 2008, I am drawn to vision how I might help to grow the ministry of compassion at Reformation. Together we have done so much. But by the grace and strength of God we shall grow to do even more for those in need in the precious Name of our Lord.
1/11/2008
PASTORAL PONDERINGS
Psalm 149
1 Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
2 Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
Dear Friends,
This past week we made our first official foray into Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the new cranberry book, Setting Two to be exact. It went well. Needless to say, everyone needs to get used to the new music and the fact that some familiar phrases are changed just enough to keep you on your toes.
This experience reminded me just how important liturgy is to those of us who take the name of Lutheran. I am also reminded of what a wonderful God we have who not only bestows us with untold blessings, but allows us to come into His saving presence.
1/17/2008
PASTORAL PONDERINGS
1 Cor. 12: 12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Dear Friends,
In a few days I will have the privilege of speaking at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s monument in Long Branch. I shall recall the words of Dr. King, "“All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”
I ponder how we might bridge some of the gaps the seem to separate us. Earlier this morning I was reading how many middle class families in Southern Ohio are in trouble. Men in their '40's and '50's have lost their manufacturing jobs and now are moving back in with their parents because they can no longer afford a place of their own working for minimum wage. Families are being torn apart as parents must take two and three jobs and young people are moving far away.
With the elections coming up, let us listen very closely to the candidates and ask who has the best plan to preserve the dignity of the middle class before this group is lost and we truly become a nation deeply divided between the have's and the have not's.
PASTORAL PONDERINGS
Psalm 43:
3 O send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy;
and I will praise you with the harp,
O God, my God.
Dear Friends,
Sometimes it is interesting how you can hear a one sentence sermon. I get to hear a lot of them. Today I was making rounds at the hospital when a transport aid stepped onto the elevator. "Where are you going?" I asked her. "Wherever God leads me." That pretty much says it all.
