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Showing posts from May, 2020

& i'm not tryin to play it down

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but it's all gonna turn around A "graduation" sermon from 1 Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57 Well, we’re on the cusp of graduation season. And what a strange one we’re in for.   All you graduating seniors out there, our hearts go out to you. They really do. We wish you your walk across the stage as your name is said over the loudspeaker. We even wish you the boredom of sitting there while everyone else gets their moment, too. *In fact, if you’re feeling especially short-changed, which is a reasonable way to feel, just get ahold of me. We’ll have a zoom against an audience backdrop. You can sit in your gown in either blistering heat or steady rain, while I give a speech full of cliches, and read names out of the phone book.   You can even give the student-body address! “Class of 2020 forever!” …Now, I’m being a little silly here, but the truth is, when you graduated , you crossed a threshold . And that strange, little public ceremony helps you and

& to reach her destination

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is to simply cease to be A sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 and life mid-pandemic One of the hardest things about life right now has to be how all of our usual ways of measuring a week have gone straight out the window! Planning things is nearby impossible anymore. Families have been especially hit hard. “ Will there be a zoom class today ? And if so, when ?”   Each day is up for grabs .   And even if you haven’t suddenly been thrust into the role of homeschool teacher, I bet your routine has been upended. The regularly scheduled program you used to evaluate the rest of your week against.   In the past, Friday was my day off. So the goal was to have the sermon more or less finished by Thursday . If it was more finished, I knew I was ahead . If it was less finished, I knew I was behind .   But either way, I had some thing to measure my progress against each week. But now, all that’s out of pocket!   Currently the goal is to have the sermon wri

i don’t skate through life, david

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i walk through life, in really nice shoes ~alexis the hold scripture according to 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 ! “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing , BUT to us who are being saved it is the power of God .” ...The power of God.   We could all use a bit more of that power right about now . Couldn’t we? In fact, I doubt I’m the only one who’s on the lookout for it right about now. Am I? And, I doubt I’m the only who feels like I’m coming up short -sighted. The landscape is pretty barren these days; filled with nothing more than limp arguments with no power to offer peace and comfort.   …Well, the folks at First Lutheran in Corinth thought they knew exactly where to look to find the power of God. And I don’t need to tell you where they set their sights , either; because it was all the same old , usual suspects: popularity, fulfillment, liberty, and the like.   In other words, easily recognizable displays of