Please note that this service was recorded in two different parts.
Messages from 2020 (Page 5)
These words of Jesus do not make an ideal message for a Father’s Day card. We hear of a sword, family disputes, questions about worthiness and life and death. This Gospel passage does not seem ideal for our environment, either, when so much already feels on edge. During these days, we bring a litany of concerns to God, concerns about illness, injustice, economic anxiety, and it’s hard to hear that Jesus brings a sword when we’d prefer something else.
A world drowning in discouragement, fear and despair desperately gasps for hope.
We hope someday all the suffering and death related to the pandemic and civil unrest will mean something. We hope all of God’s beloved children will one day be freed from oppressive structures. We hope God’s love and peace will be victorious over sin, unforgiveness and violence.
Yes, we hope God is going to redeem all of it in the end. But what about today? Do you feel disappointed in what seems a lack of divine intervention and healing? How can we shake this hopelessness: Where do we find hope for now?
The first chapter of Genesis emphasizes that humankind is created in God’s own image – and that humankind is “good.” Images deeply influence how we are formed. The God we imagine is the God we emulate. In cultivating our “religious imagination,” we contemplate the essence of our Creator, and we become like Him. Yes, as lofty and improbable as it sounds, you and I were created to look like and act like our Trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit — in a dynamic, eternal relationship of mutual love. …
Happy Trinity Sunday! Missed seeing you in person and missed singing out our beautiful Trinity Sunday hymns with you! Please note: there was a dropped signal for a few moments due to the temporary use of a WiFi “booster” in our church. Soon we will have more reliable, hard-wired WiFi. The signal picks back up,…
bcponline.org, p 355
Bcponline.org, page. 77. “Absence and Presence”
The Ascension of Our Lord, Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11, 5-24-20 Sermon to Pohick Church on Facebook Live, back in the Historic Church Building May 24, 2020 “I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” and, “….he…