In preparation for today’s sermon, I “googled” this question: “Who is Jesus?” In .44 seconds Google had 1,770,000,000 answers to that question. To add perspective, “Who is Abraham Lincoln?” got 103,000,000. For further perspective, “Who is Taylor Swift?” got 722,000,000, which was 7x that of Abraham Lincoln! And just for a little further perspective, a search of “Who is Bob Degnan?” got 2,040,000 results.
The apostle Paul once had it out with St. Peter. It’s true. It happened in the city of Antioch. Paul relates the incident in Galatians 2. Paul was doing mission work in the city of Antioch and Peter came to visit. While there, Peter freely ate and drank with the non-Jewish, Gentile converts to Christianity. UNTIL a delegation came from the church in Jerusalem. These were “old club” Jewish Christians.
In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,
Recently I was reading about a man who had spent the larger part of his life searching. He was searching for meaning. He was searching for contentment. He was searching for peace. He had read the “sacred writings” of many religions. And then he began to read the Bible. And this was his comment about the Bible. “I finally found a book that understands me!” That’s an interesting comment. He didn’t say that he understands the Bible, but that the Bible understands him.
I spent this past week at Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan at the 67th biennial convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. It’s always an honor and privilege to attend as a delegate. One of the comments that delegates frequently make about convention is how well they feed us. And that is no small thing!
Last week when Sue and I were traveling, we listened to a book about the Vanderbilts of New York. Cornelius Vanderbilt acquired a massive fortune in the shipping and railroad industries in New York in the 1800’s. When he died in 1877, he left a fortune of $100 million dollars. That would be about $2 billion in today’s money. His son doubled the fortune to $200 million dollars.
Jesus was a renowned story-teller. He didn’t tell fish-stories and tall-tales. He told serious, instructive, thought-provoking little stories. We know these stories as “parables.” Perhaps you have heard this definition of a parable: a parable is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.”
Today’s worship and Bible study is led by Pastor Jerry Ewings. He served at Lord of Love from 2006 – 2017.
Pastor Ewings is preaching on Isaiah 55:6-11.
One of my favorite things Jesus said is something that might easily be overlooked because it is just an incidental detail to a larger story. But in Mark 6, Jesus’ disciples have just returned from their little mission trip when Jesus had sent them out two-by-two. When they return, Jesus says this to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. (Mark 6:31) I like that!
The Israelites had been waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Moses has been up on Mt. Sinai now for forty days. They have not seen him or heard from him this whole time. They finally give up on him.
This was now the second time Paul was in prison in Rome. The first time, Paul had written a letter to the Philippians while in prison. At that time, Paul was under a sort of “house arrest.” Visitors could come and go. Paul confessed to the Philippians that he fully expected to be released and even be able to come and visit them. And all that turned out to be true.
