In Colossians 3:15, in the midst of a series of instructions about how to live as Christians, Paul writes these words: And be thankful. To be a Christian is, among other things, to be thankful. And not just when things are going great, either. When Paul writes these words, he is, as he says later…
I assume this is common knowledge to all of you, but just in case, St. Luke’s is a congregation within the denomination known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA. The ELCA consists of nearly 4 million members nationwide, and is one of the largest Lutheran denomination in the world. It is also…
Happy September!! We often speak of September as the time when things “get back to normal”. School is back in session, vacations have most likely happened and are now just wonderful memories, we settle back into whatever passes for routine in our lives, and we feel like we’re back on an even keel. Here at…
For many folks, summer is a time for traveling. Whether that means going down the shore, or up to the Pocono’s, or somewhere further afield, summer is a time to travel. I know my family and I are looking forward to our vacation this summer. But for the last nearly 20 years, youth and adults…
This year, for the first time in I don’t know how many years, I won’t be preaching on John 20:19-29. In case you aren’t quite familiar with that citation, it’s the story of “Doubting” Thomas, and it always is read on the Sunday after Easter Sunday. I won’t be preaching on this familiar story because…
Report of the Pastor The legendary baseball pitcher, Satchel Paige, once said, “Never look back, you never know who might be gaining on you.” Sound advice, to be sure. Looking back can lead to never looking forward, and that is not a good thing. Our God is a God of the future, not the past.…
As always, I want to wish each and every one of you a very Happy and Blessed New Year! My hope and prayer is that 2019 will be a year of rich and wonderful blessings, a year filled with good things and glad tidings, a year filled with love and peace, joy and hope. New…
My wife and I were shopping at Plow and Hearth on Nov. 10th, looking for birthday presents for our sister-in-law. As we shopped, we both noticed that the music playing in the store was Dean Martin singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, or as Deano sang it, “Rudy the Red-beaked Reindeer”. We both commented about how…
Two of the most powerful words in the whole of the English language are “thank you”. They are also two of the easiest words to both say and mean. Saying thank you, being thankful, offering thanks, having an attitude of gratitude, however you think about it, it is something we can and should do regularly…
The “green season” is more officially known as The Sundays of Ordinary Time, or, in the old days, The Sundays after Pentecost. That second one, Sundays after Pentecost, was nice, because it kind of, sort of, kept us focused on Pentecost. It kind of, sort of, kept us focused on the Holy Spirit, and on…