Letters On The Page

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Second Sunday in Advent   Isaiah 11:1-10        Romans 15:4-13         Matthew 3:1-12 O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  In the 1990s and early 2000’s I often found myself in pastor meetings hearing about how to plant and grow a church.   ·        A clearly stated mission was important ·        Outreach into the community ·        Vibrant worship ·        Location for the church house The key words for the church building where the faithful will assemble are “assessable” and “visible.” The building needs to be visible from the road, a sign saying “Church – Enter Here, parking needs to be in front so pas...

       Vespers First Sunday in Advent   Advent 1 Wednesday – Genesis 38:1-26 – Matthew 1:1-6 O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  We have two genealogies of Jesus. Luke 3 and Matthew 1. They are not exact replicas of one another. For example, Luke lists only the fathers, starts with Jesus and then goes backwards to Adam. Matthew starts with Abraham ends with Jesus. What I want to focus on tonight and the next two Wednesday Vesper services is the five women that Matthew includes in his genealogy.  The Gospels are written so that people may hear the Good News of Jesus. The Gospel writers not only present the content of Jesus’ life, but they present it in a way in which people will hear what is being said. For example, when reading through the genealogies, a predictable pattern is given by which names are read. For e...

 

Fareed Zakaria. In Defense of a Liberal Education . W. W. Norton & Company, NY. 2015.  At a time when many question the value of education beyond high school. Zakaria offers an inspiring and informative defense of college or university education that is broad based. The true value of Liberal Education is that it teaches you to write more clearly, speak well in the sense of giving more precise verbal explanations and presentations, and teaches you how to learn.  Liberal education teaches the curious how to use that curiosity productively. Zakaria's background helps the reader understand the value of western liberal education. He was born and raised in India. He completed High School in India before entering Yale for College. In India as well as many other parts of the world, education focuses on memorization and test taking. Innovative thinking is discouraged. When he Zakaria entered Yale, he experienced first hand the benefit of learning to think for himself and to develop...

Due to the weather event, we only had church at St. Luke, Rensselaer. The Internet was down so we were not able to record the Divine Service. Here is the sermon for Sunday.  First Sunday of Adven t  Isaiah 2:1-5        Romans 3:8-14          Matthew 24:36-44 O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  Some years ago while Marie and I hosted the Pastor and spouse Christmas get together for our little cluster of clergy in Southeast Indiana, it started to snow. By the time the party concluded a couple of inches had fallen on the ground. Not much more was expected.    One of the pastors told a story when he looked at the snow as he was putting on his coat. A few years back, he and his wife had been at a party where it started to snow. Everyone knew th...

I regularly use the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.  I just looked up Congeries which means aggregation, collection. Accompanying the definition is this interesting nugget of linguistic trivia.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/congeries   What do "epitome," "circus," "tribunal," and "congeries" have in common? All are part of a relatively small collection of English nouns that made the transition from Latin to English unaltered in both spelling and meaning. "Congeries" joined this group in our language in the early 1600s. Latin  congeries  comes from the Latin verb  congerere,  which means "to carry or bring together" and which is also the source of our word  congest.  In English, "congeries" stands out because it is a singular word with a plural appearance - and its plural is also spelled "congeries."