Letters On The Page

 

  Sermon for the Wednesday Vespers after the fourth Sunday in Lent    Exodus 14:5-31 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. In order to breakdown the resistance of Pharaoh, his leadership team, and the people, that benefited from the work of the Israelite slaves, God wrought Ten Plagues upon the Egyptians through the Lord’s spokesman, Moses. These plagues induced thirst, hunger, great discomfort and sickness, loss of livestock and crops which meant loss of food and income, and finally, loss of human life in the taking of the first born of every family. These plagues demonstrated that Israel’s God is more powerful than the Egyptian idols. Pharaoh was slow to recognize that the Lord God has power over nature. Finally, when he lost his own son in the tenth plague, Pharaoh was moved to release the slaves.  Pharaoh issued the release amid intense grief. But, that decision did not last long. He ...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Fourth Sunday in Lent  Isaiah 42:14-21   Ephesians 5:8-14   John 9:1-41 The Works of God Displayed O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. We want to know why things are the way they are. There is always a reason. We are sure of it. It is just a matter of asking the right questions and developing the right tools and technology to figure things out. The disciples of Jesus want to know why the blind man was born this way. They offer two choices. Somebody sinned. Was it the parents or the man himself? If this happened now, we would add two more questions. Is there blindness in the family? In other words, did genetics cause this? An additional question:  was there some kind of agent or exposure during gestation that led to being born blind; such as radiation, toxin, bacteria, virus, or irresponsible use of drugs or alcohol?  Regardless of...

2026 Lent 3 Wed – Exodus 12:1-14 EXODUS 12:1-14 (ESV) 12 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.  7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that...

During Lent several of the town and country Rensselaer, IN congregations take turns hosting a lunch on Wednesdays. The donation collected at the door is used to support the Helping Hands ministry sponsored and maintained by the Rensselaer Area Minister's Association. St. Luke is a part of that organization.  Today was our day to host. The standard menu is to provide soups, salads, and dessert. Another set component of the Lenten Lunches is that the leader of the host  congregation provide a brief message. We also sing a couple of hymns. Last year at St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, the children's choir sang for us. We have no such choir at St. Luke at this time, so we sang Holy, Holy, Holy,  and All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.  What follows is the message that I offered to the 65 or so people that were in attendance at St. Luke today: Iran is very much in the news these days. Not everyone is aware that we read about Iran in the Old Testament. In those days I...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Third Sunday in Lent  Exodus 17:1-7   Romans 5:1-8   John 4:5-26 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. We are now halfway through Lent. Palm Sunday is three Sundays away. As it is good to do in many situations, halfway through is a good time to look up, look around, look inside, and ask an evaluative question or two. Lent is often a time when the faithful will practice a spiritual discipline that they do not regularly do. Fasting from food, increased almsgiving, and donating additional time for service are three traditional disciplines.  So, how are you doing with your spiritual discipline? Are you keeping up with your commitment? Has it been a challenge to stay focused on your commitment? Have you discovered that you took on too much and need to scale back or explore another discipline? There are three more weeks of Lent proper and th...