Posted by dwhetter |
We have spent three of the last four weeks reading through the beginning of Mark’s Gospel and just here in the first chapter we have heard many voices speak out in this story. Three weeks ago, Mark began his Gospel with a voice of “one crying in the wilderness,” (1:3) John the Baptist, and in that same story we heard the voice of God proclaim, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you…
Posted by hlewis |
I was lucky enough to grow up going to church every Sunday. My dad was an Army officer and we moved every 1-3 years, so church was a place we could immediately be welcomed into a new community of friends everywhere we lived.
Interestingly, it was the years we lived farthest away that shaped my life the most. My dad was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, for my 5th-7th grade…
Posted by dwhetter |
Last week we heard John’s version of how Jesus began to call his disciples and now today we hear Mark’s version of the same story. Now, before I go any further, I want to answer the burning question that most likely many of you are wondering and that at least one of you will most likely ask me at the end of the service. The answer I have is “yes!”. The question is “Pastor, is…
By now, I hope you have read through the letter Council sent out last Friday, January 12, 2018. If you haven’t yet had time to read it, please do so, because it is filled with information about our future and the decisions that we need to make as a congregation at our annual meeting. As you will see, your leadership has been forced to make some very tough decisions, such as eliminating…
Posted by dwhetter |
Today we are back in John‘s Gospel and in this Gospel John first tells us that Jesus is the living Word of God, then he quickly begins to explain to us how Jesus began to call his disciples. According to this Gospel, John says to some of his own disciples when they see Jesus walking by, “he’s the one” and immediately a couple of them begin to literally follow Jesus. When Jesus sees…
John 1:43-51
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can…
Posted by dwhetter |
As I read our Gospel text today, you might have been thinking, haven’t we just read this story? Well, we did read the first five verses back on the second Sunday in Advent and today we hear it again as we add to it the story of Jesus’ baptism. So let’s take a look at what is happening.
Mark begins his Gospel with John in the wilderness and he says, “John the baptizer appeared…
Dear Salem Family,
We’ve talked a lot the last few weeks about waiting. Advent is the season of waiting. And as I wrote before, I’m no good at that. And apparently, I’m finding out, I’m also not great at — BAM — it’s here! Now, what do I mean by that? I mean, we wait and wait and wait and then all of sudden, what we were waiting for is here. It’s days away. It’s happening…