Intersections

  Love - I know it may feel like a couple weeks early, but love is in the air today. Our passage is one of the most well-known excerpts from the New Testament and Paul’s writing. If you’ve been to a wedding, most likely you’ve heard some bit of this. It’s hard to dismiss love at a wedding, right? I’m not sure Paul would agree using this text at a wedding ceremony is appropriate, but we’ll get into that later. I’m sure I could make a whole series of this one chapter, but I promise to get you out of here in a reasonable amount of time for lunch, if you’re worried about that. Who thinks there should be more love in the world today? Show of hands…. Don’t be shy. Many, if not all of you… right? We look around at our world, and we don’t see that there’s enough love, that people aren’t acting with love. Is love an action? Or is it just a feeling? We have countless bits of movies and television showing what love is from just about every possible angle. But what’s the most truest love? We g...

  You ARE the Body... YOU are the body... you are the BODY... this sentence can be read in many different ways and mean other things. Some of my initial thoughts about this reading today sent me to a place I hadn't thought of in a long time - One of my guilty pleasures in my early twenties during college was watching Maury Povich. He was a talk show host whose topics were typically around family dysfunction running the whole spectrum. My favorite type of show was around contested paternity... and the guests would agree to paternity tests, and the results would be released live on television. This was NOT my finest hour of television. ANYWAY - Maury, the host, when reading the results, always said... "You ARE the father" or "You are NOT the father!!" depending on the situation. Don't get me wrong - it makes for theatrical television, but this is not something I should be watching these days. Although, given my former employment in family court, it reveals a...

       Good morning again, We are only three weeks into our new year here, and it's dark and cold out. I thank each and every one of you for coming out this morning.  Today we will be continuing our series on “Love Never Ends: Being the Body of Christ.” Over the next few weeks, we will be taking a deep dive into the book of First Corinthians, chapters 12-15. Let’s take a step back, though, and talk about this book in the larger scheme of the Bible.  This book was written by the apostle Paul, writing many New Testament letters. Paul’s story is also written in Acts, chapter 18; Paul has traveled to a city in south-central Greece called Corinth. It was established before 3000 BC, and amazingly, it still exists today - although it’s not quite the same city it once was.  Ancient Corinth was a major city in Greece - with a population of 90,000 some four hundred years before the time of Christ. Unfortunately, in 1858, a major earthquake destroyed the ruin...

  Good morning again - last week, we talked through the first chapter of the Book of John, how the light of Christmas was lit and that lighthouses can help guide those in danger away from it.  This week, we’ve looped back around a couple of weeks because we are back talking about John the Baptist, continuing the story from… three weeks ago, I think? Hopefully, you’re not sick of John yet, although this is the last week we will be in the gospels for a while. Anyway - as you can see outside, the seasons are changing. Winter is here! Oh… no … not those seasons. Our season of Christmas has finished, and now we are in the season after Epiphany. We are back to those so-called “ordinary weeks” or numbered weeks because since we’ve celebrated Christmas and Epiphany, these are kind of the meat and bones weeks for Jesus’ actual ministry. Today we’ll be starting with his baptism, and over the next couple of months, we’ll be discovering being the body of Christ: how we can show that LOVE...

  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'm glad you didn't get too lost last week, because it seems as most of you have found your way back here. I appreciate that! Welcome to the last Sunday of Christmas this year, and this is day seven for those who are counting. Watch out for any swans you come across, hopefully they’re all swimming.  Speaking of swimming, I know these days it’s too cold to go swimming, but just know that out of the darkness, the light is increasing and spring and summer days will be here soon! Did you know that Indiana has lighthouses? Two of them, in fact. You really don’t think Indiana as much of a state that would have any lighthouses, but yeah - two of them, both on Lake Michigan. I’ve seen one of them - the one in Michigan City. The other one is closer to Chicago near Gary. But aren’t lighthouses kind of incredible? Someone had the idea that to keep the ships safe, even in the waters of Lake Michigan, that there needed to be big lights to help direct...

  Happy New Year everyone! May our God of new beginnings refresh His mercies for you and your loved ones, and to the ends of the earth.  Well done… well done, my good and faithful one. These are lyrics from a song called “Well Done” by the Afters. I assume they are referring to the baptism of Jesus out of Luke when the sky opened, and there was a voice saying “Well done, my good and faithful servant;” to Jesus as he was baptized. We all want that greeting some day when it’s our turn at the gates of Heaven.  What does it mean to be a good and faithful servant? Is it just reading the Bible, and memorizing verses? Is it coming to church, and giving your offering every week? Yes, those help, but in addition, is to build relationships of faith. Our goal is to be disciples - to take the words of Jesus Christ to bring light to the darkness of this world. Hope is not just a catchphrase, it’s a lifestyle. As believers, we embody faith and hope to a world that just cannot und...