a prophetic voice-

FIFTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST- Preached at Nazareth Lutheran Church, Rural Hall, NC    ( This sermon was dedicated to my dear friend, Sara Anderson.)     Here we are, in the season after Pentecost, the long green season, that is sometimes referred to as “ordinary time”- which is appropriate for so many reasons, since most of us live day after day of our “ordinary lives” throughout these months. And yet, because this is also the summer, we may interrupt the everyday routine with vacations, trips, visits, activities to which the long, hot, more leisurely days of summer lend themselves.     But Luke’s gospel will have none of it…no vacations…no sense of ordinariness. No…again and again, Luke has Jesus being interrupted by the unexpected…by people and events which draw and demand his attention. Two Sundays ago, it was a funeral procession; last week, it was an uninvited woman at a dinner party; today, the interruption is ...

If I were in charge of the weather, I would create a whole spate of days like today- temperatures in the upper seventies, low humidity, lots of sun and just enough breeze to elicit a gentle melody from the windchimes on my front porch. Which is where is I have been spending most of today with my trusty laptop, researching material for the next three sermons I will be preaching...eating a bit of lunch...listening to the birds whose songs are occasionally punctuated by the voices of kids passing by on the street. And now comes the refrain of the ice cream truck, making its way slowly down Council Street. Just a perfect day.    Good job, God...not that you need my consent or assent or approval, but I am just incredibly appreciative for a day like this...a day on which I can forget about hip pain and grief pain and anything sad, and be simply overwhelmed and engulfed by the beauty and wonder and perfection surrounding and enfolding me.  ...