Prepare Ye

Back in February, I issued a little challenge. I said that if the people of Our Savior's and Emmanuel donated over $1,000 to Walk4Water , a cause being supported by the ELCA's National Youth Gathering, that I would buy and wear a Packers jersey to lead worship during the month of May, as well as to wear it when we make that donation at Ford Field in Detroit. I'm sorry to say that we did not collect over $1,000. We collected over $1,200. To be precise, one thousand, two hundred, thirty six dollars and twenty-nine cents. ($1,236.29) But I didn't lose this challenge. The people who will benefit from your generosity won. A gift of $1,000 will allow the ELCA and their global partners to go into a village or community facing water concerns and train the community about water sustainability, sanitation and good hygiene. It will allow wells to be drilled so that people don't have to spend hours lugging water jugs back and forth. It will allow those water-bearers, ...

As one of my Lenten disciplines, I've decided to start blogging again. So we will see if I can do 40 posts. To start off nice and easy, here is the text of my Ash Wednesday sermon. It uses John 10.1-28 (from the Narrative Lectionary) and Psalm 23 as its basis.    This lesson comes right after the lesson we heard on Sunday, where Jesus healed the blind man. In fact, the people whom Jesus is addressing in this lesson are the man who had been born blind, but who can now see, and the Pharisees, who drove him out of the Temple. He is continuing his conversation with the Pharisees, who think that they are acting in God’s will. Jesus tries to explain to them that we are saved through God’s love on God’s terms, not on our own. So he tries to explain this using an analogy of a sheep’s pen and a shepherd. He first refers to himself as the gate through which the sheep enter their fold. It is through Christ that we come to the Creator. He is also the gatekee...