Sermons on Suffering
God Within Makes All the Difference
Scriptures: Psalm 23; John 10:1-10 A friend of mine just posted on Facebook this week that Thursday was the 3000th consecutive day of him running at least 1 mile. Since July of 2012, he’s not missed a single day of running, whether outdoors or on a treadmill. Not a single day. Not when he was sick. Not when he was traveling or on vacation. Not when the weather’s bad. Not even during is deployment to the Middle East. 3000 consecutive…
The Times They Are a-Changin’, But God Isn’t
Scripture: Lamentations 5:1-22 My good friend, David, is the Sr. Pastor at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Rochester, Michigan. He called me at home Wednesday night just to see how things are going with me, my family, and with our congregation here in Adrian. It was a great to connect with him, and to hear about how their congregation is responding to the health current crisis. One of the things we’re both experiencing—and I can say with certainty that…
How Should We Respond?
Scripture Reading: Lamentations 4:1-24 If you’re like me, and you’ve been following this particular series from the book of Lamentations, you may have already drawn a parallel between the experience of those left behind after Jerusalem’s fall and our own experience of the fallout of coronavirus pandemic. I’m not suggesting that they’re the same, because they’re not. A quick reading of Lamentations chapter 4 makes that clear. We haven’t abandoned our children. We’re not starving and malnourished. And we certainly…
Where Is God?
Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3 There’s a well-known true story told by Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel. In his book, “Night,” he tells of the inhumane suffering he and his fellow Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazi’s. The following are a few paragraphs which describe what happened one time when he was 16 years old in a concentration camp. One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place,…