Today we thank you, O God, for Kathy Holm’s strawberry preserves. They’re even good in Michigan. Amen.
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Author: Aaron Decker
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Prayer for Nov 12, 2021
Today we thank you, O God, for my brother and my sister-in-law, and the chance to spend some time with them as adults. If I worked as hard as them, in their jobs and in their homes, I’d be no fun to be around. But instead, I find them to be really wonderful people that […]
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Prayer for Nov 11, 2021
Today we thank you, O God, for the gift of washing machines. They make it much easier to clean a two year-old’s poop out of a bathroom rug. Amen.
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Prayer for Nov. 1, 2021
Today we thank you, O God, for the gift of toilets. Not only do they do their job well, but my cat seems to think that if he goes behind them, he becomes invisible. A multipurpose tool indeed. Amen.
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Grace Together
Festival of the Reformation — Jeremiah 31:31–34. This was also my final Sunday with Faith and Bethany Lutheran Churches in Reading, PA. Our Lutheran Church’s official representative for South America, Gustavo Driau, suggested I pick up a copy of a book called “Open Veins of Latin America.” The veins that the title refers to are […]
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Prayer for Oct 27, 2021
Today I thank you, O God, for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Especially the question in the middle of the test that asks, “True or false: You feel like you’re being tested often.” It made me laugh out loud. Amen.
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Prophets: Amos
Lectionary 28 (B) — Amos 5:6–15; Mark 10:17–31 Seek the Lord and live. At first, I was annoyed at my schedule. If I’m here for all of October, couldn’t I have kept working? If Global Mission had just made up their minds sooner, we could have gone an extra month. But now I’ve started preparing […]
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Endings and Beginnings
Lectionary 26 (B) — Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38–50 Before I begin, there are two details I need to address, that don’t fit in my sermon. The first is about cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye. Sometimes we try to soften Jesus’ hard sayings, and usually that’s a mistake. But this […]
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Like Children
Lectionary 25 (B) — Mark 9:30–37 I think one of the reasons I get along so well with children is that I’m still one of them. That seems like a bad thing; an adult, “entering” middle age, who hasn’t “grown up” yet. But that’s not what I mean. I pay my bills and have a […]
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A Failure to Communicate
Lectionary 24 (B) — James 3:1–12, Mark 8:27–38 Our biggest problem is often a failure to communicate. For example, last week, I preached on James, and said that Martin Luther, who gave birth to Lutheranism 500 years ago, was wrong to reject the book. A few days later, I got an email suggesting that I […]