Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Several years ago, I was watching TV, when I saw this weird commercial. It begins with a fishing boat somewhere out on the ocean. The men are lounging on the deck. As the captain scans the sea with a radar device, suddenly he calls out to the crew and everyone springs into action. A large net is lowered over the side. When it is pulled from the ocean, it is groaning with the weight of the

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We are gathered here today to console each other, to remember our sister in Christ, Barbara, and to remind each other of God’s love as we grieve. Someone once wrote that the lives we live are like a pebble tossed into a pond, which causes ever-widening rings and ripples. The ripples in the water can often continue on for a while, and will touch everything in their path. And not only that, but those

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning, we are in John, Chapter 3. We meet Nicodemus, who comes to visit Jesus. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. I wonder if he did that because he didn’t want to have the other Pharisees see him. Remember last week, the story was of Jesus clearing the temple, driving out the sacrificial animals, and turning over the money changers’ tables. So Jesus wasn’t exactly popular with the

Psalm 127:1-2; John 2:13-25 Grace and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen! Our gospel today is called “Jesus Cleanses the Temple,” But I like to call it “Angry Jesus!” Because he certainly was more than a bit aggravated! Jesus comes to the outer court of the Temple and finds what he feels has become a Marketplace instead of a place for prayer. It would be like having a gift shop in our Narthex before you enter. And I have actually been in a

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In this second chapter of John’s gospel, we follow Jesus and his disciples as he returns to his home. But wait– isn’t Jesus from Nazareth? Yes, he is, but Cana, the town where the wedding is taking place is very close to Nazareth. So that changes the dynamics of this wedding they attend. If Jesus was from Nazareth, he probably had family and friends in Cana, which explains his mother being

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are continuing in John’s gospel today, in the second half of the first chapter. We see John still baptizing by the Jordan River. He is with two of his disciples, when he sees Jesus in the distance. “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” Remember that John had seen the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove. That was the sign he was told to look for, that would show who the Lamb of Go