The sermon this Sunday is by Pr. John Kreidler, Associate to the Bishop and Synod Administrator.  Pr. Kreidler explores the contrasting leadership styles of King Herod and John the Baptist.  Pr. Kreidler truly brought an encouraging word to St. Paul's.

Jesus heals a Leper who had heard good news!  We are able to hear this good news also, this gospel - and so make ourselves available to the healing power of God - in whom - Nothing is Impossible!

The sermon explores the incident at Ceaserea-Phillipi where Peter confesses Jesus as the "Christ".  As we confess Jesus as Lord we too are Blessed!

The children's sermon begins the podcast - where we learn together about gestures of worship.

Jesus teaches at least three lessons this day:

God Provides!

Don't Worry!

Pray!

Jesus apprears to his disciples with un-speakable good news!  Peace be with you!  He iniates a new reality through the power of HIS word!  Alleluia!!

Isaiah 40  God’s People Are Comforted

The sermon explores how religion and the church are like medicine and the healing community.  Pain of the soul includes guilt, emptiness and anxiety.  The healing power of the gospel brings us forgiveness, love and hope. 

Jackie Volbrecht shared her expereinces in Russia with great passion and love.  Her enthusiasm is spreading, thanks be to God! 

The Purpose of the Church and its Ministry

 H. Richard Niebuhr, Daniel Day Williams, & James M. Gustafson

By love we mean at least these attitudes and actions: rejoicing in the presence of the beloved, gratitude, reverence and loyalty toward him. Love is rejoicing over the existence of the beloved one; it is the desire that he be rather than not be; it is longing for his presence when he is absent; it is happiness in the thought of him; it is profound satisfaction over everything that makes him great and glorious. Love is gratitude: it is thankfulness for the existence of the beloved; it is the happy acceptance of everything that he gives without the jealous feeling that the self ought to be able to do as much; it is a gratitude that does not seek equality; it is wonder over the other's gift of himself in companionship. Love is reverence: it keeps its distance even as it draws near; it does not seek to absorb the other in the self or want to be absorbed by it; it rejoices in the otherness of the other; it desires the beloved to be what he is and does not seek to refashion him into a replica of the self or to make him a means to the self's advancement. As reverence love is and seeks knowledge of the other, not by way of curiosity nor for the sake of gaining power but in rejoicing and in wonder. In all such love there is an element of that "holy fear" which is not a form of flight but rather deep respect for the otherness of the beloved and the profound unwillingness to violate his integrity. Love is loyalty; it is the willingness to let the self be destroyed rather than that the other cease to be; it is the commitment of the self by self-binding will to make the other great. It is loyalty, too, to the other's cause—to his loyalty. As there is no patriotism where only the country is loved and not the country's cause—that for the sake of which the nation exists—so there is no love of God where God's cause is not loved, that which God loves and to which he has bound himself in sovereign freedom.

Jesus healing of the woman who's ailment had her bent over for 18 years suggests a methaphor that sees faith as the skeleton of the soul.  Thanks to Dr. Tracy Popey for her collaboration.

This sermon explores God's Promise to Abraham and how our God brings promise to life through Jesus.  Jesus' promise, "Be not afraid little flock, for it is the Father's pleasure to give you the Kingdom" opens a new reality in which we are able to live. 

I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even
marry you because I loved you. I married you because you
gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults.
And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect
people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.
And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that
protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that
promise.
Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth

Pastor Dave talks about how Jesus teaches us to pray; what to ask for, what to seek and what to expect when we knock.  (hint: the Holy Spirit)