Feast Day of St. James of Jerusalem, Brohter of Jesus and Martyr
Saturday after Pentecost 21
October 23, 2010
The Lord be with you
For those who do not know, I’ve had a very busy week. On Monday I married Kim Donaldson to Martha Slade. On Tuesday I left town for a Professional Church Workers conference in Richmond, VA. Because I was behind my regular maintained on my car, after the wedding reception I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my car ready for the drive and doing school work (more on that in a bit).
The conference was time well spent. I know Lamb of God will receive benefit from my time there. We had two main speakers, Dr. Jeff Gibbs and Dr. Bruce Hartung, both from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The general theme was “Holistic Redemption: The Mission of Jesus and His Church Today.” I can’t relate all the insights these two men of God shared. Here are just a few:
1. The ultimate hope for Christians is not a life as disembodied spirits, but the resurrection of the body on the Last Day. Death is a violent tearing apart of body and soul. At the return of Christ, soul and glorified body will be united for believers, and we will be what we were intended to be.
2. The number one mental health problem in America now is “Impulse Control.”
3. The “Kingdom” of God is the rule of God
4. Satan attacks pastors. If he can’t get at him directly, he will attack the pastor’s family. If he can’t get at his family, he will seek to get some “clergy killer” members into the congregation. If that doesn’t work, he will come at the pastor some other way. One thing is for sure, the devil will not give up.
Well I arrived back in Spartanburg Thursday around 5:00 PM. The problem for my schedule is that my new seminar at Gardner-Webb University (GWU) began Thursday at 9:00 AM. Fortunately I was excused, however I did send in a paper on the book we were discussing Thursday. I was working on it while at the conference and so was unable to attend everything.
Friday I was up at GWU for day two. The seminar is titled “The Ministry of Worship.” As GWU is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, you might expect a seminar on worship to accent the “Free Church” tradition. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to be doing this. While I’m sure the Free Church worship tradition will be explored, along with Charismatic, Pentecostal, “seeker-friendly,” and styles from around the world, it seems the major focus will be on the historical traditional western liturgical format. While the style and theological foundation may be new to my classmates (all Baptists), it will be right in my comfort zone.
Now you might be asking, Why is he going on and on about his week and not putting up his regular “worship notes”? The forgoing is just to explain why I’m not putting up my regular worship notes, which takes a little bit of thinking and composing, and why this post is today instead of last Thursday. What follows is a truncated edition of my regular post.
Tomorrow will be the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. We will be using the first setting of the worship service (page 151). Our appointed lessons are: Genesis 4:1-15; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; and Luke 18:9-17. The sermon is titled “The Story of Cain and Able” and is based on the Genesis lesson. Our hymns will be “Father Most Holy,” LSB 504; “I Lay My Sins on Jesus” LSB 606; “Your Table I Approach” LSB 628; “Chief of Sinners Though I Be” LSB 611; “By All Your Saints in Warfare” LSB 518: 1, 27, 3; and “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” LSB 643. We will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. The question for our adult Bible class will be “Please explain the parable in Luke 5:36-39.” The study is titled “New and Improved.” It actually ties in very well with the sermon.
Well I’m going to end this with a joke I heard at the convention. There is a Halloween headstone decoration which has a profound Christian message about the resurrection of the dead. It is … “I’ll be back.”
Well, I hope to see you Sunday.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
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