A View From The Earth

Organ Pipes at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa This is the sermon that I gave at the Skip-A-Way Campgrounds at Clermont, Iowa and at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour which is also in Clermont, Iowa on Sunday, July 27 th . I believe that sometimes we human beings have a perception problem. Often we think we have the proper perspective on an issue when in fact we are way off. It causes someone to look ridiculous. That is the focus of the readings today. In the first lesson, Jacob works for seven years for a precious treasure—Rachel, only to be given Leah instead. Jacob felt ridiculous, because it was dark and he did not realize it was Leah until the morning after the wedding! And he still wanted the treasure, Rachel, but Leah was part of the package. We look at that story and it is ridiculous by today's standards. There's a story that Thomas Wheeler who was CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells on himself: Mr. Wheeler...

Dusk on Harper's Slough, a backwater of the Mississippi River Last night my wife and I went on a couple hour Mississippi River boat tour at Harpers Ferry, Iowa. It was a group tour with a group from the Clayton County Democrats. We had a potluck and a short meeting and then we went on our cruise. We went up and down and around the various backwaters of the river with the captain of the boat telling us different stories of the history and ecology of the river. When on the main channel of the Mississippi we went up below the lock and dam at Lynxville, Wisconsin. Then we returned via a series of backwater sloughs. It was a very enjoyable time and I would recommend a tour if you are ever in the Northeast Iowa area. Their website is www.maidenvoyagetours.com I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day! Grace and Peace to you all.

The above photo was snapped by your truly this morning in the flower bed in our front yard. Two bumble bees are busily sipping the nectar out of this coneflower. Mondays have a tendency to be busy for me, I have to catch up with the things that I've let slip over the weekend. Today, I have an update on an appraisal report (which is now done), do some additional research on a report that the bank didn't like, work on a government foreclosure report, do my normal chores, and this evening my lovely wife and I get to go on an evening cruise on the Mississippi River. Of course through this all I will be musing next Sunday's readings to find the common thread so I can figure out what sort of thing to talk about in my sermon. Today the kids are off at driver's ed class, babysitting, at a Church camp, and the youngest two are in the other room watching the TV. I hope all of you are having a marvelous Monday!

This is darnel which is the tares (weeds) of the Parable of the Tares. (photo from Wikipedia) Here is the sermon that I gave at the Skip-A-Way campground and the Church of the Saviour, both in Clermont, Iowa. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 I have heard it said that Heaven really must be a wonderful place, because no-one has yet come back to complain! We hear a lot about heaven today. In the old testament today, Jacob dreams of Heaven, complete with a ladder and angels ascending and descending. Jacob is told his family will stretch across the generations, just as it was foretold to Abraham, his grandfather. For Jacob, this dream of multiplying his family is a cultural heaven, a promise fulfilled. Paul, too, talks about Heaven and judgment, and is thankful for the Holy Spirit, who Intercedes for us and calls on our behalf, giving us the ability to pray and to audaciously call God our Father. As Christians, heaven is something which we think we have an idea about, it is certainly our go...

Here is the sermon that I gave today at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. Hopefully it makes some sense.... Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Back before farmers had grain drills, they used an end gate seeder to seed oats or other small grains. Imagine a small wagon with a fan blade on at the end. The farmer drives his tractor or horses across the field, and the seed is thrown out across the field. Normally, the ground is plowed then disked to get the seedbed ready then the oats are seeded and then harrowed in with a drag. But in Jesus' time, in rural Judea and Galilee, the seed was sown by hand in a broadcast fashion and the sowing preceded the plowing or harrowing. The sower deliberately sowed the seed everywhere in the field, including any paths, in the rocky places, and among thorns and weeds as well as in the good soil. However, if the plowing was delayed for any reason, then they got the results that Jesus mentioned in this parable. It was that act of disturbi...

This is the cross and statues that are atop the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. Yep, it is Saturday afternoon, the kids are outside playing and I'm inside on the computer. So what gives? Why am I in here? Well I was to lead church services at a campground in Clermont, Iowa tomorrow morning. But the manager called and said that they weren't going to have services because they weren't done cleaning up the mess that was made when the Turkey river overflowed and created havoc in part of the campgrounds, they haven't reopened the section that the services are held in and they may not reopen it this summer. But since I had already written a rough draft of the sermon I was going to give, I thought I should finish it and see if the worship leader at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour would like me to give it tomorrow at Church since the priest is on vacation this month. The Gospel text is the parable of the sower from Matthew. It is one of my favorite parab...

This past weekend most of the family (minus the daughter who was wandering around in Yellowstone) packed up and headed to West Bend, Iowa for a class reunion. We stayed at an excellent bed and breakfast north of town called Prairie Oasis. I would recommend Prairie Oasis to anyone who is staying in the area. My wife's class reunion was good with over half of the class being there. I personally knew a few folks there but since I wasn't from the area I didn't know many people, so I basically followed her around kinda like a big puppy dog. In West Bend there is a religious shrine next to SS Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church. It is called the Grotto of the Redemption which was started almost a century ago by the priest at the church as a thank you to God for helping the priest through a very serious illness. That priest worked on the Grotto for a number of decades and the Grotto is still a work in progress. It has a number of grottos which depict scenes out of th...