A View From The Earth

Steeple at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa Here is the sermon that I gave at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on November 30, 2008. The scripture that formed the basis of this message is Mark 13:24-37 On 13th September 1759, one of the most significant battles of the 18th Century was fought – the Battle of the Heights of Abraham. You haven't heard of it? Well let me tell you a bit about it. The Heights of Abraham are the cliffs above the St. Lawrence river in front of the city of Quebec. Louis, the Marquis de Montcalm - who was in charge of the French defenders of the city of Quebec - felt secure because of the natural protection against a river side attack afforded by the Heights of Abraham. And so he sent only a small detachment of French soldiers to watch the cliffs and repel anyone foolish enough to try and scale the Heights and attack However, the British General Wolfe found a route up the cliffs, that led to the top. When he got to the t...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR 29th BIRTHDAY! Today is my lovely wife, Marcia's anniversary of her 29th birthday. I won't say how many anniversaries it is, that would be inconsiderate. But I can tell you that is more than what I've had. So for those who look at this humble little blog, pop on over to her new blog at http://wdmapowell.blogspot.com/ and say "hi". By the way in the photo above Marcia is being her typical self by multitasking, here she is talking on the phone and preparing to make the bulletin for Church with a Bible and a Book of Common Prayer.

The bell tower at Church of the Saviour, Clermont, Iowa This is a sermon that I gave on November 23, 2008 at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. The scripture basis for this is Matthew 25:31-46, Ezekiel 34:11-24, and Ephesians 1:15-23. The following is a brief meditation based on writings by Claudia Burney: "Jesus' family lives next door. He’s got an eight-year-old niece and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man is the uncle of those starving Ethiopian children. They only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when they make it. His sister is a crack addict. His aunts are illegal immigrants, and the processing plant is closing. Poor King of Kings. Jesus' brother is two houses down and has six children. and his sister-in-law’s pregnant with the seventh. I don’t know if they haven’t figured out what birth control is, or what, but how can his brother feed all those babies on that salary? That means hardworking taxpayers’ money has to go for the Christ’s...

Painting of Jesus at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa This is a sermon I gave at Church of the Saviour, Clermont, Iowa on November 9, 2008. The basis for the message is Matthew 25:1-13. Today we heard Joshua say that we should “Serve the Lord” and then we heard Paul telling the Church in Thessaloníki that Jesus will return one day. The Gospel is from Matthew and Jesus combines those two ideas. We have been reading our way through Matthew this year. As Jesus told this parable in chapter 25 he was already well into a lengthy explanation of events surrounding his second coming in chapter 24. Jesus had spoke of his death and resurrection before, but this concerns his second coming. Jesus has said in Matthew 24 that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” However he has also said that “no-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the ...

St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Maquoketa, Iowa This is the sermon I gave at the Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on October 26, 2008. The basis for the sermon is 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16. Bill is a 20 year old college Student. He’s been active in church for 5 or 6 years, he got active because of his youth group. He volunteers as a leader of the youth group on Friday nights. His friends call him Blue because he has red hair. Violet is a 77 year old retiree. She’s still energetic enough, in bursts at least, to continue her ministry in the church, by doing lots of pastoral care. Ruby is a little over 29. At least that’s all she says. She’s an IT specialist. She leads a small group and is involved with the outreach ministry in her local church. Jack is a father of 3 teenagers, an accountant, and in his late 40’s. He’s just old enough to be considered a baby-boomer but young enough to think of himself as a Gen-Xer. He’s a leader of the men’s group at his church as well as ...