The Pastor's Ponderables

St. James’ E-pistle Date of Sunday Service:  November 26 Christ the King Bible Verse " B e joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song." - Psalm 100:1 Pulpit Notes Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  As we approach the season of Advent (it begins in just over a week!), it’s a good idea for us to think about what this most recent holiday was all about. Obviously, Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, right?  But for some reason, we think of it as a uniquely American holiday.  You know, the Pilgrims and all? In one sense, it is unique to our country.  That’s because for us, Thanksgiving is an Origin Story , a story about how we got here and how we overcame adversity and succeeded.  It is, in a way, a story of God blessing settlement of America by Europeans.  So yes, to that extent, Thanksgiving is as American as .... pum...

St. James’ publishes a weekly newsletter sent out by e-mail.  This is that newsletter for your convenience.  St. James’ E-pistle Date of Sunday Service:  November 19 24 Pentecost Bible Verse "As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,  and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he show us his mercy." - Psalm 123:2-3 Pulpit Notes Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, You have all probably been reading, listening to, and watching the saga of the Senate candidate Roy Moore.  Or the director Harvey Weinstein.  Or the Senator Al Franken.  Or Bill O’Reilly, or Kevin Spacey, or Mark Halperin or any number of other prominent men who have been named as sexual offenders, accused of abuses ranging from verbal harassment to groping to rape to pedophilia. In fact, in every aspect of life where a person might have power over another - including the church - there has...