Jonah and the….Mercy of God

Preacher: Pastor Nathan Hosler, PhD Date: January 21, 2024 Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5, Jonah 3:10, Mark 1:14-20 The fish was huge! It was, at least, big enough for us to keep and eat—(I didn’t really like it as a child). If I say, “Jonah and the….” How do you fill in? Jonah and the big fish or…

Advent 2023 – In Bethlehem, Christmas is Canceled

Preacher: Pastor Nathan Hosler, PhD Date: December 3, 2023 Scripture: Mark 13: 24-37, Psalm 80 Munther Isaac is the pastor of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem—the Bethlehem. His family and the Palestinian Christian community trace their history back, literally, to the beginning. The Church of the Brethren has sought to read the New Testament…

Good Work

Preacher: Nate Hosler Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Psalm 32, Matthew 4:1-11 Date: February 26, 2023 God put them in the garden of Eden to “till and to keep it.” The Biblical witness is one in which good work and responsibility is given as a blessing—part of what it means to be human. This work comes…

Worship

Preacher: Nathan Hosler Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23, Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1, 4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Date: January 22, 2023 What is Worship? In approximately 5 words. [community response] My Friday morning answer was—Being rightly oriented towards God. We are going to read our passages with this question in mind. What is worship? However, as you might…

Joy and Peace

Preacher: Nathan Hosler Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 Date: December 18, 2022 It was Saturday morning and still dark. I awoke and looked at my clock. 5:19. Perfect—not too early, not too late. Still a few minutes until my alarm would go off. Headed off to my first race since April 2019. Which was feeling enormously long…

Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity

Preacher: Nathan Hosler Scripture: John 17:1-26 Date: September 25, 2022 A young Greek Orthodox monk working in the finance office in Greece, originally from Pennsylvania, dressed in traditional black robe, beard, and long hair in a bun (we did this before hipsters, he said). A pastor working in the women’s ministry from a Pentecostal church…

Shines Forth (Enthroned Upon the Cherubim)

Preacher: Nathan Hosler Scriptures: Micah 5: 2-5a, Psalm 80: 1-7, & Luke 1: 39-55 “In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled…

Awaiting the Mysterious

Pastor: Nathan Hosler Scriptures: Jeremiah 33:14-16 & Luke 21:25-36 This weekend we marked the life of my Grandpa Shenk. On Saturday, I, with my cousins and siblings, carried his coffin to the grave on a hill overlooking Lancaster County farmland and not a mile from where he lived much of his 86 years. Earl Eugene…

But we do see Jesus

“Jesus’ hand reaches out to the children” Sculpture at the Washington National Cathedral