St. Luke's Blogs

One Night in Miami… was one of my favorite movies of the past year. It’s based on a 2013 play written by Kemp Powers and tells of a meeting between Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, boxer Cassius Clay, NFL star Jim Brown and singer Sam Cooke on February 25, 1964. Earlier that night, Clay – soon to become Muhammad Ali – surprised Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion. The four men were actual friends and did meet that night at the Hampton House in Miami, but the movie is a fictionalized account of their discussion. None of the men ever spoke of it publicly. Brown, the last one still living, only said they talked about their roles in advancing civil rights. “We got together because we knew together, we could be a force.”

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
 For he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Funerals are a sacred event in the life of the church. People attend funerals for many reasons. One of the primary reasons we gather together during the death of a loved one is to remember our faith and find comfort in the presence of God and one another. Often at funerals we turn to music to express our faith and to find the comfort and faithful reminder we need in times of mourning and trials. One of the most popular hymns often chosen in times like this is In the Garden by C. Austin Miles…

In 1978, Henry Smith had just graduated from seminary. He was young with hopes of a successful future. Sadly, he had a difficult time finding a job. His health was failing, and he was struggling with degenerative eye disease. Henry’s hope for a fruitful future was fading…

I recently traveled back in time to 1986.  It was incredible, especially since the trip was unexpected. When I landed, I suddenly found myself sitting next to my beloved grandfather, my “Papaw,” as we were driving down the winding country roads of Virginia in his dark red Ford Crown Victoria.  The sunlight was glistening off the morning dew on the soybean and peanut crops passing by, filling the air with that sweet smell of summer.  We passed several watermelon stands on the side of the road.  “Oh, we have to get one for tonight,” I said.  He nodded and smiled.  We both were chewing Dentyne gum (he always offered it to me), and he was tapping on the steering wheel to the beat of my time machine…

Every week, I’m so excited to see folks at the church that I haven’t seen in over a year.  Clearly the pandemic is waning (although not everywhere) and if we aren’t at the end of this nightmare, we are at least at the beginning of the end.  One thing that has caught my attention is how many people have told me similar stories about how they survived the isolation of the past year.  They seem to have bonded around a specific group of friends from our family of faith, and those friends continued to talk every day and sometimes they met outdoors in parks.  Maybe you also had a group of friends like that who encouraged you, checked in on you, and loved on you during this time.  Sometimes the friends were longtime acquaintances from our church family and other times they may have been people you did not know as well, but who took an interest in befriending you.  It seems like in this past year, friends were never so important…

Do you remember this song? The first line goes like this, “My hotdog has a first name…” I was recently in a conversation with a staff person, here at St. Luke’s, who told me that they had gotten to ride in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. I was fascinated to hear this. I grew up hearing that commercial jingle, seeing the commercial with the hot dog car, and eating these hot dogs at lunch or dinner. It was a wonderful conversation that reminded me about something fun from my youth. I also recently read about a hot dog slogan that was helping to change the world…

And when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be stopped from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.” – Joshua 3:13

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe;  and Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’  Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial for ever.” – Joshua 4:1-7

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”