Scripture - Matthew 4:12-23 Before Louis Pasteur, rabies meant certain death – not just in the human imagination, but also in diagnosis. Then, in the latter half of the 1800s, Pasteur figured out something of what was going on with just one thing: microbes. From this discovery he began developing a vaccine with his collaborators, saved countless lives, & made his career. A few generations later, in stories told after dark with flashlights, Polio played the same role as the

Scripture - Isaiah 49:1-7 No one knows for sure who this ‘servant’ was. Isaiah had a way of getting so wrapped up in what God was giving him to say that he all but lost track of who he was. Like an actor who loves the play he is in so much that he can recite every part of it, Isaiah jumps from part to part. Sometimes when he says I he is speaking for himself. Sometimes he is speaking for God. And more than once, he speaks for an unidentified servant of God, someone who w

Scripture - Matthew 3:13-17 We don’t think about it much, but for most of us, one thing that brings us to church on Sunday is the fact that we were baptized. Some of us were baptized without being given any choice in the matter. Cries at the baptismal font are not interpreted theologically. Some of us were baptized because we turned 10 years old & decided that we were sick & tired of not getting to drink the grape juice at Holy Communion. Some of us went to a worship serv