Sunday, November 17, 2024
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:32; children’s sermon starts around 25:38; sermon starts around 34:47)
Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8
For the children’s sermon this morning, we talked about awe in all its forms – from awww to awful to awesome to amazing to overwhelming and terrifying. I asked the kids about times in their lives when they have felt some kind of awe. We talked about how Isaiah must have felt seeing this truly awesome vision. I asked them if they thought they would have responded in the same way Isaiah did, crying out “Here I am, Lord, send me!” And we remembered that God does call us to carry God’s word to the world, even though our call is usually a lot less flashy than Isaiah’s. And while that can still be kind of a scary call, it’s also pretty awesome that we get to share God’s word of love and grace.
Before I went to seminary, I worked for a few years teaching English and basic job skills down at Lincoln Literacy. To this day, other than being a pastor, it is my favorite job I’ve ever had. I loved working there. My coworkers were all really fun people, and I got to work with students from all over the world – refugees, migrant workers, university students, people who had found their way to Lincoln for all kinds of different reasons. And it was really rewarding and satisfying to watch them learning together, gaining confidence in their skills, and building these wonderful new friendships with people from different cultures. Plus, you’d better believe that the class potlucks we had were absolutely epic.
I was fresh off of four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I started working at Lincoln Literacy. And it actually ended up being a really great place for me to land after that experience. It’s really weird coming back to your own country after you’ve spent years living somewhere else. You expect home to feel the same, but you don’t realize how much you yourself change during that time. In fact, for that reason, the Peace Corps actually requires that every Volunteer go through Close of Service training – specifically to prepare them for the unexpected culture shock of coming home.
This is the Day 