Rev. Tucher

A church in Indianapolis, Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, is embarking on a new, $55,000 campaign: Would Jesus discriminate?  What would Jesus discriminate against: homosexuality.  The church, one who ministers specifially to gays and lesbians.  Below are a couple of quotes from their website.

We’re a Church that’s passionate about Jesus and the Bible, but not afraid of diversity or independent thought.

You will find a warm welcome whoever you are –
straight or gay, white or black, Asian or Hispanic, conservative or
liberal, old or young, rich or poor, deaf or hearing, married or
single, transgender or any gender identity. Like the early Church, we are a rainbow congregation!

They have a four-point Call to Action plan with regards to their campaign:

1. We must renew our commitment to honesty.
2. We must educate ourselves by daring, like Jesus before us, to become genuine friends of gay and transgender people.
3. We must carefully reexamine what the Bible teaches about same-sex relationships. 
4. We must stop using the law to hurt gay and transgender people.

I would like to see what information they have regarding #3.  Scripture clearly forbids homosexual relationships. 

If you would like to read the entire news story about it, click here.

Text: 1 John 4:13-21

            Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen. The text for the sermon this morning comes
from the Epistle which was read earlier.

            One
of the things that have Christians discussing is the Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic
text. Gnosticism’s basic tenet was that
the spiritual is good while the physical is bad. Some Gnostics concluded that
as long as you sang the “Hallelujahs” and “Amens” on your spiritual side on
Sunday morning, it didn’t matter what you did with your body on Saturday night
or in your life during the rest of the week. One of John’s emphases in this letter is to stress that God has redeemed
us body and soul. If God’s love has
sanctified our hearts, that love will radiate into our lives as well. If He has graciously led us to faith and a
change of heart, our outward lives will also be changed, and good works will
naturally follow and showcase that love. This shoots a hole through the Gnostics way of thought and brings us to
the key concept of our text: love.

(more…)

I know that this doesn’t deal with the LCMS, but it is religous related. In a story from the Indianapolis Star, the United Methodist Church in Indiana might be close to merging the North Indiana and South Indiana Conferences.

At stake is the future of one of the most important movements in Indiana, one whose influence extends beyond its approximately 220,000 members, 1,600 clergy and 1,200 congregations. Its institutions include Methodist hospitals in Indianapolis and Lake County, three universities — DePauw, Evansville and Indianapolis — and various social services… “We’re very different. We’re very different,” State Sen. Patricia Miller of Indianapolis repeated for emphasis, but she added, “I think merger is a real possibility.”

Here’s the thing: if you are a member of the United Methodist Church, as both Conferences are, then how different are you from each other? The UMC is not as polarized as the LCMS is (to the best of my knowledge) so what is the reason why they have not merged before now or talked about merging? Hmm…

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from my mom and sister.  It seems that my sister is pregnant, due in January, and that I’m going to be an uncle.  I’m already an uncle; my half-brother has two daughters, but I haven’t seen them in years.  So this will be exciting.  It’s too bad that I won’t be able to be there to see the baby and what not.  Hopefully I’ll be able to go home and see the baby shortly after he/she is born.  I’m looking forward to being an uncle again.

From May 4-6, the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod met in convention. There were 25 main resolutions that were addressed during the convention. Information from that convention can be found here. During the convention, the Wyoming District elected a new president following the retirement as District President of the Rev. Dr. Ronald Garwood, who has served in the position for the last 12 years. Our new District President is the Rev. Richard Boche who currently serves as the senior pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Cheyenne, Wyoming.