Rev. Tucher

The collection is now complete! My last (or maybe latest) piece of the collection
arrived today: Artoo-Potatoo with holographic Princess Leia. He now joins Darth Tater and the Spud Trooper in my office at the church. They serve as guardians of my theological library.

Today marks the day, one year ago, when I was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry. It was a very special day for me. My home pastor preached my ordination sermon, I had a classmate from the seminary lay hands on me and read words of Scripture as words of encouragement for the Office that I had just entered. Unfortunately, I don’t have any digital pictures from that day, but I wanted to recognize the day anyway. I still find it shocking one year later that God would choose to use a person such as myself to be a pastor in His church. Soli Deo Gloria!

Text: 2 Corinthinans 4:5-12

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

        Have
you ever thought about what all it means to be a pastor, one who defends the
ministry of the Gospel? It’s a very easy
job because we only work one day a week. The other six days are just vacation I guess. But for that one day a week that we do work,
it takes a great deal of preparation. Sermons do not write themselves. Just
about anyone could sit down and write a sermon, but it takes great effort to
write a sermon where the Gospel is properly preached and Law and Gospel are
rightly divided. 

        When
a pastor preaches, it has nothing to do with him personally. It is the Holy Spirit, working through a
pastor who preaches. If we ourselves do
the preaching, we can preach about whatever we want to preach, however we want
to preach. But that isn’t what Paul
says. Paul says that we preach “Jesus Christ as Lord.”

(more…)

A Union Bible College student caught having sex with a 14-year-old
campus high school girl is facing criminal prosecution for sexual
misconduct with a minor, authorities said.  James W. McBryant III, 19, met the 14 year old while washing dishes at an ettiquette class in March.  The two left and went to Union Bible Academy, the high school attached to the college.  The two engaged in sexual intercourse, but were interrupted when a teacher entered the room.

That’s wrong, just wrong.  They say it was consensual.  Law says sex with a person under the age of 16 cannot consent to sex with a person over the age of 18.  McBryant was released on a bond of $10,000.  Regardless, he should have been locked up for a long time.  He’s studying at a Bible college of all places.  I’m sure that having sex with a minor is something that his professors did not teach.

They have put together a model of Lucas Oil Stadium, the new home of the Indianapolis Colts, around 2008. The cost for the model: $104,655, for a 4-foot long by 3-foot wide model. Time to build: 2000 hours. Materials: 40 pounds of plaster, 12 bottles of super-glue, 3 small motors for the opening of the roof.

Laura VanRyn’s body was exhumed from the northern Michigan cemetery where she was laid to rest more than five weeks ago after being mistakenly identified as a college classmate. Reburial will be in Graceland Memorial Park in Kent County’s Grand Rapids Township.

Wednesday, the family who was slain to death in Indianapolis on June 1, was laid to rest at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. The funeral mass was standing room only, with over 630 people attending. Two men have been arrested, and Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi announced Tuesday that he would seek the death penalty against one of them.

I read an interesting post by Old School Confessional today.  It was about plagiarism in the pulpit, pastors preaching sermons not written by themselves.  It would be very interesting to see how many pastors use entire sermons written by others or who use a theme and develop their own sermon.

The man suspected of slaying 7 people in Indianapolis on Thursday surrendered to IPD Saturday evening without resistance. Police have filed preliminary charges of seven counts of murder and seven counts of felony murder against Turner.

One thing that I have an issue with is a police storming into a ladies house.

Police took Latoya Broadus, 26, her two brothers and 5-year-old nephew out of the home about 7 a.m. They were detained in squad cars while SWAT officers entered her home on a tip that Turner was inside.

Broadus said she has never met Turner. The house stinks of tear gas, windows are broken and she said walls and furniture were also damaged. The city is not offering her family any help cleaning up.

If IPD stormed this house on faulty information and/or found no trace of Turner, then why is the city of Indianapolis not willing to offer any help in cleaning up the damage?

The mis-identification of the two girls involved in the Taylor University crash was not due to Taylor University officials. In a press statement Friday from University, President Eugene B. Habecker said that university officials believed that IDs would be rechecked.

“We are not experts in forensics, law enforcement or emergency response techniques. It was not the understanding of the university officials when they were invited to participate that they were performing an official identification.”

It was also revealed on May 18 by VanRyn’s roommate that she didn’t think the woman she had visited at the Fort Wayne hospital was VanRyn. University officials asked for coroner’s files but did not reveal as to why they wanted. If you want more information about this story, one only need turn on the tv or read a newspaper.

Additional links:
Taylor officials thought IDs would be rechecked (6/3/06)
Taylor University press conference (6/2/06)