SERMONS
Above Earth's Lamentation
There’s a hymn I’m sure many of you know: “My life flows on in endless song / above earth’s lamentation. / I catch the sweet though far-off hymn / that hails a new creation.” I love this hymn. It’s one of my favorites.
But it landed a little differently one Sunday morning last October. It was homecoming weekend at my alma mater, Carthage College, and after the usual homecoming Eucharist, there was a memorial for Pastor Kara, the beloved campus pastor who at age 52 had died of cancer several months prior.
Christ, ever-stranger, ever-near
It takes all of us to create a world where the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned strangers are treated like our Gospel envisions. Like we see Christ - who is ever stranger, ever near - in them. Like they are made in the image and likeness of God. Like they are part of the body of Christ. Like they are beloved members of our communities. Like they are us. It takes all of us to answer the Christ who says, "Welcome me."