This Sunday is the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.  The 3rd Sunday of June is also celebrated as “Father’s Day” in America.  Therefore, I want to give a shout out to all the fathers AND those serving in paternal roles in the lives of God’s children.  It is also the 3rd Sunday of Pride Month for Central Alabama.  As such, the assigned scriptures for this Sunday offer us a wonderful “Father’s Day Lesson on Inclusion.”

           My sermon focus will include the II Corinthians 5 text that offers us these words of hope: “For we live by faith, not by sight;” and, “Therefore, if ANYONE is IN CHRIST,” the new creation has come.  The old has gone, the new is here.”

          However, I will also take note of the assigned Hebrew text from I Samuel 15 & 16, in which God tells Samuel to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite’s home because The Divine One has chosen one of Jesse’s sons to be the next King of Israel.  The process of discerning which son God has chosen is a wonderful “Father’s Day Lesson on Inclusion.”  

          Join us this Father’s Day for worship, in-person or by Zoom, Facebook Livestream or YouTube.  My sermon will be “A Father’s Day Lesson on Inclusion,” based on “II Corinthians 5:6-9, 16-17.”