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Forgiveness And Reconciliation At Last! Proper 15 | Ordinary Time 20 from the book Sermons On The First Readings Series I, Cycle A Arley K. Fadness Genesis 45:1-15 |
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It happened to a rural Lake County, South Dakota, Lutheran church in August of 2000. Vandals attacked the fieldstone St. Peter Lutheran Church building with vengeance -- breaking windows, smashing light fixtures, flipping over the baptismal font, slashing a large "Jesus the Good Shepherd" painting, scribbling, and carving obscenities into the sanctuary walls and fixtures. The golden altar cross had been swung like a bat to gouge pews and walls. In the basement, kitchen dishes were broken and objects flung hither and yon. The vandals caused more than $40,000 worth of interior damage to the congregation's building. Services were held outdoors that following Black Sunday. "There were many tears. Everyone was so devastated and shocked that someone could do this to a church," recalls Susan Janssen, congregational vice-president. "No one could believe how terrible it was."
Three months after the vandalism took place, police arrested two area teenagers, ages sixteen and nineteen, who confessed to the crime. When the boys, let ...
This Proper 15 | Ordinary Time 20 sermon, Forgiveness And Reconciliation At Last!, is based on Genesis 45:1-15 and relates to Proper 15 | Ordinary Time 20 of Cycle A of the lectionary. This sermon is excerpted from the book Sermons On The First Readings. SermonSuite offers online sermons and professionally published sermons, lectionary sermons, non-lectionary sermons, children's sermons, sermon illustrations, worship resources, preaching resources, sermons on prayer, prayers, Christian drama, lectionary worship, lectionary workbooks and homilies. ...