Thank you so much to everyone who's listened to our Podcast over the last several years - this will be our final edition of the Redheaded Preacher as Pastor Lanford has retired. It's been such a wonderful experience, finding our podcast was listened to so many people around the globe. Thank you so much. We leave you with these final words, spoken by Pastor so many times:

Go in Peace

Keep the Faith

Love one another

Serve the Lord!

This Sunday is Pride Sunday observed, and this guided both the Scriptures chosen and the sermon written. The passages are Genesis 18 on hospitality, Acts 8:4-8, 26-40 about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and Luke 10 with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The fearless and barrier-breaking acts of welcome and grace we see in those men towards “the other” or even “the enemy” remind us of what we need to do to save our humanity in these divided and often heartless times. “Go and do likewise!”

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Thanks for listening!!

This homily is guided not by the fact this Sunday is Father’s Day, but by the choice of Rev. Lanford to offer the Service of Healing within the worship time on more time before he retires on June 30th. Thus, he explores the halting healing of Mark 8:22-36 within its narrative context, as well as briefly touching on why Jesus used saliva as something to put on a man’s eye. The key Scripture is Mark 8, but listeners will also hear the healing in Mark 2:1ff., and Acts 3:1-10 at the Beautiful Gate at the Temple. Our apologies to fathers hoping for a message intended for them!

Please hit subscribe if you like what you've heard!! We'd also appreciate your 5 star rating and review wherever you're hearing this.

Donations to further our mission and support this podcast can be made at paypal.me/stpeteruccskokie

Check out our website for events, happenings and more! https://stpeteruccskokie.org. You can find us online and on most social media platforms by typing stpeteruccskokie in your browser.

Thanks for listening!!

This homily is inspired in part by the fact that we are celebrating an infant baptism in between the Scriptures and the homily, and by the readings. Those are Psalm 138, Mark 4:30-34, and Philippians 1:3-11. There is a theme within them of God’s purposes and them being fulfilled (by God). Yet do we not also have a role in them being fulfilled, as in by cooperating with God? And what neat thing can the mustard seed parable tell us about God’s purposes and our lives? Tune in and be encouraged!

Please hit subscribe if you like what you've heard!! We'd also appreciate your 5 star rating and review wherever you're hearing this.

Donations to further our mission and support this podcast can be made at paypal.me/stpeteruccskokie

Check out our website for events, happenings and more! https://stpeteruccskokie.org. You can find us online and on most social media platforms by typing stpeteruccskokie in your browser.

Thanks for listening!!

Jesus faced a lot of opposition from the Jewish religious establishment in Jerusalem, and here they clash verbally over Sabbath law interpretations in the field, and Jesus tries to take them to school over the same subject while preparing to heal a man’s withered hand in a synagogue. That was also on a Sabbath, perhaps the same day as in the field! Rev. Lanford lifts up at the end how the opposition faced by Jesus has a parallel in our discipleship through the world making it hard to be a person devoted to agape love, forgiveness, justice and compassion. The Spirit in Jesus taking on the Pharisees lives on in His followers facing hardship, thanks to God. Listen in!

Please hit subscribe if you like what you've heard!! We'd also appreciate your 5 star rating and review wherever you're hearing this.

Donations to further our mission and support this podcast can be made at paypal.me/stpeteruccskokie

Check out our website for events, happenings and more! https://stpeteruccskokie.org. You can find us online and on most social media platforms by typing stpeteruccskokie in your browser.

Thanks for listening!!