Richmond's Rumblings

Richmond’s Rumblings

This past Sunday, we finished our sermon series on David as a biblical character. More to the point, we visited about David as a man who was chosen by God to lead Israel in a very difficult series of circumstances. I have given, in the past, at least two other series of sermons on David, inspired as I said by the talk given by my Old Testament professor, the late Dr. Walter Harrelson of Vanderbilt University. David as a person continues to fascinate me, in large part through what the literary critic Professor Harold Bloom calls “the Blessing” or something given that everyone can see, but no one can identify. We as people of faith say David was blessed of God, and we mean that by you and I trying to grapple the whole of his life, not simply either the good or bad parts of it. I sincerely trust that the Sight and Sound production of David will allow all the facets of his life to be shown with God as constant presence being there throughout.

There are other people we know about from Scripture who seem to exhibit something similar to the “Blessing” that David received. One that immediately comes to my mind is the Apostle Paul, and for many demonstrate some of the same reasons that David’s Blessing is important. Some of those other people are, for instance, Jonah or Jeremiah, along with Peter, Isaiah, or Timothy, and still others that you may wish to explore. Such being so, I am inviting any of you who wish eventually to hear a sermon series about a given person from our Scriptures, please let me know. Generally, the summer months, as well as those of early fall, provide good opportunities to stretch our time beyond what the Lectionary recommends for us to experience on a particular Sunday. If then during these next (say) two to three months, you would like me to visit about someone within our Scriptures, I am willing to try to do so. There may be some weeks when something particularly needs to be discussed, but on those Sundays when I am not on vacation, at Assembly, or doing some Continuing Education work to help maintain my Regional Standing, I generally can plan a series of two or three sermons on that person. 

I trust that your respective summers are going well and that you are allowing yourselves to have fun as well. God’s blessings to you plus yours….

Shalom, Live Long, and Prosper,

Richmond