The Joker is laying siege to Gotham City. New York City is under attack by Dr. Octopus and the rest of the Sinister Six. Lex Luthor has another diabolic plan to take over the world.

The people of Gotham and New York and planet Earth are helpless. They are weak victims of crimes being perpetrated against them. They are powerless to stop their enemies.

They need superheroes.

The Israelites in the book of Judges are helpless. They are victims of the mighty Philistines. They are powerless to stop their enemies.

They need a superhero.

Christian writer Greg Elder grew up along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As a boy he used to spend long hours building intricate sand castles on the beach. One year, however, he encountered trouble. For several days in a row, local bullies came by and used their bare feet to kick down whatever sand castle he was building.

Finally this young boy had had enough. He decided to try an experiment. He started to build a sand castle as before, only this time he included cinder blocks and chunks of concrete as part of the base.

One day a farmer’s old dog fell into a dry well. He was trapped. No way out. The animal cried piteously for hours while the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, though the farmer sympathized with the dog, he decided that the dog was old and the well dry, and neither was worth the trouble of saving. So the farmer decided to bury the old dog and put him out of his misery.

In South Euclid, Ohio, a 62-year-old man from that community was found guilty of picking on a neighbor who has two adopted ethnic, developmentally challenged children, a husband with dementia and a paralyzed son. The man would shine a spotlight at the neighbor’s house at three in the morning and disturb the family’s sleep, play loud music to disturb his neighbors, he spat on the mother while she was holding her children, and publicly shouted a racial epithet to describe the mom. He also regularly threw dog feces at the son’s car.  

In the movie, “God’s Not Dead,” two Christian pastors have a refrain that they repeat between themselves a number of times during the movie. The first pastor says, “God is good ...” The second pastor replies, “… all the time.” Then the second pastor starts, “And all the time …” the first pastor finishes, “… God is good.”

Social media was filled this past week with two very different and distinct stories. The first was the news that Robin Williams had taken his own life. Many of us knew him from his famous roles in “Mork and Mindy,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” and “Good Will Hunting.” Our children knew him as the cross-dressing Mrs. Doubtfire and the voice for the multi-dimensional Genie in “Aladdin.”

In A.D. 537 the Byzantine Emperor Justinian dedicated what was then the largest cathedral in the world in his capital city of Constantinople. It was called the Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God (referring to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ), known more commonly by its Greek name Hagia Sophia (Greek for “Holy Wisdom”). For its time it was a stupendous miracle of engineering and construction. Its inner walls were covered with mosaics, and it boasted a 49-foot-tall iconostasis – the screen that separated the altar area (priests only) and the nave where the people stood. It was the center of Christian worship for the entire Eastern Empire after the West fell to the barbarian invasions in the 400s. (Have some fun later today and Google “Hagia Sophia” and even take a virtual tour.)

This Sunday's sermon is a series of devotions used during the week of Training Camp from July 21st to July 25th.

“I don’t know, Dad. It must have been the woodland fairies.”

That was the explanation of a friend’s five-year-old-daughter for how the whipped cream got out of the fridge and all over her and her brother’s face. The fairies. And the look on her face didn’t betray a single doubt or worry that her story wouldn’t hold up. There were only two questions: Did she really think her would believe her? And, was he able to able to discipline her without laughing?

What kind of excuses have your kids given you over the years?

Last week the Lord blessed and challenged us with around 100 kids ages 3-13 for our fourth New Hope Lutheran Soccer Camp. Each day we taught the kids various dribbling moves like step-overs, v-pulls, hook turns, pull backs, scissors and the Maradonna. The kids were probably thinking what you’re thinking: “You’ve got to be kidding! What are all those things? I can never learn all those moves. Impossible! I can’t do that!” But the coaches and their assistants were able to help them and train them so that over time they could accomplish great things.