Guided Missile Cruiser Sermon

The other day, my Dad and I were sitting on the back deck talking, when he recounted a story about one of the sermons he gave during his long and eclectic career as a minister. Apparently I was there but was too young to remember.

The sermon was given aboard a US Navy guided missile cruiser berthed at a port in San Diego. My family, along with several others, were staying in the area prior to boarding a ship to sail to Brazil and begin missionary service in Belo Horizonte. It was the summer of 1968.

I asked Dad how in the world he came to give a sermon on a guided missile cruiser in the middle of the Cold War. He told me he’d met the captain and informed him of the impending journey to Brazil and the captain invited him to come aboard and give a sermon.

Dad accepted the invitation. And why not?

Some sailors showed up one Sunday morning and Dad delivered a sermon on a vessel armed with nuclear weapons.

He doesn’t recall the name of the vessel or the content of the sermon.