IMPORTUNATE PRAYER
A word of encouragement. Keep on going, you can make it, don’t quit, keeping holding on, don’t let go, just keep putting one step in front of the other, you can do it, you are not alone, you are not forgotten, help is on the way. A word of encouragement. The parable of the […]
GLIMPSE
Our gospel lesson today begins as a simple story of miracle and healing, just a plain ole miracle of healing of some more lepers. But the usual story line is interrupted by two unusual events. Only one of the ten lepers returns to praise God and thank Jesus, and to top it off he isn’t […]
WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
Today we are visited by dead men. Like in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge was haunted by the Ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley. Marley was bound by the chains that he forged in life and Marley visited Scrooge from beyond the grave to warn him to change his greedy […]
THEOTRICKS
You remember Jacob. You know, the Patriarch? The one who wrestled God one night and God struck his hip and named him Israel, the one who strives with God? You know, That Jacob. Think about it, he was a real clever trickster, a wise rogue, how come someone like him ended up with the […]
IMAGO
Make sure you’re sitting down for this one, I’m about to use a football illustration for my sermon. This is a rare event. Actually this is more of an anti-illustration. I’ll tell you why. A little over a week ago Kendall Langford, a defensive end for the Miami Dolphins lost his diamond earring […]
GOD’S COST
I love scripture. There are many reasons for that love, but the main reason is that I see God in them, I see something of God’s character, of who God is, revealed in scripture. And God is who catches and holds my attention. I don’t like sermons that are all about the preacher, or all […]
PUT ANOTHER LEAF IN THE TABLE!
Jem ran to the kitchen and asked Calpurnia to set an extra plate, we had company. Atticus greeted Walter and began a discussion about crops neither Jem nor I could follow. “Reason I can’t pass the first grade, Mr. Finch, is I’ve had to stay out ever’ spring an’ help Papa with the choppin’, but […]
UNBOUND
We have this crazy little dog, a Jack Russell mix. Every night we let her in the house and she runs in and leaps into this dog crate that we have and waits expectantly with great joy for us to close and lock the wire cage door so she can’t get out. The next morning […]
COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN
Prayer is important. I think most of us would agree about that, no matter how actively we practice prayer or not, we see the practice as intrinsically worthwhile and set apart from any other activity or practice. We might not agree on why it is important, we might not have any idea of why […]
SHEPHERD
Imagine God. Imagine God. What is the image? Is the image of a Shepherd or a lamb? It would be interesting to do some sort of image search and count all the images of God. What are the most popular, common, ancient and enduring images of God? God as Shepherd is probably the winner, and […]
Seeing
How we mark time says a great deal about who we are. Often when we try to remember something we do so by saying it was before or after a significant event, either a milestone or a tragedy in our lives. We pay a great deal of attention to birthdays and death days. Sunday being […]
BLOOD
Blood. Blood. A day of blood. The atoning sacrifice. Its about time to decide what we believe in. Do we believe there was just a little blood? Enough for some but not for all. Or do we believe that the blood was copious? A mighty torrent. Enough blood to wash away all our […]
PRODIGAL
Grace is hard to live with. Take the story of the prodigal son for example. The word prodigal and the title of this parable comes from the Latin translation of the scripture, the Vulgate. It was the word used for excess and extravagance. It is interesting how the word prodigal is understood, we often think […]
Blazing
Moses was a murderer. He was hiding, on the lamb. He had started a new life far away where no one knew about him or his guilt. Moses ended up being many things, the child found on the river raised in Pharaoh’s house, the shepherd who stood up to Pharaoh, the man who led […]
BROOD
Sin. We just can’t get away from it. Its like glue or fly paper, it sticks to everything, gums up the works. Whether it’s the latest media frenzy on corruption, high finance or infidelity. The local news on murder, abuse and addiction. The crazy things we do and say and […]
A WAY OF BEING IN THE WORLD
What tests us is what makes us, shapes us. Life is a long test that makes us and shapes us until we die. We are judged by what comes of this testing, what do we make of the testing of life? What does it make of us? Does grief twist us or does it transform […]
Ash Wednesday 2010
So what exactly are we doing today? Why repentance and confession? Why ashes and mortality and sin? Why have this day and this season every year? Most of us don’t need any more burdens, another drain, another weight. Why do this every year? Precisely because we don’t need any more burdens, any more drains […]
ON THE SPOT
Have you ever been caught up short with yourself and your life? One of those moments that makes you stop to reassess everything about yourself? Different things provoke these moments of questioning and redirection. In the addiction recovery community it is called hitting rock bottom, realizing that we are spiritually bankrupt and in need […]
IN BODILY FORM
We live in spiritual times. People feel spiritual or long for something spiritual. People complain about atheism and secularism and materialism, but the fact is that we live in one of those times of deep spiritual curiosity and craving. Granted it is rarely a spiritual longing that results in much, in such things as commitment, […]
FORM AND CONTENT
Have you heard the news? Its all over the news. That’s old news! Would you like the bad news first or the good news? Bad news travels fast. There’s no news like good news. Making the news. Being the news. Spreading the news. What is this news thing? Until the past few years […]
BEAR FRUIT
It seems like most things in life are contagious. Both the good and the bad. Both swine flu and disrespect are contagious. Both deep hospitality and the beauty of God are contagious. What do we catch? What do we inoculate ourselves against? Will we catch a case of hospitality, of deep respect, of the […]
SIGNS
Sign, sign, every where a sign Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign… That comes from an old rock and roll song by Tesla from 1970 about how we clutter the world with signs, most of which are worthless and mean. Most signs […]
SOMETHING NEW
I like to run. I wear out two pairs of shoes every year religiously. I started running 30 years ago, in the late 1970’s when the jogging craze was in full force. Lately I’ve been trying something new. I’ve been running in a new way. For over thirty years we’ve been trained to run landing […]
RUNNING OUT OF TIME
I’ve been away taking a class. Every night I called home. In order to make long distance calls I had to have a calling card with a certain number of minutes purchased on it. One night I ran out of minutes and the call was cut off in mid sentence. The next night I had […]