October 18, 2020
Hannah is…as they say…a hot mess. She and her family are in town for a religious celebration…there is feasting and obviously a lot of drinking…that’s why the priest, Eli, simply assumes Hannah is drunk. But Hannah isn’t drunk. Far from it…she hasn’t been able to join in the celebration at all. She can’t …she can’t… Read More »
September 27, 2020
Family systems can be messy. Most of us are keenly aware of that fact. We know the impact of generational trauma and dysfunction. We live in the highly charged atmosphere of family squabbles over fairness and favoritism. This morning, we are met with the reminder that families have always been this way. This is… Read More »
September 13, 2020
This week as I was preparing my sermon, I came across two quotes that struck me. The first was from Terra Futura…a book of interviews with Pope Francis that was published on Wednesday. In it he said, ”Pleasure arrives directly from God. It is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else. It is… Read More »
August 30, 2020
We are spending 4 weeks talking about the Lord’s Prayer…why? Because the Lord’s Prayer is truly at the heart of the Christian life. Luther believed that there was nothing more wonderful in the entire Bible than the Lord’s Prayer. It’s like a tiny cliff notes version of what it means to be a person of… Read More »
August 16, 2020
These next four Sundays, we will be taking a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer. Many of us have it memorized…maybe even more than one version. Martin Luther thought it was so central to our understanding of faith, that he included it in his small catechism to teach children the faith…which we now use in… Read More »
August 2, 2020
This is it…just in case you missed it…just in case you weren’t listening…and on the off chance you are still wondering what this faith thing…this Jesus thing…this church thing…is all about. This is it. This is the whole enchilada. All our hope…all our purpose…who we truly are…it’s right here. What we just read. … Read More »
July 12, 2020
Any of you been through hard times? I’m guessing most of you have. We’re in the midst of global “hard times” right now, as we ride the waves of this pandemic. Sometimes we get to feeling it’s calm waters and smooth sailing…only to be upended by a tsunami of bad news. But suffering isn’t limited… Read More »
June 28, 2020
In many ways, Job reads like a courtroom drama. Job pleads his case: that he has been treated abominably…that God has allowed evil in his life that was not deserved. And then we hear from his friends, who testify on God’s behalf — claiming that whatever Job experienced was justified and necessary…that God was not… Read More »
June 21, 2020
I have been paying attention…listening…to the voices of black folks more attentively these days. I have to confess…I haven’t listened that well before. Because, honestly, it’s hard to listen to. It’s a lament. A list of grievances. A litany of pain and anger. And after a while, it gets old. Now isn’t that… Read More »
June 7, 2020
This is a parable. Not a history lesson. A parable. A story told to wrestle with the most primal question we humans have — if there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the world? Many people who give up their belief in God, do so because they cannot reconcile a good… Read More »