Mark 9:38-50 Truth be told, I struggle to follow Jesus in his teaching now. Perhaps this is because it is just so much to take in, for we begin with someone casting out demons who is not a follower of Jesus, we move to the acknowledgement that something as simple as a cup of cold …
Welcoming Jesus…
Mark 9:30-37 I attended a community meeting last Wednesday night. The purpose was to introduce the city’s and the university’s new chiefs of police. The purpose was also to continue a dialogue about the apparent rise of violence in the community — much of it centered near the university. More than 350 people crowded into …
Cross-Bearing: 2021
Mark 8:27-38 I am doing something new this year. We have just a small group of young people who are ‘affirming their baptism’ this fall: four fourteen year old’s who will stand before our congregation and claim for their own the faith they have been raised in. Or maybe it is better to understand this …
Driven by Love…
Mark 7:24-37 Love drove her. Of course it did — an elemental, primal kind of love of a parent for a child, a mother for a daughter. Love. And, no doubt, lingering memories of a better time. And hope for all that child could be, surely would have been, had not a demon taken possession …
What Matters and What Doesn’t…
I am sharing an old blog this week as I am on vacation in the days leading up to when I would normally write. While this one was written several years ago, the questions posed seem especially timely given the opportunity we have now to sort through why we do what we do and the …
Words of Eternal Life
John 6:56-69 Some of you know that I officiate a lot of funerals. Certainly for members of the congregation I serve, but also sometimes for the seemingly random one who comes to a funeral home to plan a funeral, wanting a religious service, but having no religious community to call upon. I spent time with …
Mary’s Song in Our Time
Luke 1:46-55 There were tornadoes all around us on Monday afternoon. I was on my way home and had stopped for sweet corn when the sirens first went off. I stepped inside and bagged several ears and took them to the counter to check out. The woman working there told me she heard a funnel …
Bread and Wine, Flesh and Blood Revisited…
I have had a week where I have had to tend to urgent family matters, so I have not had a chance to reflect deeply on next week’s Gospel. As I result, I am sharing again the reflection I offered several years ago. If you are led to reflect on the giving and receiving of …
Elijah, the Get Up and Eat Angel, and God
1 Kings 19:4-8 It seems to me that Elijah under his solitary broom tree is precisely the story I need right now with the angel’s encouragement to get up and eat the simple meal laid out for him, and the reminder that the journey is just beginning. And more than this, that God is in …
“The Food That Endures…”
John 6:24-35 I find myself tagging along with the crowd today… wondering at what compelled them to keep after Jesus. Oh, Jesus says, and he is probably right, that they are persistent in their pursuit of him because of the free lunch they had just enjoyed. And this rings true, of course, because most of …