John 3:1-17 I saw a little of Nicodemus in myself this week. For you see, it’s the first week of a new session for my early morning workout class. Winter has worn on for us here in Northern Illinois and I have found it more and more difficult to respond immediately to my alarm when …
A Cross of Ashes and Another Cross
Psalm 51 “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me…” Psalm 51:3 This story comes to mind most every year on Ash Wednesday. I was six, maybe seven years old. We were on a family camping trip. The fold out camper had been backed into its spot and unhitched from our station …
Gifts for the Wilderness
Matthew 4:1-11 I wonder sometimes if the most challenging part for Jesus in the wilderness was not the tests that came at the end. I wonder if the hard part was those forty days which came before. Indeed, I wonder how it was at day seventeen when not a whole lot was happening yet — …
Productive Pain: Standing Still in God’s Love and Mercy
Joel 2:1-18 “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” —Joel 2:12-13 …
“Get Up and Don’t be Afraid!”
Matthew 17:1-9 I always feel inadequate when it comes time to preach on the Transfiguration every year. I expect that’s because the experience of Peter, James and John on that mountaintop with Jesus is so far afield from anything I have ever known. Looking back, it seems that most of what I have offered were just …
Being Perfect
Matthew 5:38-48 I remember it like it was yesterday. I was six years old and about to enter the first grade. Now remember this was back when kindergarten was half-days and was more about snacks and play time and naps than academic advancement. And yes, it was before the days of ‘Sesame Street’ where little …
Choosing Life
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 I approach this piece of Moses’s sermon today with joy and with trepidation, with deep certainty and with profound questions all at the same time. For on the one hand, we know that it is so. Our choices do matter. They shape our every day. On the other hand? Well, I know that so very much has …
You are the Salt of the Earth
Matthew 5:13-20 “You are the salt of the earth…” (Matthew 5:13) I spent a good part of this past snowy Saturday morning reading about salt. One would not think there would be so much to learn about salt, but apparently there is. In fact, it seems that one can write a whole history of the world just by …
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Matthew 5:1-12 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)There are, of course, any number of entry points into the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, the richness and the familiarity of the text can make it difficult to know where to begin. Any one of the …
Walking Around in the Dark
Matthew 4:12-23 “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16) When I was a little girl, I would practice walking around in the dark. For you see, my Grandpa Anderson had lost his sight shortly …