John 8:31-36 To be sure, I am not one who can speak deeply from a personal experience of ‘slavery’ — for it is not part of my own history. But then, as Jesus points out to his first listeners today, that sort of experience is not what he is speaking of at all. Rather, the …
Mark 10:35-45 “So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wishes …
Mark 10:17-31 I am remembering today a conversation I had with my dad a long time ago. I was probably in college — home working for the summer. We were out in the garden late on a summer afternoon where he could have been leaning on a pitchfork digging up potatoes or loading tomatoes or squash …
Mark 10:2-16 Before I begin, let me say I write these words with humble heart today, asking forgiveness, if needed, of those who know more of what I attempt to speak than I can possibly begin to comprehend. Even so, I am diving in here, with a certain sense that this is tender ground we walk …
Mark 9:38-50 I was called upon to officiate at a funeral last Saturday. I didn’t know the one who had died, as he was not a member of the congregation I am now serving and apparently his connection to his own congregation had waned since his wife’s death and his deteriorating health made it impossible …
Mark 9:30-37 I pulled into the parking lot at the community center at a little after 5 a.m. last Monday morning for the beginning of a new session of my weight training/conditioning class. It struck me that there were fewer spots available than usual but I didn’t think much about it until I climbed the …
Mark 8:27-38 I don’t have a story this week. What I share now is a moment, a memory, a light-bulb turning on realization I’ve never forgotten and that continues to inform my every day. It was more than 15 years ago that I found myself caught up short. We were then still keeping vigil …
Mark 7:24-37 A couple of months ago I was out on my early morning walk. The sun was not quite up as I headed down Meadow Lane and turned left on Borden. I don’t remember now what was on my mind that morning as I tried to pick up my pace and turn my walk into more …
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 It’s an old story, this one, and one with roots not in malice, but rather, youth and ignorance. It is when I first began to discern what mattered and what didn’t in ministry. I was a young pastor serving a small, rural church. The people there were kind and they were …
John 6: 56-69 “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life…” I almost cannot read those words without singing them. For you see, as long as I can remember I’ve been part of a community of God’s people among whom these words are sung just before the Gospel is read every …