Luke 1:39-55 As I sit down to write today, I realize that I began the experiment of this weekly writing in this format ten years ago this month. Such anniversaries seem worth acknowledging and as I do so, I would take a moment to thank you for walking alongside through this last decade as week …
Jesus Will Burn the Chaff Away: A Word of Promise
Luke 3:7-18 This old story comes to mind today as we hear John’s words about unproductive trees being thrown into the fire and being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. This old story comes to mind as I consider first the damage that fire can do and …
Zechariah: No Longer Silent
Luke 1:68-79 I took this picture a few days back on an early morning walk. This image of the ‘dawn from on high’ is one that I cherish, whether I am up early enough and out in a place where I can actually see it or not. And yes, it is so that these words …
Because Your Redemption Is Drawing Near…
Luke 21:25-36 I expect this will be obvious to anyone who knows me well, but in terms of how I approach the world, my leaning is more toward ‘doing’ rather than to simply ‘being.’ Oh, this is not so when something goes radically wrong with my website, as it did this week. Then I call …
Christ the King and Answering ‘The Problem of Evil’
John 18:33-37 For another setting, I have been invited to wonder out loud about how our faith grapples with the ‘problem of evil.’ In other words, how is it that we reconcile evil and suffering in this world with an all powerful, all loving, all knowing God? And is there any better place to begin …
‘All the Stones will be Thrown Down…’
Mark 13:1-8 This time through I find myself wondering why these words from Mark’s ‘little apocalypse’ do not strike stir up the same kind of terror or at least discomfort in me as they once did. For while I know that what I have seen and heard and experienced until now is but a glimpse …
“Take Away the Stone…”
John 11:32-44 I usually start with the ritual as I approach All Saints Sunday, so precious is it to me and to so many. I begin by imagining the candles lit, one after another after another. With the names spoken and the bell tolled, doubled this time through for last year we could not do …
Abiding in Jesus, Discerning Truth
John 8:31-36 Have you ever had a harder time discerning ‘truth’ than you are having today? Whether it is because leaders appear to no longer have a commitment to speaking anything near unbiased ‘truth’ or ‘truth’ itself is simply so difficult to discern against the seemingly constantly changing landscape which makes up our world, ‘truth’ …
“My Teacher, Let Me See Again…”
Mark 10:46-52 “My teacher, let me see again.” And then he did. Here is what I know of being blind, for I have seen it to be so in those I have known and loved. When the gift of sight is taken away, other senses compensate as much as they can so that the one …
Where the Old Measures Don’t Matter…
Mark 10:35-45 The other disciples don’t really ‘get it’ either, of course. If they did, they wouldn’t be angry with these two brothers now. Indeed, if they had any deep sense of what mattered most, it seems to me they would instead be puzzled by the request to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand …