John 15:9-17 I picked up my guitar one evening last week. I bought it several years ago with a tax refund, remembering how I always wanted to learn to play. I pulled it out a few times early on, closely watching some on line videos to teach myself how to hold my fingers on the …
Tag: John
The Vine and Branches: On Music, Microbes and Memory
John 15:1-8 As I was driving across town this morning with a whole host of thoughts competing for my attention, this song came on the radio. “Pray” is performed by Sam Smith. As you can hear, the lyrics tell a story as old as time itself. It is a song of repentance and of yearning …
Those Other Sheep…
John 10:11-18 I have often wondered about those ‘other sheep’ to whom Jesus refers today. Specifically, who are they? And why does Jesus make it a point to mention them at all? In the midst of comforting words about his identity as the ‘good shepherd;’ Just before the promise that this shepherd would lay down …
I Can’t Wait: Embracing the Easter Promise
John 20:1-18 I carried the Sacrament of Holy Communion to one of our own the other day. It is quite certain he will not walk through the doors of our church ever again in this lifetime — and certainly not this Easter. So I filled a communion kit with wafers and wine and enough small …
A Single Grain: Dying for the Sake of Life…
John 12:20-33 “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:23) “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25) I have …
The ‘Anger’ of Jesus: Cleansing the Temple
John 2:13-22 As I sit with the familiar scene before us now, it occurs to me that maybe my first instinct is to ‘over-humanize’ Jesus — that perhaps I am attributing too much of what I see in you and me to him. And yet, at least in my experience, this is precisely what many …
This Holy Calling
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20) John 1:43-51 It is so that I have long struggled to help people understand that pastors are not the only ones who are ‘called.’ Or to communicate in a way that people understand this reality that ‘calls’ are not always dramatic in the way we hear about with young Samuel today. …
“If You Continue in My Word…”
John 8:31-36 It was some time ago when I first traveled to Germany to see the ‘Luther Sites.’ As I recall, on the first day of the journey I was sitting on the tour bus next to a friend who had skidded into that journey exhausted and so as soon as we stowed our luggage …
The Holy Spirit: The Breath of God!
Acts 2:1-21 John 20:19-23 “The bush was always burning. It just took someone moving slow enough to notice it.” —Rob Bell, May 15, 2017, The Festival of Homiletics “When did the Spirit of Life last touch you? You know when it was… If it happened before, it can happen again…” — Barbara Brown Taylor, May …
That They May be One… That WE May Be One…
John 17:1-11` “That they may be one…. that WE may be one…” I stood with friends on the street above listening to the heartfelt strains of Amazing Grace rising up to us from the River Walk below. Perhaps a hundred or more had made their way — crowding into the patio of the Bier Garten …