Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18John 6:56-69 “Choose this day whom you will serve…” — Joshua (Joshua 24:15) “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life” — Simon Peter (John 6:68) “Did I …
Tag: John
Some (Not So) Random Thoughts on Bread
John 6:51-58 Every time I travel to Minneapolis, I do all I can to make time to drop in at my favorite used bookstore. Last week, like every other time, I managed to walk out of there with a number of books I just couldn’t do without. This time my haul included a little book …
God is Not Done
1 Kings 19:4-8 John 6:35, 41-51 Poor Elijah is surely in a bad place today. We know this to be so because he says so. We also know this is so because of things he has done just prior to our encounter with him at this point in the narrative. Just before this, he has …
This Food That Perishes…
John 6:24-35 These days my Friday mornings are pretty much the same. I start the laundry. I get bread rising. And I clean spoiled food out of the refrigerator. Because food — or at least most any food you would want to eat — perishes. But, of course, it is not only the food we …
Jesus and the Feeding of the 5,000 and a Man Named Karl
John 6:1-21 To tell you the truth, I completely understand Philip’s response in this week’s story of the feeding of the crowd of 5000. It is a mountain of hunger standing before him, after all. And it’s not as though any one of Jesus’ close followers had with them the resources to begin to touch …
Nicodemus and You and Me and a Group of High School Seniors: God’s Time
Ecclesiastes 3:1John 3:1-17 Next Sunday night I will be one of two preachers for our High School Baccalaureate. By then it will already have been a very long week-end. Saturday morning I will officiate at the funeral of a woman who was just my age. It was my deep privilege to walk alongside her …
Not Belonging
John 17:6-19 Jesus speaks to us today of our ‘not belonging’ to this world. My guess is that most any one of us who made it to the other side of middle school has some idea of what he is talking about here. At least I know I do. Indeed, I imagine that many of …
“I Have Called You Friends…”
John 15:9-17 I got thinking about friends in these last days. Certainly because Jesus speaks of his disciples as ‘friends’ in this week’s Gospel. Maybe because last week I got to spend precious time with a couple of friends who live so far from where I do. But also because of a five minute conversation …
The Vine and the Branches and My Ash Tree
John 15:1-8 I had to have my ash tree taken down last summer. It’s just a guess, of course, but it likely stood on that spot for more than a century. This means it would have pre-dated my house and all the other houses up and down my street. It would have taken root and …
A Holy Footrace: Peter and John and You and Me and the Empty Tomb
John 20:1-19 It was well after midnight. We had left the hospital where they had removed my dad from the life support which had been keeping him breathing. Back at the hotel, I was sitting up with a couple of friends who had traveled in to keep vigil with us and who had decided to stay. As …