THE DIVISIVE JESUS Luke 12:49-56 August 18, 2019 “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild . . . “ Such is a favorite Sunday School notion of the Lord. The sound you hear is people who’ve actually read the Gospels gagging. “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child . . “ […]
FENCES WE BUILD AROUND OUR LOVE Luke 10:25-37 July 14, 2019 You and I put fences around our love, don’t we? We don’t like to think of it that way. But we do. All the time. We like to think of ourselves and our congregation as sources of love for those around. But […]
THE VOICE OF A POWERFUL GOD I Kings 19:1-18 June 23, 2019 The Elijah we meet at the beginning of this chapter is a man who has just won a great victory for God. Only yesterday he challenged– single handedly– the forces of evil, and struck a blow for God against Baal that […]
NEVERTHELESS I Corinthians 15:3-27a Easter 4/21/2019 It has been a hard winter, hasn’t it? I think of that line in C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lucy enters the land of Narnia, and it’s always winter there. Always snowing. Always cold. Always frozen. Always . . .says Lewis. Always […]
O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM Luke 13:31-35 April 7, 2019 Here in our Gospel passage, we see Jesus where He has just returned to Jerusalem for the last time. It’ won’t be long before He is arrested and crucified. His sorrow for them was overwhelming and He took a moment to express His love and His […]
Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 January 6, 2019 This is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany. It means that time when Jesus was revealed clearly to be the Christ of God. And not only was He revealed to the Jews who looked for a Christ, but to all the nations of the world as well. The word “Epiphany” […]
JUST GRACE Isaiah 61:10-11 Matthew 20:1-16 November 18, 2018 “Be thankful? Thankful for what?” These were probably the questions of the man who was hired first, who worked the whole day and got no more than the one who only worked one hour. And his question might well be ours, you and I […]
Forbes magazine estimates that there are 1,125 billionaires in the world. That’s three times as many as three years ago, meaning that there are three times as many people that others love to hate—what with their Telecom takeovers and their oil-sheik daddies. Hearing some rags-to-riches tales makes it a bit easier to accept the news […]