I think the miracle, healing, and exorcism stories in our Gospels are some of the hardest stories for the modern-day Christian. The worldview behind these stories is just so different from the dominant worldview today. And as a result, we ask all sorts of questions that would not have been asked by the writers of […]
This morning I decided not to write and preach my own sermon, but instead to share with you the words of Nathanael, a Jewish man who lived about 2000 years ago and knew Jesus face-to-face. He asked me to read his words, because he hopes that his story will strengthen and inspire you in your […]
The new church year began with Advent at the beginning of December. With the first Sunday of the season of Epiphany (today), we are entering the year of Gospel readings that come from the Gospel of Mark. There will be some Sundays when we don’t hear from Mark, but by and large this will be […]
This morning I want to focus on Peter, one of the main characters in our Gospel reading for today. Peter appears frequently throughout the Gospel of Matthew. Some of his appearances are humorous and some are tragic, but they are always human. He is full of all the good and bad that is in each […]
Our Gospel passage for this week is tough. It seems to be verse after verse of raising the bar. Don’t just keep yourself from killing other people, don’t even get angry with them. Don’t just keep yourself from committing adultery, don’t even allow yourself to look at another person with lust. Don’t divorce. Don’t lie. […]
You are the salt of the earth. . . You are the light of the world. I want you to listen to these words from Jesus very closely. They are so familiar to us that it is easy to miss the profound message in them. You are the salt of the earth. . . You […]
On Thursday this past week, when both my children were finally back in school after 10 days of illness and I was trying to awaken my own illness-recovering brain, I spied an email sent to me by someone I hadn’t heard from in a long time (not anyone from St. Andrew’s). This person was sending […]
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” John 1:38 Very frequently when someone comes to meet with me to talk about a personal concern, I begin our time together by asking, “What brings you here today?” Or to put it another way, “How can I help […]
Whether we call ourselves Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Mormon, Sikh, Agnostic, Atheist, Consumerist, Secularist, Humanist, or whatever, we follow a religion. All human beings are innately religious. We are made to be religious. The dictionary defines religion as, “1. the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.” […]
Painting by Christian Weber Have you heard the story about the little boy who was riding his tricycle down a sidewalk? Suddenly, one of the little wheels on the back fell off. The little boy jumped off his trike and said, “I’ll be damned!” At that very moment a priest happened to be walking by, […]