This morning, I want to share with you my own personal experience of Pentecost. We often think of the Holy Spirit as something that is wild and brings chaos and disorder to our world, and sometimes it does, but other times the Holy Spirit works to bring us together, to find our commonality and to […]
s with all parables, the parable of the sheep and the goats offers many different interpretations depending on your perspective. Some argue that this parable is about the nations, or the gentiles, and Jesus is saying that those Gentiles who care for the followers of Christ will find salvation and those who don’t will be […]
he idea of eternal punishment or “hell” is a difficult concept for modern progressive Christians. Because we understand that God is love itself, we cannot imagine that God would ever condemn any human being, no matter what they did during their lifetimes, to eternal pain and suffering. I think this evolution in our thinking is […]
I think it is important to read Scripture in light of Scripture. Too often we Christians, even progressive ones, read passages of Scripture in isolation from other Scripture and come up with very mistaken interpretations as a result. I believe it is much more helpful to follow the lead of our Jewish forebears, including Jesus, […]
Our reading from Deuteronomy, chapter 34:1-12, marks the end of the book and the end of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books tell the story of the formation of the people of Israel: their call into being by God, their trials and tribulations, […]
Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22:21 Before we get into what these well-known and well-worn words might mean, I want to set the stage for you. I want, as always, to give you some context. […]
I have to be quite honest. There is really nothing about this parable from Matthew that I like and is one of the reasons that I struggle with the Gospel of Matthew. “The weeping and gnashing of teeth” is one of my least favorite scriptural phrases and appears in Matthew a total of six times. […]
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me Exodus 20:5 I am not sure if I ever came into contact with the 10 Commandments […]
The Parable of the Good Samaritan. I suspect that everyone here this morning has heard this parable before, or at the very least heard the phrase “Good Samaritan.” It is a well-loved and well-worn story. Robbers rob and gravely injure a traveler, most likely a Jewish man as Jesus does not tell us his ethnicity, […]
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life.” John 1:1-4 Last week I challenged […]