There are some conversations we are not meant to overhear: a whispered exchange in a hospital hallway, a late-night phone call, a prayer murmured at a bedside. And yet sometimes, by accident or by grace, we do overhear something. And what we hear changes us, because in hearing it we discover what someone truly carries […]
“I will not leave you orphaned,” Jesus says. “I am coming to you.” It is one of the tenderest promises in John’s Gospel. And it comes at a moment when tenderness is desperately needed. Jesus is speaking to his friends on the night before he dies. The table has been shared. Feet have been washed. […]
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” It is one of the most beloved promises in John’s Gospel. It is also one of the most easily misunderstood. Abundant life. The words sound generous, full, and inviting. And yet in a culture like ours, it is almost impossible to hear “abundance” without […]
On the road to Emmaus, two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem with broken hearts and broken hopes. They are not serene. They are not triumphant. They are not performing religion. They are trying to make sense of disaster. And they speak the words so many of us know by heart: “We had hoped.” We […]
On the evening of Easter Day, the disciples are not radiant. They are not brave. They are not in the streets proclaiming good news. They are behind locked doors. That is where John wants us to find them: shut in, afraid, uncertain. The resurrection has already happened. Mary Magdalene has already said, “I have seen […]
“Do not be afraid… He is not here; for he has been raised.” This morning begins in darkness. Matthew tells us that “after the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” They come carrying grief and shock. They come bearing the […]
Tonight we come to one of the holiest, tenderest, and most uncomfortable nights of the Christian year. Maundy Thursday brings us into an upper room, into a borrowed space, into the final intimate hours before betrayal, arrest, violence, and death. It is a night of bread and wine. A night of basin and towel. A […]
John’s ninth chapter begins with a man sitting by the roadside, a man born blind, and almost immediately the people around him begin talking about him rather than to him. The disciples ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” It is a cruel question disguised as a religious […]
There are some stories in the Bible that have not only been read but used—used against people. Used to warn the vulnerable that if they are not careful, the church will make an example of them. This story of the Samaritan woman at the well is one of those stories. For generations, Christians have been […]
The church I served in Connecticut had a youth program called Journey to Adulthood. It is a wonderful program that recognizes that young people are on a trip, an adventure, through adolescence that leads toward adulthood. It recognizes that their lives are not static. They are passing through important transitions and facing many changes as […]