As you might guess, I have had a lot of unoccupied time over the past five weeks of my medical leave. My foot wasn’t working right, but my brain was just fine. I did a lot of reading, and I watched a bunch of tv. In this world of the internet and streaming, this means […]

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 […]

You have heard me say before that when I find a passage from Scripture that I want to avoid I find that it is better for my spiritual health to throw myself into it than to avoid it. I realized recently that I am not applying this discipline in all circumstances—I avoid Paul’s letters like […]

“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.” (John 1:1-2) And this Divine Multiplicity of Being that was relationship within the Divine self […]

Do you remember the song “From a Distance” sung by Bette Midler in the early 1990’s? “From a distance, the world looks blue and green And the snow-capped mountains white From a distance, the ocean meets the stream And the eagle takes to flight From a distance, there is harmony And it echoes through the […]

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. I could repeat this verse from Psalm 85 all day long, the words are that beautiful to me. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed […]

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 […]

As I read our readings from Isaiah and Mark for today, I was struck by the fact that the authors of both were addressing grieving communities. Both passages of Scripture were written to people who were living through a time of great chaos, social upheaval, and pain. Both were written to communities who were experiencing […]