Responding To Grace With Gatekeeping Did you catch the common narrative in both of our texts? The grace & power of The Spirit is poured out on humanity. Amazing things happen in the power of the Spirit. Humanity creates rules and borders around The Spirit’s power. Also common to both texts is the explosiveness of…
I Think Jesus Is Frustrated Here; Disciples Leaving This eating flesh & drinking blood has been a difficult thing to swallow. Jesus himself speaks in ways not simple or clear. Faith is required. Rejected by the Pharisees and now rejected by his own disciples. I’m Not The Guy With The Words Of Eternal Life Peter…
Irony: Following the Call & Sunday Following My Call Vote It’s kind of silly to inadvertently come up with this title this week But the book of Jonah is a bit of an absurdity too Both readings from Mark & Jonah have to do with responding to a call The First Four Disciples & Immediate…
Pentecost 03 – Faithful Life A Tale of Two Sons – 2 Chapters, 2 Sons, 2 Mothers, 1 Dad Genesis 21 & 22 – Contextual Proximity & Hebrew Parallelism Isaac / Sarah – Original promise/God to make a great nation of Abram Ishmael / Hagar – Getting ahead of God/taking it into their own hands…
Struggling While Everyone Else Is Singing Oh, Thomas – one thing almost as sure to arrive as Easter every year Our annual criticism and judgment of poor Disciple Thomas Scapegoating … a virus passed from host to host. It’s how the devil stays alive. The devil doesn’t care who you blame as long as you…
The quote from former president Jimmy Carter that Suzy read during our offering sounds like something said a long time ago by John Wesley: Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To…
Okay, so now what? Is it safe to say this is the $65,000 question? “What are we going to do now?” If you know me well enough, and I think many of you do, then you know what my answer will be: Go to God. Whenever I need an answer or have a problem that needs fixing, God is my go to…
(Open with some Olympic jokes and banter…) Speaking of the Olympics…have any of you wondered what kind of attention Ryan Lochte was seeking when he went out partying in Rio? If you haven’t heard, the 12-time Olympic medalist has had a tremendous downfall lately. You could say his “Tayna Harding” moment began after he and three teammates hit the town to celebrate.…
If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you know there have been some unbelievable stories unfolding. Records broken, bones broken, spirits both lifted and crushed. The stands have been packed with fans cheering for their country’s pride… as well as proud parents watching all those early morning drop offs and late night pick-ups finally paying off. Our own Michael Phelps continues to add…