Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter, and as we await the ascension of Christ, the lectionary sends us back to class to sit in the uncomfortable desks of the Upper Room. It was here Jesus gave his final lecture to his disciples. It’s our turn to be his students. This is not a time to take notes. Instead it’s a time…
Thursday morning I woke up, turned on the TV, and cried. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. For the record, this was not a sobbing kind of cry. Instead it was one of those boo-hoo sessions because my heart was feeling both happy and sad at the same time. Has this ever happened to any of you? Oh yeah? Has it…
For many of you it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn the Apostle Paul patterned his life after Jesus. Yes, he was “a rebel, an outlaw, a renegade, and a sanctified troublemaker,” as Mark Driscoll so aptly describes. Paul was also single, homeless, lived by other’s welfare and charity, and was hated so much by the religious and political elites that he…
Readings: Revelations 1:3-8; Philippians 1:3-19 Open with a story about my kids playing Wii. It’s a story of filling the house with laughter and joy… What kind of things do you think about when you hear the word ‘joy?’ Is there something in particular that triggers an emotional feeling within you? Is it a particular place or a person, or an object? An…