Not exactly sure when I learned the words of the 23rd Psalm. I do know that my wife and I were careful to teach it to our children. I know as life has grown and become more complex, the words “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I...
If Peter got a second chance on that first Easter morning, so can we. So have we! This is the Easter message: You are more than your worst day… so is the individual or group of people you struggle to love. You are more than the pain you have suffered or caused....
What do you mean when you say that you’re a Christian? Do you mean more than a system of moral teaching? Do you mean more than a building you visit regularly or irregularly? Or, do you mean you’ve experienced a transfer of power from a garbage dump outside of...
Easter has a pattern. It begins in darkness almost at the point of despair. That’s when God shows up. That’s when God opens what is shut and un-openable. Then comes the part where we partner with God just like the women at the tomb. God rolled the stone away...
Good Friday is God’s way of saying that we should not avoid reality. Jesus didn’t circumvent it, neither must we. Good Friday begs that we find our real God in the reality of our lives. Even the painful parts. Especially the painful parts! We have a God...
After the stories, healings, feedings and miracles, Jesus heads to Jerusalem. He knew the stakes and went anyway. He goes because he knows this is the place where they “kill the prophets.” Where the system is thick and dynamic with abuse. We would’ve told him,...
We live in a tumultuous time. What corrodes us individually and institutionally is an abiding and advancing sense of futility! Does it matter? Who cares? Can anything change? The paralyzing toxin of futility is in the world and in the church. The saddest part...
God told “Joshua, today I roll away the reproach of Egypt.” This means God is doing three things, rolling away: 1) the disgrace of being slaves in Egypt. 2) the shame of the Egyptians laughing at them and their God. 3) the shame of not being circumcised–a sign...
Some imagine a relationship with Jesus as one without much accountability. What Jesus actually said, was, “…a man planted a fig tree and he came looking for fruit….” The story ends with the tree getting one more year and new fertilizer to bear fruit or it will...
In a moment of doubt, God told Abraham to go outside and count the stars. God did this, it seems, because nothing breaks our sad resignation and lack of imagination like connecting to God’s vastness. Big is who God is. And, big is who God is calling us to be....
