Good Friday is about God deciding to be God in a very particular way. God doesn’t use God’s Almighty-ness to rescue Jesus from fearful clergy, betraying friends, cruel soldiers or even the lynching tree. Rather than rescue and spare, God more often shows up in...
Before Jesus asked his friends to find a donkey to lead his poor peoples palm branch parade, he stood at an intersection. It’s the same intersection we find ourselves at now. This intersection has four corners and each corner has a name: faith, fear, trust and...
Do you know the story about Ezekiel and the dry bones? The Spirit of God showed Ezekiel a vast valley full of dry bones. Then God asked Ezekiel if he thought the bones could live. Ezekiel answers as we would, “Only you know God.” But God told Ezekiel to speak life to...
By definition a virus infects and brings disease. You could say then, Covid-19 is an enemy! Psalm 23 has a word for us when confronted by an enemy. The poem reminds us that, “…in the presence of an enemy a table is set for us.” The presence of an enemy is not...
Yes, all around us there’s anxiety. Yes, concerns are legitimate. Yes, the market is down and meetings are being cancelled all around. Yes, even how we do church is being disrupted. Yes, there’s still a lot we don’t know. What we do know is that a spirit of panic is...
“Life is not what you see, but what you’ve projected. It’s not what you’ve felt, but what you’ve decided. It’s not what you’ve experienced, but how you’ve remembered it. It’s not what you have forged, but what you’ve allowed. And it’s not who’s appeared, but who...
Lent is a gift, it’s 40 days where we without shame or guilt can identify, confess and abandon ideas and habits that frustrate God, injure us and our neighbors. One behavior we must abandon is the Death Penalty. We must confess that we chose ignorance, indifference or...
Jesus’ teachings can sound outrageous! For him, angry words are the same as murder; a lustful heart is the same as committing adultery. Divorce can be legal cover for selfishness and the practice of hiding our true selves beneath fine sounding words is empty and leads...
When I hear Aretha Franklin sing those words, I hear God speaking to each of us: If you want my lovin’ / If you really do / Don’t be afraid baby Just ask me / Ya know I’m gonna give it to you / Oh and I do declare (I do) I wanna see you with it / Stretch out...
The word Selah appears in the Bible 77 times. It’s also my third child’s name. As far as we know, it’s a musical notation. An instruction to the choir to stop and listen. But it’s more than that. It’s also stop and feel. Really consider. Like in Psalm 3:2-3: “Many say...
