Jesus speaks of harvest. Connecting with people. Gathering people. Church growth by another name. He speaks of harvest while he harvests. He speaks of harvest because he sees the world and has compassion. He sees that people are harassed, helpless and ready to...
“Harvest” is how Jesus describes the world – how he speaks of innumerable opportunities. Harvest is what God wants us to pray for. Harvest is God’s purpose for God’s people in the world. Harvest is a positive use of time. Harvest is how God...
The man who committed the murders in Orlando was not foremost a religious zealot. The violence he committed started with smaller incidences of violence to his loved ones and to himself. It seems he was tormented by a perverted sense of Islam and an intense struggle...
Back, before we made Jesus into an english speaking, middle-class, pro death penalty, immigrant hating, bless-er of the status quo. He was a scandal. Still is. He was a wandering, dissident intellectual. A disrupter of dinner parties with tales of God’s...
People want straight talk, we hear. Often that means space to say ungracious things about others. I like Paul’s straight talk. He starts with himself. How he did everything he could to destroy the Jesus movement. How he stood idly by while a man was killed by a...
Leadership is important, but so is following. Maybe more important. We struggle with the idea of following either because of arrogance or lack of faith. Jesus marveled at a soldier he met that had overcome both. He marveled at how profoundly the soldier connected...
We hear or read “Breaking News” regularly. Usually those words are followed by details of tragedy, scandal or the inelegant words of a public figure. Here’s some real breaking news: “While we were without strength, in due time Christ died...
James Baldwin wrote “The Fire Next Time,” a book based on a Bible verse and a song. “God gave Noah the rainbow for a sign, “No more water, the fire next time.” The book and the song imagine a cleansing fire that finally rights wrongs and...
What did Jesus pray for? He prayed we would be complete. Complete, like not knowing where God ends and we begin. Complete like, “abide in me and I in you.” Complete, like our sins are an opportunity for God’s celebrity. Complete like, God-reliance...
This week on our Lenten journey we challenge ourselves to discover and reflect on the idea of letting go. Let us explore how to let go and create an open space to receive all the blessings that God can provide. OUR LENTEN JOURNEY Please join me in conversation...
