Luke 24:13-27 “Be Transformed” When I was a hospital chaplain, it was often my role to accompany families into hospital rooms to see their loved ones for the first time after a sudden illness or injury. Very early on, I started to notice that almost invariably the first thing they would say upon entering the […]

John 20:19-31                                                                                                                “Tethered” Did you know that you can watch a live stream of a spacewalk, broadcast from the International Space Station and NASA mission control?  I found myself watching one last year during an afternoon of procrastination.  I didn’t watch the whole thing, in fact most spacewalks go on for about 8 hours.  But, for about an afternoon […]

John 11 Selected Verses Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus,[a] “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But […]

The lectionary readings – the 3-year cycle of scripture that most churches use to mark time throughout the church year – has us in the middle of three weeks of HUGE long scripture readings.  Last week it was 38 verses of scripture to reflect on – though we stepped out of the lectionary cycle for last […]

DOWNLOAD BULLETIN “LEAN INTO GOD” I have been praying a lot about what message I want bring to you today – those of you who have gathered in the sanctuary, those who are watching online or a viewing a recording later, and those who are reading these words from an email or on our website.  What […]

John 3:1-17 Have you had a 2am conversation recently?  One of those conversations where the pretenses that we use to protect ourselves from the glare of the daylight are removed and under the cover of darkness the true questions are asked?  Have you laid in bed with a lover and shared the deepest fears and […]

Matthew 4:1-11 It wasn’t until Jesus had already spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness was he tempted.  It wasn’t until he was, as the scripture says, ‘famished’, did the ‘Tempter’ come to him.  After 40 days alone in the wilderness fasting Jesus was tempted to give into evil and renounce the name that […]

Matthew 5:21-37 This week I heard this section of the Sermon on the Mount described as Jesus doing a cannonball plunge into the pool of scripture, law, and tradition.  And I think that is an apt metaphor.  Nearly every public pool I have ever been to has had rules against doing cannonballs.  They make too […]

Matthew 5:1-12 If you read aloud the entire Sermon on the Mount, for which today’s scripture is the beginning, it would take you about 20 minutes.  The Beatitudes, the first 12 verses, are just the start of one of Jesus’ greatest teachings.  He is on a hill, with his disciples and surrounded by a crowd.  […]