Second Genesis

“Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there…Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene […]

The Great Hope of the World

The kingdom of the world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and His King, Christ. God has acted within history to set His king on the throne forever, amen. This is the gospel they preached. This is what they went about announcing…. But in Thessalonica, the Christians are called For those making the […]

There’s Just Not Enough

Back to the feeding of the five thousand. In John’s poetic prologue to his gospel, which is so important, John tells us something about the beauty of the Infinite entering into the finite. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the […]

Wait For It

The band Arcade Fire touched on something in their song “We Used to Wait”, from the 2010 Grammy winning album of the year “The Suburbs”. It’s a song about how fast our pace of life has become, how complicated things have become, about how even though we tell ourselves everything will be alright, we […]

Welcome Home

More on the Prodigal Son… It’s very easy to reduce the parable of the Prodigal Son to a two act play, but it’s a three act play, and the third act is the most important. The first two acts, the Prodigal Son and the Compassionate Father, are really just setting up the real point Jesus […]

Freely Given

Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard, straight outta Matthew. Jesus tells a story of a farmer who hired laborers in his vineyard. Some he hired first thing in the morning, some he hired about the third hour, then Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he hired more laborers. Finally, about the […]

Ninety-nine Sheep

Looking at the grace of God, a grace which surpasses all human understanding and comprehension. A grace which just makes no sense to us, because the only ways we can understand are the ways of our world, the ways we have learned and lived our whole lives. Consider this story of a shepherd and a […]

Rejoice!

In the Jesus story, right now looking at Mary the mother of Jesus and the world she lived in. It’s a world with a booming economy, but lots of people get left out. But in this booming economy, in this world where Caesar is called the “son of god”, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary […]

Mountain Climbing

The first week of advent on the church calendar, so Happy New Year to all my brothers and sisters in Christ! Not exactly an advent message today, but maybe a little talk of mountain climbing… “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in […]

What Does This Have to do With Me?

Keeping it simple today (I hope). A question I have asked previously is “Does God resent human pleasure?” Was the pastor/father from the movie Footloose (at least the 80s version) right? Does all partying and dancing make God the Father angry, and risk hellfire and brimstone crashing upon us? I know where that picture of God […]