When it comes to the parables of Jesus, the various people who have translated the Gospels into English took upon themselves not only to translate the words but also to give us guidance with headings for significant stories. None of those is in the original manuscripts, which is also true of chapter and verse numbers….

The first Sunday of the month is a Communion Sunday in our congregation, as it is in many UCC churches, and the sacred meal corresponded with an invitation from Jesus to find rest in the way we live our lives. Here is where his invitation took me. The first house Ginger and I bought together…

In the midst of earthquakes and forest fires and wars and our continued national meltdown, I worked to come to terms with the continued admonition to not be afraid that shows up in the passage for last Sunday. Here’s how that worked out. ______________________________ Last weekend Ginger and I were in Durham, North Carolina for…

Thanks to one of the commentators I read this week, the question that has been rolling around in my brain after reading our passage for today is this: What’s the difference between a crowd and a community? They are both words we use to describe collections of people, and we know they are not synonyms,…

Though the lectionary groups Jesus’ call to Matthew with a couple of healing stories, I stayed in the room with the tax collectors and sinners to see what I could find there. Here’s my sermon from this week. ___________________________ A few weeks back—I think it was the last time we had a full-blown lunch after…

Life and sermon preparation always intersect. This week, I found myself at the crossroads of one of Jesus’ healing stories and my own medical journey. “Maybe,” she said, “or perhaps you just notice them more because you have one.” She’s right, in that the circumstances of our lives often help to focus our attention and…

My Pentecost sermon. Thanks for reading. __________________________ One of the challenges of standing up here every week is trying to communicate clearly. Actually, that’s true even when I’m not standing in the pulpit. Almost any time we communicate with each other we run the risk of being misunderstood. Our words are an essential and valuable…

As human beings, we spend a lot of time dealing with what we don’t know, whether we know it or not. Matthew 8:18-27 gives great examples of that, as well as Jesus’ call to relish our bewilderment. _______________________ One of the jobs I have had along the way, as many of you know, was to…

I read an interesting book this past week titled This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith by Darcey Steinke who has lived with and through a spinal injury that caused her incredible pain. The book is much more than an autobiographical account of her suffering. Each chapter looks at the history and reality…

I made it to the end of the Sermon on the Mount in my sermon last Sunday, a journey that was meaningful and surprising to me. Here is how I wrapped things up. ________________________ This morning we complete the series we began fifteen Sundays ago when we read the Beatitudes, which are the opening verses…