This past week I was on a walk with my wife Alli in the dusk of early evening. We were catching up after a day of work. As we walked on a quiet sidewalk, there sat a masked skeleton in a chair. Even though I knew it was fake and plastic… I tensed up, raised […]
A Call to Action
Prayer: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” In an earlier sermon I opened with a few comments about the Lectionary, and do so again. Today it lists three scripture passages that are hard to ignore. Who can brush aside […]
Thirst for Freedom
The Israelites are thirsty and water is nowhere to be seen. This freedom journey out of Egypt into the wilderness has been the Lord’s idea, a trip where God has made the itinerary. And now the people of Israel find themselves camped at Rephidim with no water to drink. That’s like the first rule […]
Hunger for Freedom
Some of the prayers we know best are mealtime prayers. They are prayers which we may have learned as children and they are prayers simple enough to invite us to be children again as we pray them. As I sat with the Exodus 16 text this week – where God gives bread in the wilderness […]
Fight for Freedom
Hands are amazing. They can do so many things. They’re delicate enough to sew tiny stitches with a needle or wipe away a kid’s tears yet strong enough to hoist and hold and comfort. With our hands we can coax music out of guitar strings or piano keys and we can knead dough and we […]
Time for Freedom
Clearly, it’s time for freedom. It’s high time for freedom. The time’s up on injustice. It is time for freedom. After more than four hundred years in the bondage of slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel see a way out. And our text from Exodus 12 drops us right into the middle of one […]
Gifts of Transformation
We all want something to change. We’re all longing for something to be transformed. Maybe you want to change. Maybe you wish you’d finally reach that DuoLingo streak you keep missing by a few days. Maybe you’ll be a starter on the competitive team this year or stick to your daily yoga plan. Perhaps a […]
Geography of Faith
The other week, as Alli and I were caravanning out here, I listened straight through to all nine episodes of the WYNC Studios podcast “Dolly Parton’s America.” They powered me through our first day driving, all the way from Osage City, Kansas to Cookeville, Tennessee. It’s a brilliant podcast that explores Dolly Parton’s legacy as […]