I feel a little extra brave whenever I’m wearing a backpack fit for the occasion. Whether it’s hiking those first miles of dusty trail wearing a pack full of food and gear for the week’s upcoming trek….or striding up into a school bus to travel to a sporting competition with your teammates all if you […]
Ephesians
Making Melody
Our short text from Ephesians today opens up with apocalyptic urgency: “Be careful how you’re living!” “The days are evil!” “Make the most of your life!” “Seize the day!” “Don’t get drunk – because that’s debauchery!” When you start hearing this passage you might think that you’re in for a whole long list of warnings […]
Doing Something Useful
Do any of you all ever get angry? Take a moment to think about a time when your blood was boiling, when the fiery rush of anger welled up in you… What did that feel like? Where in your body do you experience anger? Take a breath and remember what that felt like. Maybe the […]
Toward redemption
“This is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people” (Ephesians 1:14). I remember those summers as a kid when the public library would have their reading challenge. If you read ten books, twenty books, I can’t remember the number, you’d get a voucher for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. […]
Are you on defense or offense?
Opening prayer. Lord, our God, grant us enough wisdom to lead lives worthy of your calling, and enough humility to realize that your perfect way is higher than we can attain. Amen. In the Revised Common Lectionary this is New Testament metaphor Sunday; it’s not stated, but it is abundantly illustrated. I counted at least […]
That we may see and believe
In our story from John’s Gospel, the people find Jesus in Capernaum, and they’re trying to figure out what this Jesus is all about—what it would mean to believe in him, and what it would mean to follow him. So they ask Jesus, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we […]
In the middle
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is the season to talk about beginnings. The new year. The end of the last one, and the beginning of the new. So we make our resolutions, on how this year will be different than the last. […]