In Mark’s telling, Jesus is baptized, spends 40 days in the wilderness, and starts announcing the Good News of God’s Kin-dom in just eight verses. Mark fits Jesus’ baptism, temptation, and ministry launch into three tweets with a few characters to spare! The Baptism Tweet: John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Just as Jesus […]
Through/throo/: (preposition) 1. moving in one side and out of the other side; 2. continuing in time toward completion of; 3. so as to inspect all parts of; 4. by means of. “Jesus traveled through the cities, teaching, announcing the good news of God’s Kin-dom and healing every disease.” (Matthew 4:23 adapted) We have been […]
Today’s Transfiguration sermon comes from 2 Corinthians 4:3-6, Mark 9:2-10 & 2 Kings 2:1-12. Who do you say that Jesus is? The Transfiguration occurs six days after Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” After Peter names Jesus as the Christ, Jesus began to teach that “the Christ” must “suffer many […]
Will you imagine yourself inside Mark’s passage? It is evening. You are tired after a long day. The sun is setting, but the people keep coming. People are bringing friends who are sick or wrestling with inner demons to see you. The whole town crowds around the makeshift clinic’s door. You heal many who are […]
In our passage the Deuteronmist deadpans, “Now, you might be wondering, how will we know which word God hasn’t spoken?” Who speaks for God? Our mainline churches, seminaries, and denominational offices have given way to congregational authority. Progressives and traditionalists disagree about how to read scripture. Do the images of capital-storming, Bible-waving Christians shake our […]
“Now is the time!” Now is the time to believe the Good News. Now is the time to change our hearts and lives. Now is the time to follow Jesus the Christ. On Wednesday our national youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman’s words roused us into our “now”. When day comes, we step out of the […]
“Make no mistake,” Paul writes to the Galatians, “a person will harvest what they plant. Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the Spirit will reap eternal life. So let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest […]
I am saddened and heartbroken, but not that surprised by the events today in our nation’s capital. Today, we see that heated words and silent complicity matter. Jesus warns us: “I tell you that people will have to answer on Judgment Day for every useless word they speak. By your words you will be either […]
When I was in elementary school, I took the three Magi and two camels from the porcelain Bethlehem Nativity scene atop of our living room piano and standing on a chair placed them on top of the china cabinet in our dining room. I dreamed that maybe the Magi followed the star all the way […]
2020 is perhaps the most challenging year for our city, our nation, or world, and our churches in a very long time. Our collective struggle and personal tribulations brought by Covid, isolation, deepening civil polarization, poverty, and systemic racism will not disappear at the stroke of midnight. Dr. Martin Luther King advises that “no social […]
