David is successful in this story because he notices and values those who are left behind.   While some want to exclude those who are exhausted and unproductive, David insists that God's generosity is for everyone.  

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We're fortunate to have Rev. Dr. Grace Park as our guest preacher today talking about Jesus walking on water.  

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Halloween is here, which means costumes, candy and scary stories.  Even in the Bible we have a ghost story that reflects a truly horrifying reality.  Thankfully even our most scary stories can have an after-life, if you will, that transforms the lesson from evil to good.  

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The future of the world is in great peril.   To whom should be rely on to save the day?  Our likely candidates are those who have the qualities that our society values.   What our world actually needs, however, are unlikely heroes who offer us something more than power and money.    

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Learning a new language is not easy.  Cross-cultural experiences, however, are valuable because there is so much to learn and experience when we step outside of our normal.  This is especially true for religious communities who have been taught to speak in the language of "I'm right and everyone else is wrong."  We need different people, perspectives and faith expressions to help teach us the divine languages of equality, mercy and love.  

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Jesus recalls this story from 1 Samuel 21 to illustrate that people are more important than our religious symbols and signs.  But sometimes faith communities just gather at the sign, to talk about the sign and keep people from getting too close to the sign, because the sign is the thing.   But the sign is not the thing.  People are what matter.  

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Mr. Bean, Weird Al, James Bond, Buster Bluth, Homer Simpson and Ferris Bueller all used this trick found in the Bible.  David's wife, Michal, used it to save her husband's life.  

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There are so many things that divide us, including music.  But how can music in church become a practice that teaches us how to better coexist in this divided world?

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What if the Bible included the different stories and the contradiction and the errors on purpose?  What if the Biblical writers and communities said, “we actually prefer the contradictions, because one perspective isn’t enough, and one story isn’t enough to capture the human experience or our understanding of faith."

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Sometimes we think that our strengths are always strengths, and our weaknesses are always weaknesses.  But sometimes we lean so heavily on our strengths that we fail to develop other skills or ways of being in the world.  And sometimes our failures and weaknesses become strengths because we learn how to adapt, change or embrace our limitations.   We learn how to treat others with more grace and compassion, which can be difficult if we’ve only known success.   

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