Most of us aren’t tempted to steal classified documents but we do face small, victimless temptations, like eating too many sweets. To help us understand Jesus’ temptation, Pastor Jody explains how we may be undermined by a good thing we are tempted to do.

The transfiguration of Jesus seems other-worldly and hard to relate to concerns like the lofty price of eggs. Yet people today do experience  ‘thin places’ where heaven feels nearby. Pastor Dan talks about how damaged times need more transfigured people.

According to gospel writer John, ‘The Spirit blows where she will.’ The Old Testament talks of the breath of God and the wind with which God created the world. Pastor Jody addresses what can we learn about what sustains us by exploring the Spirit.

Pastor Dan has discovered a relationship between tending old houses and tending churches. He shares four lessons learned from rehabbing ten different houses.

When the unimaginable happens some jump for an explanation, some lash out, and some just want to forget. After Jesus rocked the fishermen’s world with a huge catch, they became his followers and friends. Pastor Jody considers the implications.

Christianity in the US is increasingly mean-spirited – appointing all white males as gatekeepers, labeling immigrants of color a threat, and deeming non-heterosexuals perverse. Pastor Dan talks about what to do in the face of growing Christian Nationalism.

Jesus was a hometown boy who made good; then the town tried to throw him off a cliff! Pastor Jody reminds us that maybe we have wanted to ‘throw someone off a cliff’ after they confronted us about our behavior or said something that changed our lives.

At the wedding in Cana, Jesus performs the first of many miracles. Oddly, it is not an occasion of healing. Rather, the wine runs out – gasp! Pastor Dan suggests that this story is about abundance – God’s, ours, and Martin Luther King’s.

Christmas is about love that comes from the edge of society, the poorest of the poor, the outsider, the foreigner. People often receive compassion, mercy, or an unexpected gift from a surprising place. Rev. Jody Betten helps us imagine the Holy Family and the gifts they bring.