Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34 There were many social norms in our household that were taught by example. “Please” and “thank you” operated as both niceties and roots of proper sentences; “Yes ma’am” was used so frequently that as a small child I thought it a common name given to all females; and cloth napkins lent themselves […]

Text: Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-21 It’s not true. God didn’t send snakes to bite the Israelites as they wandered about in the wilderness complaining about the dry bread they had been asked to eat going on nearly forty years. Furthermore, a bronze snakehead on a pole won’t cure you if a North Carolina Copperhead bites […]

Text: Mark 8:31-38 My first instinct in reading Mark 8 is to regress to my Southern Baptist upbringing. “Deny themselves” sounds a lot like hate yourself for being a sinner. It activates old guilt and shame. But it is also easily recognized. Yes, I am worthless, and I should be denied. Shame and guilt and […]

Text: 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11, 27 There is a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what things you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; […]

Text: Mark 7:1-23 It was my plan this morning to talk with you about loophole religion. I figured it was a topic all of us could relate to—from the youngest to the oldest—for no matter what age, none of us like to be told no. We have become used to getting what we want in […]

Text: Luke 19:41-42 “As he came near and saw the city, Jesus wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” And here we are in 2018, in the midst of increasing tensions between the leaders […]

Text: Mark 1:21-28 At times like this I wish I had Nancy’s voice – but I don’t, so I’ll spare you. Hear these words and provide the tune in your head if you know it: “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the […]

Text: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 When was the last time you changed your mind about something? And what was the impetus? I’m not asking about the last time you changed your mind about what you would have for dinner. Or the color you would paint your living room. No, I’m asking about a real shift in […]

Text: John 1:43-51 Worship, at its best, is a beautiful expression of our deepest longings to connect to God, to the Sacred and that which is Holy. In worship we lift our voices and our souls to offer our praise, our laments, our longings, our confessions, our visions, and our commitments to being God’s faithful […]

Text: Matthew 2:1-12 “Behind every villain is a truth, whether it be perceived or actual.” -Dalton Frey, The Darkest Light To have a hero, every good story needs a villain. “And in the archives of literary history, there have been some downright scoundrels. No deed is too dark, not action too despicable” for some of […]