When Aram's mightiest general comes down with leprosy, everybody is nervous except for his healer, Elisha. The way Elisha's peace of mind pricks anxiety's pride has a message for all of us. (2 Kings 5:1-14)

After a half-century of questioning and criticizing the institutional church, I find myself looking for a balance between creativity and structure, freedom and institution. How are we called to work for health and life in the institution of the church?

People resist evangelism for good reason, but the way Jesus did evangelism bears little resemblance

to our modern methods. The evangelism of souls helping souls in distress is far more natural for us.

Times of historic cultural transition destabilize once reliable values and place our souls at risk. The Sermon on the Mount is a survival guide for the times that try our souls. (1 Samuel 3:1-20)

In its centuries-long obsession with sin, the church has failed to appreciate both the baptism of John, which is intended to wash sin away, and the baptism of Jesus in which we live immersed in the knowledge God is well pleased with us. (Mark 1:4-11)

Christians are often too quick to rush past the dark side of their lives to bask in the light of God. We too easily forget that the light of God is justice, compassion, integrity, hospitality, generosity...things demanding hard mental and moral work. (Isaiah 60:1-6

None of us is Herod, yet like "all of Jerusalem," we are troubled when the Herod's of our world are troubled. To what extent do we accommodate ourselves to these violent Herod's, and how can we flee to a far country too keep Christ alive in us? (Matthew)

What could possibly be more important to us than the birth of God into our world to save us from ourselves? Two stories from the civil rights era demonstrate the capacity of God's living presence and love to change us and change our world. (The Nativity Narrative from Luke)

It's hard to rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances, particularly in an economy headed south. Yet there are good reasons why joy is not a pick-and-choose thing, but always a vital necessity. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

In an American culture that shuns negativity, how do we understand the way God starts so much of his work with negative people--the distressed people trekking from Jerusalem to the Jordan, and John the Baptist, the most negative guy around? (Mark 1:1-8)