Have you considered that Christmas might be more about shattering stillness than securing it? Hear me as an introvert, who loves quiet moments. Travel with me for a moment to the hillside outside Bethlehem over two thousand years ago, where sheep are resting in the dark, shepherds are settling in, and the stars are overhead. Frederick Buechner imagined the shepherds in the…
Open. Grow. Serve.
Sermons on Luke (Page 9)
The Museum of Architecture in London held its annual Gingerbread City exhibition with public voting again this season.(1) The new special exhibit features more than 60 gingerbread buildings built around a masterplan developed by Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design. The architectural masterpieces made of sweet confections are designed and built by some of the most prominent firms in the world. Gingerbread City…
The prophet Isaiah foretold that Messiah would be called: Prince of Peace. Jesus – the Prince of Prince. Peace, not as the absence of conflict, but a deep and abiding authority over chaos and presence of justice. In a world filled with war and conflict, it is almost impossible to imagine peace. Peace is a stark and opposite change from the daily…
“All I want for Christmas is a teddy bear,” the eight-year-old daughter of vicar of Christ Church in a small Welsh village requested. Nothing wrong with this request. In fact, very reasonable request, indeed. It was only the timing that made it wild: 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. As the vicar recounts the story, he…
Our journey through Genesis continues. Origin stories continue. How we become who we become are wrapped into these stories. These stories are our stories. We are at once the willing Abrams and Saris who will go wherever God sends us as well as the brothers of Joseph’s annoyed at his self-righteousness. These are our stories…
We tend to think of blessings as rainbows and unicorns. We think of blessings as healthy births and pleasant exchanges. We want to think of blessings with pleasing arrivals and lovely moments. Perhaps, we need to reconsider the biblical connection to blessings. Blessing is more than the expression of gratitude. To say that God has…
I knew her for about 6 months, Elaine. She walked into the church on the day of Felicity’s baptism. In that small-town church that had doubled in size and had the bishop and the district superintendent presiding, she walked into church for the first time on that day. She made a promise along with others…
Have you ever visited with a friend who went out of their way to make you feel welcome? When you came for a meal, they knew you needed low salt food or that you are allergic to strawberries, they knew you are shying away from red meat or that dairy makes you sick. The food…
Listen for these words of seeking promises in the dark: “Since 49 or 50 [years old], this terrible sense of loss – this untold darkness – this loneliness – this continual longing for God – which gives me that pain deep down in my heart – darkness is so much that I really do not…
The scripture said, “…the lawyer stood up to test Jesus.” Test Him? Test Jesus!? Does he really want to test Jesus? But he does, he says, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answers with a question, that is just like Jesus, a question with a question, “What is written in the…