Restore us O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved. My dogs are great at watching and waiting. They know the signs of feeding time. They will sit and watch, or maybe stare is a better word because they think they have Jedi mind skills, at the place […]
Three slaves are entrusted with their master’s money. The first two are given more money than the third and they use it with wisdom and savvy to double the amount. The third is given only one talent and he buries it in the backyard and keeps it “safe” until his master returns. We don’t truly […]
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:17 Earlier this fall, we spent nine long weeks wandering in the wilderness in that space in between Egypt and the Promised Land. That time of the “in-between” is what is often referred to as liminal space. We know liminal space as […]
This past week I suggested Tracy and I switch places—I would do all the invoices and she could preach on Sunday. She started laughing and told me that she knew exactly what she would preach—SINNERS! You’re all sinners. Not because she thought we were exceptional as sinners, per se, but because she had been brought […]
We finally made it. After nine long weeks of wandering in the wilderness, we have arrived—not in the Promised Land mind you*, but at the end of the Exodus readings in the lectionary. We started all those many weeks ago with Moses’ birth and rescue from the Nile only for him to go on the […]
The Ancient Israelites have been wandering in the wilderness complaining about hunger and thirst and God continues to provide—just as he provided their release from captivity under the Egyptians tortuous demands and punishments. Now they are free and they must begin to learn just what that freedom means and how to live as free persons. […]
There is nothing like a hurricane to put our collect this morning into perspective—“Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure…” Many along the Gulf Coast went […]
A lot has happened since Moses was rescued from the Nile. He has grown up, killed a man, fled for his life, married a Midianite woman, and become a shepherd. All that in a few short passages of scripture. Funny how quickly our life can be summed up. There are other ways of summing up […]
Jesus tells Peter that whatever he binds on earth is bound in heaven and whatever he looses on earth is loosed in heaven. That’s a responsibility we all share in—this binding and loosing. Sure, the pandemic seems to have bound us in some particular ways but if we are letting our fear around the pandemic […]
We are all looking for salvation though most of us define salvation in vastly different ways. We might think of it as acceptance or judgment, a release from suffering or an easy life. Whatever our basic understanding of salvation is, it determines what motivates our behaviors and influences our decision making. If we think of […]