This past week, our team of staff who plan our message series’ (what we call the “Message Oval”) set aside a day to draw up a rough sketch of the topics and themes of what I will be preaching about in the upcoming year. Yes, I did say year. We make it a point to […]
Category: Scripture
“I will suffer and be killed, and then I will be raised.” Luke 9.22 Reading this Gospel passage I always wonder what the original disciples must have felt when they heard these words spoken by Jesus. His message is suffering and death and then a strange promise they did not understand. Furthermore, he tells his disciples, if you […]
Despite what you may have heard, Christmas still matters to most people, including the unchurched. The reasons many people come to church on Christmas Eve may be nothing more than to please a family member or sing carols. But it’s the church’s job to transform that experience and use it as an opportunity for evangelization. […]
We’re already moving into the third week of Advent, and I’d like to take a quick opportunity to reflect on some pretty amazing passage about John the Baptist taken from our Advent readings. They say: A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every […]
The Bible is full of the stories of some of the greatest saints and sinners in history. But based on this assessment, we often assume that these characters are either too good or too bad to teach us any really concrete life lessons. This summer, our parish has been surveying “imperfect” characters from the Bible […]
The annual observance of Lent brings a two-fold theme of repentance from sin and selfishness, thereby renewing our baptismal commitment, as well as our annual preparation for the celebration of Easter. Traditionally the Church has taught us to turn with renewed discipline and dedication to the spiritual pillars of prayer, penance, and giving. Prayer The […]
Here’s what I am thinking about for the coming year, in no particular order: 1. Read the entire Bible I read Scripture every day and I have read every book of the Bible, but I have never read the Bible from cover to cover. My goal this time is actually not to read it cover […]
It’s definitely Christmastime. Not liturgically of course, but certainly culturally. And at Christmastime it seems like angels are everywhere. Most nearly all religions and religious traditions profess belief in some form of angels. But those traditions and theologies can be very different: from the sacred to the secular, from the sublime to the ridiculous, angels […]
In Jesus’ own ministry had a plan for the specific places, and sometimes even the specific people he would share the Gospel with. This plan is outlined in 10th chapter of Luke. At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two whom he sent ahead of him in pairs, to every town and place he intended […]
Great leaders have great vision. Jesus Christ is the greatest leader who ever lived because he had the greatest vision. Through his ministry he painted a vision of a better future for what could be and should be in the lives of his followers. To a people living in fear, Jesus cast a vision […]
