Tuesday, November 24, 2020
You are God’s temple. Read the words again—allow them to wash over you and soak into every fiber of your being. What do you feel? Relief? Disbelief? Pride? Other feelings—maybe several? Take a long, good look at yourself. Admire God’s Holy Spirit dw….(View this...
Monday, November 23, 2020
When the psalmist puts Israel’s sin in such explicit terms, it seems pretty silly that people would exchange their relationship with God to worship a baby bull. Usually when we find ourselves worshiping false idols, exchanging our own glory isn’t so obvious....
Sunday, November 22, 2020
When it comes down to it, none of us can be reduced to being either a sheep or a goat, though it sure is tempting to try. I believe that Jesus searches out every last sheep in each of our lives and communities, searching for us like lost coins, lighting...
Saturday, November 21, 2020
We’ve likely all heard awful sermons on this parable—and some of them were preached by me. These sermons share a complete failure to show any charity toward the Pharisee and an extreme lifting up of humility, almost to the point of idolatry. Humility is….(View...
Friday, November 20, 2020
Everything I know about metallurgy was taught to me during Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or some similar children’s show. The image that is clear in my mind is of a black iron cup full of boiling metal that looked like lava being poured from one container into another...
Thursday, November 19, 2020
From the Archives: December 22, 1955Perhaps some of us have lost our hearts, our ability to love. But God can give them back to us. God plans that each one of us should be a complete person, with good health, intelligence, and wholesome emot….(View this reading...
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
We don’t know for sure who the author of James was, though there is plenty of scholarly speculation. I suspect he wasn’t much fun to know. This person was an excellent arbiter of what was best for the burgeoning Christian community but probably a bit too righteous and...
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
The word gossip sounds strange: It conjures something Puritan and shame-ridden, or a nosey sitcom neighbor who operates the town grapevine. I doubt that any of us thinks of ourselves as a gossip, especially when gossip has become a 24-hour, multimedia facet of the...
Monday, November 16, 2020
What vivid scenes this parable paints for us, and not the least of all of Hades—with chasms and torments and a spectators’ gallery. The rich man, probably feeling thirst for the first time ever, calls out to Father Abraham, begging the assistance of a beggar he...
Sunday, November 15, 2020
What do you think the breastplate of faith and love looks like? I imagine it hovering over us like the remembrance of a warm embrace from someone loved but seen no longer. Maybe the love of this breastplate makes us feel lighter, like the weight of a wrong...
