When I was a child it didn’t take much to scare me. I was scared of the dark, the woods after dark, the family dog (the meanest dog you’d ever meet), Freddy Kruger (thanks to my older brothers), and vampires. I remember very clearly I had slept over my friend’s house one night and when … [Read more…]
I was going to preach on Abraham’s compassion and hospitality that he showed to the three visitors from God. But as I read this passage over and over again, I couldn’t help but come back to the miraculous ways in which God works in our world and in our lives. For the past couple of … [Read more…]
If you had to define a Christian to someone, what words would you use? (Invite congregation to help) When Bill and I first started dating, my father-in-law had a very specific idea of what a Christian was based on his experiences as a Jewish man. And I must say his views were not flattering. Yet … [Read more…]
Mother’s Day is a time when we honor and remember the influence that our mothers have had on our lives. However, I fully recognize that for many people this relationship may not have been defined by love, support, nurture, and care. Traditionally these are the terms that are associated with motherhood. So this morning, I … [Read more…]
Our Acts reading gets to the point of what the early church and those earliest believers were to look like. It is almost a utopian society for those of the early church. They shared all possessions, all things, they did not act in mere human ways, but always with the Spirit. This was the hope … [Read more…]
Have you ever had emotions, stress, routine, or worry so take over your life that it dulls your senses and you somehow become oblivious to the world around you? This happens to me all the time. A few weeks ago, I was in the grocery store trying to rush through the aisles as quickly as … [Read more…]
I have always loved Palm Sunday and Holy Week, ever since I was a young child. I remember going to worship on Palm Sunday with my mother and brothers. We were in Sunday school from 9 to 10 then we would help clean up the rooms moving tables and chairs and folding up the retractable … [Read more…]
We all make snap judgments all the time. We have to. Otherwise, it would take all day to make it from bed to work. The other morning my alarm went off and I had to make a judgment call to push snooze or get up and get ready for the day. Then there was the … [Read more…]
Now there may not be too many of us who have experienced adult baptism, or can even say that they remember their baptisms. My first baptism happened when I was 5 months old and recovering from chicken pox. I have no memory of my first baptism. My second baptism was done by the same clergy … [Read more…]
When I was in my undergraduate program at Eastern Connecticut State University, I took a class called the Philosophy of Religion taught by an ex-Jesuit priest. There was a small group of us in the class, maybe 10 to 15 students. Now learning philosophy only really works if you know which questions to ask in … [Read more…]
