04 Oct, 2021
This week let's look at Mark 6:7-13 in which Jesus sends his disciples out in pairs to preach his message. I especially love Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message, that said the disciples “preached with joyful urgency that life can be...
28 Sep, 2021
Marcus Borg, in his book The God We Never Knew , reminded us that the purpose of scripture is to "mediate the sacred," to connect us to the Divine. He also said that scripture is to be “lived within.” When we live within scripture we allow it...
20 Sep, 2021
For the next two months, we'll be returning to the traditional lectionary readings from the Gospel of Mark. So, I'd like to begin by placing Mark in a historical context, because the context in which it was written will add color and depth to...
13 Sep, 2021
A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself. My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as...
07 Sep, 2021
The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in the Gospel of John always leaves me wondering what she did next? She was given an amazing gift – a new story for her life. We don’t know what the circumstances were that took her down the...
23 Aug, 2021
Everything is shaped and created by the power of story. Our families, our values, our society. Stories can be factual, or they can be fiction. Sometimes the line between the two becomes blurry. But, as Elizabeth Lesser said, they help us...
16 Aug, 2021
We’ve been talking about possibilities for two weeks now, and today I want to tackle an important, but somewhat tricky subject: The Possibilities That Lie Beyond Grief. This is tricky because in no way am I asking that someone ignore their...
09 Aug, 2021
There once was this criminal who had committed a crime (Because, hey, that’s what criminals do. That’s their job!) Anyway, he was sent to the king for his punishment. The king told him he had a choice of two punishments. He could be hung by a...
02 Aug, 2021
Henry David Thoreau, in his book, Walden, wrote, “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn , which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep.” This is a little...
26 Jul, 2021
Healing scriptures in relation to Jesus are many. It is clear that, however you understand these to have happened, the well-being of people was a priority for his ministry. I, personally, believe that Jesus wasn't a rigid, serious, stick-in-the...