Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. (Ephesians 2:4–5) We are entering into another presidential election year.  Every election cycle half the people are satisfied and the other half are not.  It seems that divisions are getting worse and worse.  It has reached the point that who you voted for president is the cause of family break ups.  We are facing a crisis at our southern border.  We are a nation of laws but those laws mean little to nothing to enforcing them.  The border is open for all purposes.  People ..read more

"The glory of God is man fully alive." (Saint Irenaeus) When I first stumbled across this quote my initial reaction was ... You’re kidding me. Really? I mean, is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God — the very thing he’s staked his reputation on — is your coming fully alive? Huh. Well, that’s a different take on things. It made me wonder, What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that? Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the othe ..read more

Many people go through life afraid to let people see who they really are.  At the bottom of this fear is, “If they know the real me, and don’t like me, what can I do?”  “What people think of me” is a very powerful motivator. It is still shaping us more than we’d like to admit. It shapes our theology, our politics, and even our values.  Sometimes the masks we wear in various settings become for us our reality, and we lose the image of the person we really are.  God created us in His image and likeness and saw that we are good!  We are the apple of God’s eye.  He ch ..read more

Henri Nouwen once asked Mother Teresa for spiritual direction. Spend one hour each day in adoration of your Lord, she said, and never do anything you know is wrong. Follow this, and you’ll be fine. Such simple yet profound advice. Worship is the act of the abandoned heart adoring its God. It is the union that we crave. Few of us experience anything like this on a regular basis, let alone for an hour each day. But it is what we need. Desperately. Simply showing up on Sunday is not even close to worship. Neither does singing songs with religious content pass for worship. What counts is the postu ..read more

From the place of our woundedness we construct a false self. We find a few gifts that work for us, and we try to live off them. Stuart found he was good at math and science. He shut down his heart and spent all his energies perfecting his "Spock" persona. There, in the academy, he was safe; he was also recognized and rewarded. "When I was eight," confesses Brennan Manning, "the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, 'Brennan, don't ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admir ..read more

 The last few weeks in June we have been focusing on discipleship.  What have we come to accept as "discipleship"? A friend of mine recently handed me a program from a large and successful church. It's a rather exemplary model of what the idea has fallen to. Their plan for discipleship involves, first, becoming a member of this particular church. Then they encourage you to take a course on doctrine. Be "faithful" in attending the Sunday morning service and a small group fellowship. Complete a special course on Christian growth. Live a life that demonstrates clear evidence of spiritua ..read more

We recently had John 14:6 as part of our Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life...."  I started reflecting on what "the life" means. How is it different from a lifestyle?   A "lifestyle" is a carefully assembled set of personal choices.  It is a blend of our preferences in things like, music, cars, clothing, books, recreation, food and other aspects of the way we consume ideas and things.  Something either does, or doesn't fit into our "lifestyle" which is put together with the eye of an interior decorator for total ..read more

I remember a time when I was a child around four years of age, my family was grilling hamburgers in our yard. The coals had been going for a while and the burgers were cooking. I had been warned not to touch the grill because it was very, very hot. For some reason, I had the urge to touch the grill anyway. So, I reached up with my right hand and placed it on the bottom of the grill, the spot where the coals were. I burned my hand instantly.  As I remember this event, what really strikes me about it, is that even more than the pain of the burn, even more than the embarrassment of disregard ..read more

Our God is a loving, forgiving and welcoming God. But if we, as His people, are not forgiving, loving and welcoming in our congregations, how will people know those attributes of our God?  I am concerned that we have become more and more isolated from one another. The less we know about the people around us the less we trust and the more we fear. How much fear can we endure and still function as loving, creative human beings?  What is the long-term effect of living in that kind of anxiety? What will happen to the human community when we continue to isolate ourselves from one another ..read more

 The first Sunday in Lent is always the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan.  There is an aspect of this temptation that I did not cover when I preached on those verses.  You may want to refresh your memory of these verses by reading Luke 4:1-13.  I'll wait..........there, now we will continue. The Devil tempted Jesus by saying "If you are the Son of God....."  The temptation was to forget who He was. In Jesus' baptism, God The Father spoke from the clouds encouraging Jesus with these words "This is My Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased ..read more