Today (April 25) is St. Mark Day, the traditional commemoration of Mark the evangelist. Normally speaking in terms of church history, we commemorate someone special in Christianity on the day of their death, the day they go to be with the Lord. St. Mark died a long long time ago, so I’m not sure how accurate April 25th is for his death day, but you have to choose a day anyway, so why not April 25? But since it is St Mark day, I’d like to invite you to join us in reading the first two chapters of Mark’s telling of the Gospel this week. If you like it, you can read with us for the remainder of t ..read more

I have one of those watches that tells me how my sleep was last night. The news isn’t good this morning. Under the number of hours that I should be sleeping and getting up more in the middle of the night than what is restful. The software that tells me about the metrics taken by my watch gives me a score, and let’s just say, with those kind of scores – I’m not making it into anybody’s sleep playoffs. Although maybe I will, because I’m pretty sure your sleep is awful too. That’s just playing the numbers knowing that only 26% of Americans regularly get 8 hours of sleep. Another 20% normally get ..read more

“Pastor, would you consider being a character witness for John [not his real name]?” That was the question that I was presented with. I knew John, of course, I had known him when he was in church and I had also known him from visiting him in jail when he had landed himself in some trouble. Now the day for his trial was approaching and his lawyer had reached out to ask if I could be a witness to his character. I agreed and showed up to the courthouse wearing my collar, which I figured was a good look for a character witness. What I didn’t realize was that there were other witnesses going before ..read more

What would you like to be judged on? It may seem strange, but we willingly sign up to be judged for different things. We sign up to have our fitness judged by a personal trainer at the gym. We sign up to have our intelligence judged by a test or by taking a class. Perhaps we sign up to have our humor judged by getting up on stage someplace. Or maybe we sign up to have our looks judged by posting pictures on Instagram. We are willing to be judged, we may even want it. We may recognize that being judged might show us where we have to improve. But that kind of judgment isn’t what Jesus is talking ..read more

In the Philippines where I grew up, there was a president who used to occasionally dress up in a big hat and workers clothes and ride public transportation around the country. For him, it was the best way to really get a sense of what the country was like. On a few occasions, people would even comment on how he looked so much like the president. When I was a kid, I remember my mom pointing out the passage in Hebrews 13 where the author says “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so, some have entertained angels unaware.” I remember thinking it would be pretty cool to ma ..read more

“Worship the LORD, your God.” Luke 4:8 The word “worship” can mean different things to us. The Greek word that Jesus uses in the verse above is “proskeneyo,” a word that has bowing down or even falling on your face at its root. If you asked most people today what worship means in a religious sense, they would probably say something about singing. If you asked them to think about the word worship outside of a religious connotation, they would probably think of heaping praise upon a person or thing. If you look at all the different senses of worship throughout the Bible, you get even more possib ..read more

The disciples were right. The people could, and therefore should be expected to be able to feed themselves. Sure, it was quite a walk to town, but it was something that they could do. And after all, what were the disciples supposed to do? Steal a little boy’s lunch and feed just a few people? The obvious thing was to let them walk away. But Jesus didn’t like that idea. Instead, Jesus said, “you give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37) It seemed impossible. But it was still Jesus’ demand. Honestly, many of God’s demands seem impossible. Follow My commandments, impossible. Love your neighbor as ..read more

Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35) Those words of Jesus form our red letter challenge for this week. This is actually one that I have worked on for a little bit of time myself. It all started because I really don’t like standing in line. Because of that, I found out that it was easier for me to simply resign myself to being last. Being last has its benefits. If you know you’re going to be last, you don’t have to wait in line and you can do whatever you want until the line clears. That means you can have conversations with people or yo ..read more

This week’s Red Letter Challenge comes from Matthew 9, verse 38. Most English translations translate this as “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” Some use the more archaic, “Beseech the Lord…” But the Greek word “deomai” is probably just as well translated “beg”. “Beg” is a challenging word. We’re probably pretty ok with “praying earnestly.” We’re even likely to be ok with “beseeching God,” (especially if we like throwing aroung those Thee’s and Thy’s…). But begging? Do we really have to BEG God for stuff? Maybe it sounds offensive or unnecessary. Mayb ..read more

What do you do when you return home? I think a number of us have little routines when we get home. Maybe it’s a place where you immediately go when you get home, or a pet that gets some attention, or a person that you talk to right away. I remember my parents calling me out when I was a teenage boy that I would open the refrigerator every time I got home, no matter what time it was. Our homes are important to us. They are places that we feel safe and secure. They are places where we can let down our hair and decompress. And because of that, there can be a danger that shows up in them. Because ..read more