There is a yearning
Luke 1:39-56 (12/22/2013)
There is a yearning. And that is the second truly remarkable thing that happens when we gather together. There is a yearning – not despair, but a yearning. Our hearts are weighed down by ancient grief, but our hearts are not broken! Our hearts are weighed down by centuries of sorrow, but our desire has not been quenched!
Looking for love
Song of Songs 3:1-4 (12/15/2013)
What is your soul longing for?
The earth is waiting
Isaiah 42:1-9 (12/8/2013)
And so the Lord calls you, Christian, to bring justice to the earth, not daunted by the enormity of the task, but disturbed by what you see right in front of you, working where you are, as you can, with unfailing hope and undying courage, not letting your spirits be numbed or your hearts be dulled, not turning your eyes away or covering your ears, but paying attention and being moved by what you see and hear, noticing reeds that are bent and taking care not to break them, seeing lamps that are flickering and taking care not to put them out, doing whatever you can to establish justice on earth, because the earth is waiting.
Where is your God?
Psalm 42:1-3 (12/1/2013)
I have been haunted this week by a photograph …
Jesus, remember me
Luke 23:33-43 (11/24/2013)
Jesus is the righteous king. And he acts most “kingly” when? Where? Here. In this moment. Hanging on a cross. Giving himself for the sake of the people. Dying for their sake. Dying for our sake.
What are we building?
Luke 21:5-6 (11/17/2013)
We are fools, we are jesters, we are jugglers, we are servants, not holding the fate of the world in our hands, but playing, creating, making fun, making beauty, all to bring delight to our Master. We are art, perishable art, and that is liberating. We are free, free to be, free to be what we are, all for God’s delight.
Arguing with God
Luke 20:27-38 (11/10/2013)
I want to know, right now, today, if you could, if you would, if you dared, would you argue with God? About something you don’t understand? About something you feel is not fair? About something that God is not doing that you think God should be doing?
A reason to stop
Luke 19:1-10 (11/3/2013)
Jesus was always stopping for people, wasn’t he?
Nothing
Luke 18:9-14 (10/27/2013)
What is Jesus saying?
That the distinctions we like to make between ourselves and our neighbors don’t really matter? Yes.
That being right with God is not about having enough going for us that we are able to justify ourselves to God? Yes.
That all our good choices, all our good deeds, all our good intentions, don’t really matter to God? Let’s not answer that one yet.
How long?
Luke 18:1-8 (10/20/2013)
God helps those who help themselves? Hogwash! God helps those who ask for help!
Thank you
Luke 17:11-19 (10/13/2013)
God is in the surprises.
You have enough
Luke 17:5-6 (10/6/2013)
You have enough! You don’t have to wait for Jesus to make your faith greater. You have enough! Don’t worry about the faith you don’t have. Use the faith you do have. You have enough!
Stuff
Luke 16:1-13 (9/22/2013)
The question for you as a follower of Jesus is not “How much stuff should you have?” but “How much stuff has you?”
As yourself
Luke 15:1-10 (9/15/2013)
Just think of who we would be, just think of how we would be, just think of what we would mean to our families and our neighbors and our world if we had clear minds and generous spirits, if we were filled with warmth of affection. We would be … like Jesus!
One thing
Luke 14:25-33 (9/8/2013)
You can’t dabble with discipleship. You can’t follow Jesus sort of. You can’t be a half-way, half-hearted lover … literally. It’s all your heart or none of it.
Today will be yesterday tomorrow
Hebrews 13:1-8 (9/1/2013)
It doesn’t depend on us, we depend on him. We depend on Jesus. We change, which sometimes means gain and sometimes means loss, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Our God is indeed …
Hebrews 12:18-29 (8/25/2013)
Would you want a God who was not raging … at injustice, at cruelty, at callousness, at indifference?
This large crowd of witnesses
Hebrews 12:1-2 (8/18/2013)
We have somewhere to go! We’re not there yet. This world is not there yet. We have more to do. God has more to do with us and through us. The race still lies before us. Are you ready to run?
Can a believer be depressed?
Psalm 42/43, 1 Kings 19:1-18 (6/23/2013)
Does that mean that depression in a believer indicates a lack of faith?
Sometimes …
Sometimes! One little word, but one very important little word! Sometimes. Because depression is a complex phenomenon. There are various and different kinds of depression, rooted in various and different causes, requiring various and different treatments …
Like rain on the fields
1 Kings 17:1-24 (6/9/2013)
But imagining there is no God doesn’t make it so, and a godless universe, careening through time and space without purpose or care, is an empty and heartless and despairing place in which to live. There may be no one to blame, but no one either to count on, no one in whom to place our hope.
Why does God care?
Psalm 8 (5/26/2013)
“When I look into the heavens which you made,
at the moon and the stars which you set into place,
I wonder: ‘Why do you care about us?
Why are you concerned with mere human beings?’
And yet …”
“Any yet” makes all the difference!
Ruah
Psalm 104:24-34 (5/19/2013)
You can’t hold your breath. You can only take it, take a breath, take it as it is given, one breath at a time, every breath a gift of new life.
God bless America?
Psalm 67 (5/5/2013)
Do we have the right to expect that God will have a special place in his heart for this nation over other nations, that God will take special pains to look after our welfare, that God will be on our side?
Let them all praise the name of the Lord
Psalm 148 (4/28/2013)
How do we offer God praise? How did the sun do it? How do hail and wind and mountain and redwood and cougar and salmon and caribou do it? Simply by being. They do it simply by being what they are, and we do it simply by being what we are.
Numinous
Song of Songs 6:4-5 (4/21/2013)
The holy is beautiful and terrible, overwhelming and incomprehensible, mysterious and untouchable, in some sense supernatural, but not otherworldly. I don’t even like using the word “supernatural,” because it is terribly misleading, because the place we encounter the holy … is here!
Where do we meet him?
John 21:1-14 (4/14/2013)
Where do we meet him? We meet Jesus where we are.
And where are we? We are here … on this earth. God comes to us here. Jesus meets us here, on this earth. This is our meeting place. This is our home. This is his home.
And God was pleased
Genesis 1:1-25 (4/7/2013)
The world is not a stage, not just a stage upon which some human drama, some spiritual drama, is played out. No, this matters. Matter matters. This pleases God. This is what God was pleased to do. We care for the earth because God does, because it matters to God.
Among the dead
Luke 24:1-6 (3/31/2013)
We begin our Easter service this way: in dim light, with no candles, no music, no flowers; with blacks cloths draped on the cross and altar, pulpit and lectern; black, the color of death; black, the color of mourning; black, the color of emptiness.
We begin our Easter service this way because that’s how Easter begins: in emptiness, in mourning, among the dead …
Believe!
Luke 24:1-11 (3/31/2013)
Are we witnessing the dying gasps of a church that really has nothing relevant or valuable or even helpful to say to a world in turmoil and in pain? Would our politics be more honest if we just left faith out of it? Is the gospel outdated? Is it irrelevant? Is it dead?
This might be the end of it. Except that it is true! Jesus is alive. And Jesus is not finished with us …
He did
Luke 14:25-33 (3/24/2013)
“None of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.”
He did. He did! Wonder of wonders, the most undeserved and most astonishing of all gifts, thanks be to God, he did!
If you have ears to hear
Luke 11:37-54 (3/17/2013)
Be glad for the woman, be glad for the man, who can hear the truth and say,”I was wrong.” And be very glad if that woman, if that man, is you!
Jealousy
Luke 11:14-23 (3/10/2013)
A house divided against itself cannot stand. Who said that? Jesus did! And Christ’s house is divided against itself! “Anyone who is not for me is against me.” Are you for Jesus? Then be for him, wherever and whatever and with whomever he is at work!
Who is my neighbor?
Luke 10:25-37 (3/3/2013)
Who is the one character in his story who is not identified? The victim! Was he a Jew or a Samaritan or a foreigner? Was he rich or poor? Saint or sinner? It doesn’t matter!
Beware!
Luke 10:1-16 (2/24/2013)
Jesus walked with God, and he was rejected, by the world, and by the powers that be. If we walk with Jesus, what should we expect?
Surrender
Luke 9:51-62 (2/17/2013)
What do you find more compelling … a life of your own, a cushy and blissfully unengaged life? Or a life following Jesus, a life pointed toward a far horizon, its way difficult and dangerous and demanding, but its goal nothing less than the kingdom of God itself?
A glimpse
Luke 9:28-36 (2/10/2013)
This is who we are! Men and women made in God’s image! Men and women, created to mirror God’s glory, in our flesh and blood, by what we do and by who we are, just as Jesus did.
Because they understood
Nehemiah 8:1-12 (2/3/2013)
When I vote, when I invest, when I shop, when I meet with a client, when I read the newspaper, when I teach my students, when I text my friends, when I go on Facebook, when I talk to my mother or my wife or my daughter or my friend or my doctor or my financial advisor or my city councillor
before everything else, above everything else, I am a follower of Jesus.
So your God will delight in you
Isaiah 62:1-5 (1/20/2013)
And we are a bride chosen to be God’s partner, not just children, dependent and needy and fragile, but God’s partner in making beauty out of our shared love …
I have called you by name
Isaiah 43:1-7 (1/13/2013)
As he offered me the cup, he looked me in the eye and called me by my name. It was as if this precious gift was being offered personally to me!
But, of course, it was!
The glory of the Lord is shining on you
Isaiah 60:1-3 (1/6/2013)
It is now our job – your job – to let the beacon of God’s justice and mercy and love pierce the darkness that covers the face of the earth.