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“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) I get tired of people, mainly Christians, who say – “The Bible clearly teaches that…” and then expound on their received interpretation of the biblical text. I get equally annoyed when other people, usually those who’ve rejected Christianity, point out certain inconsistencies in the Bible and then conclude that it’s...
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. John 1:4-5 “The Message” Per usual, the liturgical season of Advent begins just as our hours of darkness are getting longest. It’s such a fantastic reminder of God’s unexpected power. We are encouraged during Advent to expect hope. We are called upon to seek peace. We are roused to express love. We are gathered and sent to live out our faith with mercy and joy. This is God’s power at work among...
This past Sunday, my congregation celebrated World Communion Sunday. This is a day set aside where we acknowledge the universal connection we have in Christ throughout the world. My denomination’s website describes the history of this celebration: “World Communion Sunday was adopted as a denominational practice in the Presbyterian Church (US) in 1936. Churches in other denominations were invited to celebrate with us from the beginning, but it wasn’t until 1940 when the Department of Evangelism of the Federal Council of Churches (a prede...
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?” He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?” Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man travel...
Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!” [Isaiah 40:3] The biblical image of “the wilderness” is a mixed bag - neither inherently good or inherently evil. It seems to be a neutral place, full of possibility and potential. It is often a metaphorical place we enter to discover something about ourselves, the world, God or all of the above. The Israelites wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. God gave them this time to s...
And now I want to urgently remind you, dear friends, of the old rule God gave us right from the beginning, that Christians should love one another. If we love God, we will do whatever he tells us to. And he has told us from the very first to love each other. (2 John 1:5-6) Grace and peace to all through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Like many of you over the last week and a half, I have been praying and pondering over the details of the stories emerging from Sutherland Springs, Texas where a man came into a church and shot and killed 26 people and...
“I’m praying not only for them But also for those who will believe in me Because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, So they’ll be as unified and together as we are— I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless...
“We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13 Common English Bible) When I was in grade school we’d play a game called, “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” It was a game designed to teach us world geography and increase our appreciation for the world’s many peoples and cultures. Carmen San Diego could travel anywhere and do anything and we had to use our knowledge of her and the...
Last time (Jan. 19, 2017) I invited you to join me on a quest, a quest to find “church” for those who are skeptical, cynical, or suspicious of churches, of religious organizations in a broad sense - what I am referring to as the “Groucho Marx” folks. Picking up where we left off then, the working definition of “church” that shapes this quest is “a group of people who come together, who form relationships and connections with those gathered, who share a common hope and desire for a deep life.” Let me also say – I am curious about a church th...
Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. (Genesis 1:26-27 Common English Bible) Questions of identity - Who am I? Why am I here? - have often plagued the minds of philosophers and theologians. Since the Enlightenment, we have received various attempts to answer these q...
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.” -Rabindranath Tagore (cited in Thriving Through Tough Times, by Deidre Combs, 2012) For some of us, conflict is a dirty word. We try to avoid it all costs. We pray for pain to go away. We steer clear of any person who makes us uncomfortable. We tend to leave those situations where we do not have control. Avoidance is a common flight response to fear, uncertainty and major dis...
“Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.” (Romans 12:14-16 The Message) These last few months around here have been tremendously challenging as a community. There have been fires, some unexpected deaths, employment issues at the mill, families breaking up, more cancer diagnoses, increased alcoholism and drug use – all right here in Seeley Lake. Friends...
