Merry Christmas! Today, we celebrate Emmanuel: God with us. Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart wrote that “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.” Maybe that is the best explanation of why we celebrate, every year, the birth of Jesus, God with us (again!). God is always … read
This week I’ve been thinking about our friend Aaron Gray. Aaron would show up on a Sunday morning every now and then, usually late, often making his own version of a grand entrance. A couple of times he came in from the room behind me and would startle whoever was in the pulpit at that … read
This was the existential question that haunted my middle-school days. Every morning, as I stepped onto the bus, I braced myself: Who was going to punch me in the arm for no reason? What will I do if a group of boys circle me and grab my backpack and start tossing it around so I … read
During this Advent, who or what needs a “yes” from you? How might your “yes” change things beyond you? Sometimes you hear the same story again and again, but then one day, it strikes you in a different way. That’s what happened to me as I read the scripture for today. Though I’ve always before … read
It is my hope that this sermon will serve as an invitation to you to experience, or consider, or maybe even enjoy the season of Advent. So… To pretend to have a sense of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s world, we’re going to try a little experiment and observe 30 seconds of silence—or as much silence as … read
There is a lot of humor to be found in the end of world—just ask cartoonists or writers of sitcoms. Maybe we find humor because it’s so ridiculous to think that anyone can predict when the world will end. Or maybe it’s more of a gallows humor—so much is crashing down around us that we … read