The scripture today comes from Luke 12:13-21, and it’s often known as the parable of the rich fool. This is a parable Jesus tells to a crowd of thousands, and often told more than once to more crowds of thousands, and so, reflects what Jesus was not only saying, but doing and living out throughout … read
I was grateful to find our Gospel text today is the Lord’s Prayer. It’s universal and personally formational prayer. Even though there were only five people there when my wife and I got married, I made us all say it and half said it with debts and half said it with trespasses and at least … read
That laugh of Sarah’s has been bugging me all week. If it’s true that “laughter is carbonated faith,” then why do so many biblical scholars characterize Sarah’s laugh as cynical ingratitude? Those two oldsters (Abraham and Sarah) have waited 24 years for the fulfillment of a promise made six chapters earlier—a promise of place, progeny, … read
As of Friday, even with all the madness happening in the world, it is officially summer. We’re commemorating with jazz music, sending our youth off on their service-learning trip, and eating ice cream before noon, inside. We come to this space to remind ourselves that we are not God, and thus don’t control if this … read
Today’s story of Paul and Silas singing in prison puts me in mind of the timeless dilemma faced by the philosopher Lucy Van Pelt (of Peanuts comic strip fame): “Why do I have to have ups and downs? Why can’t I have ups and ups?” Paul and Silas are in the midst of downs and … read
It makes a lot of sense that Psalm 23 falls in the Easter season, because it describes the new life Jesus invites us into—one of rest in lush meadows, one where our hunger and thirst are satisfied without noise, one of no despair, where dropping heads are revived and our cups are brimming with blessings, … read