Thoughts Along the Way

You Are Invited to Dance!

You Are Invited to Dance One night when I was about 14 years old, I saw something that was almost indescribably beautiful, something that left me completely spellbound. My mom and dad had gone out for dinner, just the two of them. I don’t know what the occasion was, but they had dressed up for it. Mom was wearing a black cocktail dress and Dad was wearing his best suit and tie....

You Are Invited to Dance! You Are Invited to Dance One night when I was about 14 years old, I saw something that was almost indescribably beautiful, something that left me completely spellbound.   My mom and …

Conspiring With God

When you think of all the things the disciples of Jesus saw and experienced in their three or so years with him—exorcisms, healings, subduing storms, raising people from the dead, and then his own crucifixion and resurrection—it’s a wonder they didn’t become unhinged. Maybe they did a little. I think it’s safe to say that conspiring with Jesus had fundamentally changed their understanding of reality....

Conspiring With God When you think of all the things the disciples of Jesus saw and experienced in their three or so years with him—exorcisms, healings, subduing storms, raising people from the dead, and then his own …

Rise and Shine

When Jesus Started Working from Home Rise and Shine The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, was on Thursday. It’s always on a Thursday because it always comes 40 days after Easter. And since it’s always on a Thursday, it often gets overlooked because most of us aren’t in the habit of going to church on Thursday, and Lutherans and other protestants don’t always pay attention to Feast days anyway....

Rise and Shine When Jesus Started Working from Home Rise and Shine The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, was on Thursday.  It’s always on a Thursday because it alway…

Loving Jesus

Loving Jesus John 14:15-21 A new student asked her yoga instructor, “Can you teach me to do the splits?” “Hmmm,” said her instructor. “How flexible are you?” “Well,” said the student, “I can’t come on Tuesdays.” A man called the obstetrician in a panic and yelled into the phone, “My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!” “Is this her first child,” asked the doctor....

Loving Jesus Loving Jesus John 14:15-21 A new student asked her yoga instructor, “Can you teach me to do the splits?”  “Hmmm,” said her instructor.  “How flexible are you?”  “Well,…

Goodbyes Are Never Easy

John 14:1-14 Goodbyes are never easy, especially when you are on the receiving end. When you suddenly realize that someone you have counted on, someone you have relied on for years, someone you have loved, someone you assumed would always be there—when you suddenly realize that this centrally important relationship will soon be irretrievably changed, maybe never to return to what it was…ever…it can be devastating....

Goodbyes Are Never Easy John 14:1-14 Goodbyes are never easy, especially when you are on the receiving end.  When you suddenly realize that someone you have counted on, someone you have relied on for years, some…

The Gate Versus The Gatekeepers

The words don't change. The way we hear them does. John 10:1-10 The Revised Common Lectionary, which most pastors and preachers follow in our tradition, repeats every three years. The texts don’t change, but the way we hear them is different every time so I always assume that God wants to say something through these texts to this people in…...

The Gate Versus The Gatekeepers The words don’t change. The way we hear them does. John 10:1-10 The Revised Common Lectionary, which most pastors and preachers follow in our tradition, repeats every three years.  …

Hope–Alive and In Person

Sometimes you need more than a vision. Luke 24:36b-48 Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed....

Hope–Alive and In Person Sometimes you need more than a vision. Luke 24:36b-48 Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by…

This Year is Different

John 20:19-30 We know this story, right? Every year on the Second Sunday of Easter we get the same Gospel text from the 20th chapter of John. Year in and year out. Every year, one week after Easter we hear “The Doubting Thomas” story. That’s what we call it, which isn’t really fair to either Thomas or the text because there is a lot more going on in these twenty-one verses, and some of the most important things in the text, arguably, have nothing to do with Thomas....

This Year is Different John 20:19-30 We know this story, right?  Every year on the Second Sunday of Easter we get the same Gospel text from the 20th chapter of John.  Year in and year out. &…

Easter in a Dying Church

They come because they have always come… and on this day of days, not to pass through the beckoning door, not to let their careful footsteps drum old echoes from the wooden floor would deny the pattern of their ways and all the times that they have come before. They sit where they have always sat… each in the customary pew, …...

Easter in a Dying Church They come because they have always come… and on this day of days,  not to pass through the beckoning door, not to let their careful footsteps drum old echoes from the wooden floor would deny t…

Out of the Dark and Into the Light

John 11:1-45 If you look at a full moon when it’s rising, sometimes it looks much closer and larger than usual. The curvature of the earth at the horizon seems to magnify it, and it may look yellowish or have a tinge of orange as its light is filtered through layers of moisture or dust or pollution in the atmosphere. If you see it rise during the day, it may look illusory and distant, a faded disc projected against a fathomless blue sky....

Out of the Dark and Into the Light John 11:1-45 If you look at a full moon when it’s rising, sometimes it looks much closer and larger than usual.  The curvature of the earth at the horizon seems to magnify it, and it may …