Belonging to the Truth John 18: 33-38 My friends Ed and Otis tell a story about stopping into a convenience store in Pike County, Kentucky, right in the heart of Appalachia. Though they were both living not too far away in other parts of…
What Time Is It Anyway? Mark 13: 1-8 I don’t know what sort of image you have in mind when you hear a pastor say she is “working on my sermon.” Perhaps you, like many of us preachers before we went to seminary and…
Out of Her Poverty Mark 12: 41-44 When I was a kid, I had a children’s Bible with pictures. I think the picture for this story from Mark’s gospel must have been on the front of the book, because I remember it much better than…
Beginning and Ending in God Revelation 21: 1-6a When I was a little kid I was intermittently and sometimes simultaneously afraid of teenagers and impressed by them. Especially groups of teenagers. I remember one Saturday morning when I went out into the neighborhood…
Mercy, Healing, and Call Mark 10: 46-52 If you believe the things people say, students come to college to throw off God and all traces of religion, like an old, dried husk. People seem to like wringing their hands over the state of “young people…
Forget About the Children Mark 9: 30-37 You have to forget some things in order to understand this passage. Mainly, you have to forget about children. Right now, I can hear a Simpsons character pleading, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?!” [In case…
The Fork in the Road Mark 8: 27-38 I’ve told this story before but it bears repeating. One of my seminary professors told us about a time early in his ministry when we was talking with a teetotaling woman in his church. My professor,…
Hit God with Your Best Shot Mark 7: 24-30 What’s the maddest you have ever been? When, if you were a cartoon, steam would have come erupting out of your ears? I’m going to hazard a guess that, though some of these things might…
Stop-by Jesus Mark 6: 45-52 Who went to the Activities Fair last Monday? Did you wander through, trying to take it all in? Did you have a plan of attack – I’m going to find the Wahoo Basketweaving Society and then the Wesley Foundation, and…
Made Isaiah 29: 16 Almost anything can be a spiritual practice if you let it. I know people whose spiritual practice is running or writing or watching the sunset each night. I know people whose spiritual practice is baking or hiking or feeding the…
