Luke 1:68-79 Luke 3:1-6 These are weird times. At least, they feel that way to me.  Maybe weird only somewhat captures it.  When we are talking about the weather I suppose it may.  Just as we recorded the warmest Connecticut November in history, the northern plains get snow dumped on them and Oklahoma and Texas […]

Nov. 29, 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Apocolyptic language has always been confusing. In fact, I suspect that its early readers were just as confused by it as we are.  It is likely that even its writers didn’t know exactly what they were recording. “Apocolyptic” generally refers to end-time visions – strange images of God’s final victory. […]

Oct. 11, 2015 Mark 10:17-31 Jesus isn’t making this easy on us. Last week it was divorce. We waded our way through challenging words about a reality of broken relationships that either directly or indirectly affects us all into what I hoped you heard as a message of hope and life not in the face […]

Mark 5:21-43 We hosted an “Alternative Christmas Fair” at my last church for a number of years. The name at first was a source of confusion for people. I remember getting calls asking me if “straight” people were welcome to the fair as well. Of course, everyone was welcome. What we meant by “alternative” was […]

1 Sam 8:4-20 Mark 3:20-35 It is clear that the ancient authors of our scriptures disagreed about a number of points. In fact, when I was in seminary I was taught that four key sources (not the one traditional source: Moses) were responsible for the contents of the Torah. It went: JEDP: “Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomic, […]

Acts 4:5-12 I keep seeing these signs. Not hints or mystical nudgings. Rather, actual signs. Billboards claiming the Truth. They have an 800 number. Simply call them and they will give the Truth to you. I’ve seen three during the last week. The first said, “Lust will drag you to hell.” And then a phone […]

Mark 16:1-8 (Acts 10:34-43) A group of us were sitting in the Round Room a couple of weeks ago learning about prayer together. On the video that was guiding us appeared a long-time professor from Duke Divinity School, whom I was a bit surprised to see. He’s known for being somewhat feisty, cantankerous, angry, controversial, […]

Psalm 19 1 Cor. 1:18-25 John 2: 13-22 “It’s hard to realize this today,” writes Timothy Keller, “but when Christianity first arose in the world it was not called a religion. It was the non-religion. Imagine the neighbors of early Christians asking them about their faith. ‘Where’s your temple?’ they’d ask. The Christians would reply […]

Deut 18:15-20 1 Cor. 8:1-13 Mark 1:21-28 If you were to ask people what a prophet is I expect that you would get a number of different answers. I also expect that among them would be included the one that says that a prophet is someone who predicts the future. That’s not entirely unbiblical. There’s […]

Isaiah 64:1-4, 8-11 John 1:6-8, 19-28 I learned something about myself a couple years ago. It was kind of shocking because previously I was above such things. But, I learned that I love fantasy novels. I’m currently rereading the first two books of a trilogy, hoping to pick upon hints to the conclusion, as I […]