A sermon preached on March 17th, 2019 entitled, “Jesus as Our Mother Hen with Wings Wide Open: These are distressing times we are living in. Friday’ horrifying news about the 28 year old White Supremacist who opened fire in two different Mosques in Christ Church, New Zealand as children of God had gathered for prayer […]
Monday, March 18 Once more we are reading a psalm, and so we recall that psalms are evocative poems that in saying people have sought to make connection with God for three thousand years. Read the psalm slowly, preferably aloud and take note of the phrases that catch your attention. Psalm 63:1-8 O God, you […]
Sunday, March 17 — Victor Frankl: The Last of All Human Freedoms Victor Frankl wrote a book entitled, “Man’s Search for Meaning” arising from his experience of having lived in a Nazi concentration camp. A psychiatrist, Frankl expressed in the book the therapeutic philosophy that arose from the brutal experience he had undergone. Central to […]
Saturday, March 16 — What Does Real Strength Look Like? Our reading continues from yesterday’s reading with Jesus drawing closer to the city of Jerusalem and the fate that awaits him there. Luke 13:34-35 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired […]
Friday, March 15 — Finding Courage Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he will lay down his life. Luke 13:31-33 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, […]
Thursday, March 14 A quick primer for those who might not be familiar with the Apostle Paul: A significant portion of the New Testament is made up of letters written by Paul to churches he helped start scattered around the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Paul began as a Pharisaical Jew who believed that […]
Wednesday, March 13 Where we left off yesterday, God was talking Abram down from his despair. We were told Abram believed God’s promise that the day was coming when Sarah would give birth to a child and that countless descendants would follow afterwards in the future. But Abram isn’t finished with his doubts. In today’s […]
Tuesday, March 11 The Apostle Paul in the New Testament looks back at the Old Testament figure of Abraham as the original example of what it means to live by “faith”. Late into middle age Abraham (who at this point in the story we are about to read is still known as “Abram”) along with […]
Week 2 — Monday, March 11 Psalms are poetry, and as such if we approach them with our intellect in an attempt to analyze their meaning we’ll probably end up frustrated. Psalms are prayers used by people of faith through the ages to give expression to their varied emotional states – moving through the darker […]
A sermon preached on March 10th, 2019 – the first Sunday in Lent – based upon Luke 4:1-13 Fourteen years ago I was fortunate to receive funding to take a three month, clergy renewal Sabbatical. The central piece to this time involved a trip I made to northern California where I spent four days alone […]
