“As was promised the shepherds, you’ll find him. TODAY WE FIND HIM.”
Category: Gospel
To Make A Ruckus
Matthew 21: 1-11 Back in January of 1993, April, Eli and I visited my family in Baltimore. While we were there, the inauguration of Bill Clinton was scheduled. We decided to go to D.C and see the inauguration parade. April and I met in Washington while in seminary years before, but we never saw the…
To the Disciples Particularly
Matthew 5: 1-12 A little boy was listening to a long and tedious sermon from the preacher. Suddenly a red light attached to some wires leading to the sound system caught his eye. Tugging his father’s sleeve, he asked, “Daddy, when that red light up there turns green can we go?” Oh, it’s going to…
This Is Good News!
Matthew 2: 1-23 This is Epiphany Sunday in the Christian worship calendar. The liturgical season of Epiphany are days to draw worshippers to texts and images of light and splendor. We’re hearing and reading a text today that is not a birth narrative. The child and parents are no longer in the manger. Matthew wrote…
You Don’t Have to Go Far
Luke 16: 19-31 The rich man dressed well and feasted sumptuously. Lazarus laid at the rich man’s gate, longed to eat his crumbs, and dogs came to lick his sores. What is the one thing consistent with both? They both died. Bertha Jones was a middle-aged woman who had a heart attack and was taken…
The Present Time
Luke 12: 54-56 John 2: 5-11 Victor Borge, the well known Danish-American comedian and pianist of another time, told a friend he could tell time by his piano. His friend was skeptical, so Borge volunteered to demonstrate. He pounded out a crashing march loud and fast on his piano. Immediately there came a banging on…
Make Yourself Rich
Luke 12: 13-21 Someone in the crowd asked Jesus to tell the person’s brother to divide the family inheritance with him. This sounds like the story of the prodigal son. There was an inheritance. There was a son/brother who wanted his share of the inheritance before the father died. He got it. The person in…
Welcome Him In
Luke 10: 38-42 As I mentioned last week, to me, all of Luke chapter 10 prompts us, its readers, and hearers, to consider who we are and who we long to be as followers and disciples of Jesus. This story of Mary and Martha puts a simple cap on this consideration. Four friends went deer…
A Story in Itself
I remember walking home from kindergarten holding my father’s hand. Our family church was where I attended kindergarten in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. After we crossed Harford Road in front of the church and headed home, I asked my father what he thought it was like to be a preacher. He was silent for…
Only One Appropriate Reaction
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-24 An old Chinese proverb goes like this: If you wish to be happy for one hour, get intoxicated. If you wish to be happy for three days, get married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. If you wish to be happy forever,…
Psalm 102 in The Message 