Aha!

Isaiah 60:1-3; 5-6   Matthew 2:1,2    Have you ever had a moment when things seemed to click for you, when a seemingly unsolvable problem or issue became solvable? Did the hair stand up on your arm? Did you jump up and shout Eureka! or did an imaginary light bulb suddenly appear over your head? Yes, I’m […]

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What Time Is It?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 2 Corinthians 5:17 Many of you are probably familiar with the musical Rent, a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème. Rent follows the story of a group friends who are mostly young artists struggling to survive in New York City’s East […]

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LOVE Incarnate in the Upside Down

Luke 1:39-41; 46-49; 52,53   Let’s get this out of the way from the start. I know that for many, the stories about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth carry with them some pretty strong emotions and nostalgia. For some, this story can be confusing, maddening, and perhaps oppressive—depending on how religion [and your family] treated […]

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Joy Rising Out of Trauma

In the brilliant sci-fi/fantasy Netflix series Stranger Things the main characters all go through trauma: Joyce loses her son, Will. Jonathan loses his little brother. Eleven/Jane is experimented on, deprived of parental care, tortured, and manipulated psychologically. Dustin, Mike, and Lucas lose their friend and think he’s dead. Will is taken by a creature to […]

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Life in the Upside Down II: Friendship as a Catalyst for Peace

If you haven’t seen the Netflix original show Stranger Things, I highly recommend it. I won’t give a full synopsis here, but even if you are not familiar with it, I think what follows will still be relevant and hopefully meaningful. Let’s talk about friendship. In Stranger Things, friendship takes center stage. It is set […]

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Living in the Upside Down

Isaiah 64:4-6; 8, 9b    Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Go. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against […]

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Alternative Wisdom

Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 The most common type of wisdom in society is what we call conventional wisdom. This is the mainstream, what “everybody knows.” It is society’s understanding about what is real and how people should live. Conventional wisdom includes ideas that are so accepted they are not questioned. These ideas tell us now […]

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Well Traveled

Matthew 5:1-10   Hey, how ya feelin’ today? Blessed? Are ya feelin’ blessed today? If you were to answer “yes” to that question, what does that mean, to be blessed? Let’s ask our friend the dictionary. First off, if this word is used as a verb, it is pronounced blest, with one syllable, i.e. “Before […]

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Rituals of Love

Matthew 22:34-46 What rituals do you have when you wake up each day? What rituals do you have when you go to bed? It is not hyperbole to say that whatever “waking up” habits and “pre-sleep” habits we practice affect our days and how they are lived and experienced. I’m certainly not a morning person […]

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Following Light

John 8:12 [NRSV] Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. I John 1:5-7a This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there […]

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