Relating, Creating, Transforming
John 20:19-31 Let’s engage in a creative exercise, shall we? If you’re willing, join with me. Do you remember the first time you ever heard the story about Jesus of Nazareth dying on a cross and then rising to life? Were you a kid? A youth? An adult? Who told you the story? Did you […]
Read More
Mark 5:24b-34 I would like to ask you a question. Simple, but it may seem the opposite. What is faith? Sure, perhaps you are thinking: Really? What is faith? Now that’s a loaded question. Are you referring to some kind of religious faith, or a faith in God or Jesus or Mohammad, or Buddha, or […]
Read More
Luke 7:1-10 Question: What is faith to you? Can faith lead to healing? If so, how? I start by saying that faith is sadly misused–both as a word and a concept. I’ve had plenty of experiences in which people were told that they did not have enough faith, or, if a person was going through a […]
Read More
John 20:19-29 The tomb is still empty. Really, it is. The peeps have been eaten [or at least mostly eaten], the baskets emptied of their sugary substances and plastic grass, and the Easter egg hunts are a distant memory. It’s the week after, and the tomb is still empty. In Luke’s Gospel story, a group […]
Read MoreLuke 3:7-18 I have mentioned before that the word faith is nuanced in the Bible. So what should the Koine Greek Word in the New Testament that is often translated into the English noun faith really be? How about faithing? What is faithing? Well, according to the Urban Dictionary: The act of walking quickly to […]
Read More
John 6:35-44; 48-51 Bienaventurado el que no cambia el sueño de su vida por el pan de cada día. Blessed are those who do not exchange the dreams of their lives for their daily bread. ―Facundo Cabral, Argentina Daily bread is the thing we all need to survive. We need to eat. Sadly, because we’re […]
Read More
John 6:24-35 Previously, in this chapter of John’s story, something like 5000 people were fed when there seemed to be a scarcity of food. A handful of loaves and fishes proved to be enough to feed everyone. After the event, Jesus and his disciples took a boat over to Capernaum, on the other side of […]
Read More
Psalm 85:1-8; 10 I want to begin with a question. How many of you feel that your definition of who God is comes mostly from: What your parents or family raised you to believe? Or: From the Bible? Or: From a church? Or: From a spiritual or enlightening experience? Or: From personal life experience? Perhaps […]
Read MoreMark 5:21-43 Triage [in medical situations] is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. Triage is meant to make treatment of patients more efficient when there are not enough resources for all to be treated immediately. Triage comes from the French word trier, meaning to separate, […]
Read MoreMark 4:35-41 This is an excerpt from an article written for the Huffington Post by Rev. Otis Moss, III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The doors of the church are [still] open. The question running through the minds of many African Americans, particularly black church folks is where and when will […]
Read More