Category Archives: Messages

…a recent quotation from Pope Francis. You know he has gotten great reviews from folks outside Roman Catholicism and has run head long into establishment outrage within his church. The statement reads: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to is own security. Continue reading →

Easter is not a return to the past, but a movement to the future. Mary couldn’t nor can we hold onto the past. Our calling is to walk, comforted and directed by the Holy Spirit, into the future that God has for us. Continue reading →

The first to take Jesus were the Temple police who took him into custody. Then Pilate took Jesus and tried to release him. Next it was the Jews, the religious and economic leaders who took Jesus – to execute him. Then it was these two stealth disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus who took Jesus, they took him to bury him. And now it’s up to us – we’ve got to decide if we are going to take Jesus – and what we intend to do with him. Continue reading →

Traditional lore has it that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the Messiah. If the time is right for the messianic age within that person’s lifetime, then that person will be the Messiah. … members of the counsel are reported to have asked “What should we do?” Given our present prosperity, our freedom to practice our religion and control our civil life, maybe we should wait for a Messiah in a coming generation? Continue reading →

What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. Continue reading →

What does denial of Jesus, or betrayal for that matter, look like today? Judgment can become complex. For instance we have Judas Son of Simon Iscariot or Simon Peter to contrast – one, tradition has it, hung himself and the other is made head of the Church. Close call. Continue reading →

John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for … Continue reading →

Lazarus was now alive but he was still bound, hands and feet, in the shrouds of death in which those who loved him most had wrapped him. “Unbind him, and let him go!” Jesus commands.
Does that continue to be our challenge, to finish the work of releasing from the constraints of the trappings of death those who Christ as brought back to life? Continue reading →

“Rabbi”, they ask, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The students view that those with physical disabilities were being punished either for their own sin or the sin of their parents was a common understanding for their time. It was a fair academic question. Today most introductory classes in the sciences are quick to point out that, “correlation does not necessitate causation.” And perhaps the man’s parents were not the most exemplary human beings, we don’t know, but just because a man is born blind and his parents are sinners doesn’t mean that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between the two events. Continue reading →

If there is not joy flowing out of our lives and within the community of faith then there is a need for renewal and a new infusion of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps a genuine Pentecost for some would be an outpouring of the Joy of the Spirit of God in the midst of the people of God. Continue reading →