Give Until It Feels Good
November 9, 2025
This morning’s scripture lesson from the Gospel of Luke reads like a tale of two rich men. The first is identified only as a ruler – of what, we do not know. But he is as upstanding as they come: He knows the commandments and keeps the commandments and has known and has kept the […]
Read More“When the Wind Blows”
November 2, 2025
I think, in many ways, I am who I am because I had the mentor I had. His name is David Ruhe. (Some of you might remember meeting him several years ago.) One of the things he taught me was that a minister should be a “center of theological integrity.” Not THE center – people […]
Read More“There by the Grace of God Go I”
October 26, 2025
In the spirit of the humble tax-collector, I have a confession to make: A few weeks ago, a fire alarm went off at the church. The alarm went off as I was walking to the liquor store to get sweet vermouth, which I needed to make a Manhattan – which I needed because a number […]
Read MoreThe Power of “Returning”
October 19, 2025
In the Hebrew scriptures, the word teshuvah is used (used over a thousand times) to describe one of the most deeply spiritual things a human being can do. Teshuvah means simply: “returning.” Very often, the returning in question is a returning from scattered or inauthentic or shallow living – returning from that to one’s truest […]
Read MoreEven Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed is Enough
October 12, 2025
The apostles ask Jesus for more faith. The faith they have doesn’t feel like it’s all the faith they need. And I wonder why. Why do they feel this way? Why doesn’t their faith feel like it’s enough faith? Maybe they don’t believe something that they’ve gotten it into their heads they are “supposed” to […]
Read MoreHe’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
October 5, 2025
There is almost nothing more confusing about Christianity than the doctrine of the trinity. What on earth does it mean when we say or when we sing that there is one God who is not just God, but is Father and Son and Holy Spirit? How can God be these three different things and still […]
Read MoreThe Idea of Hell Makes a Mockery of God’s Love
September 27, 2025
Hell, the idea of hell, of a “down there” where bad people are punished for their sins and misdeeds for all of eternity – it is not exactly biblical. To begin at the beginning: In the Hebrew scriptures, in what we call the Old Testament, when someone died, they were said to have gone to […]
Read MoreHuman Love vs. God’s Holy Love
September 20, 2025
In the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells three stories, three parables about lost things that are found, and that, when they are found, are rejoiced over. In the first, a shepherd with one hundred sheep leaves ninety-nine of them behind to go out and find the one that wandered off, lost. […]
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