Sermons

I wonder how Jesus knew? As he stood aside from the other disciples with Peter, how did he know it was Satan speaking in the words of his disciple and friend? Where had he heard these words before so as to recognize them so quickly? It is a startling story we hear today, because his […]

When I was in seminary, I knew a dear little church community, St. Chad’s, Loves Park. It was located about two hours outside of Chicago, a small, struggling congregation in a small, struggling, rust belt town. But they dreamt big dreams and they had big hearts to match and they approached their work and ministry

When you are young, some things seem to stretch on forever—the last hour of the school day before the bell rings, the wait for the sun to rise on Christmas morning, or the length of a summer day. For me, it was riding in the car, whether my parents were out running errands or we

Be prepared. Growing up in the scouts, it was a message that I heard time and again. Indeed, it is the official motto of the scouts, “Be prepared,” and is taught to every teen from an early age. Now, if I’m being honest, this messaging was at least partly about, maybe even mostly about, making

If I were to ask you to describe what a progressive, socially active church looks like, I suspect most people would eventually get around to describing something along the lines of a church with contemporary worship, praise music, perhaps even some slide shows to jazz up the sermon. Yet, in my experience, the churches most

In a world where we frequently hear concerns expressed about the future of the church in the face of declining attendance and a secularized world, it is easy to forget that these anxieties are nothing new. Every generation has experienced anxiety about the state of the church as they perceive the end to the way

Just over a week ago, Matt and I were downtown when we ran into an actual street corner preacher at the corner of Georgia and Granville. It had been a while since I had seen one, so I was paying attention to his shouts over the sounds of buses and the crowds of people. It

It was the first church I ever served, and I had only been there for a year when the hurricane hit us. We were only an hour east of New York City, on the shores of Long Island Sound, not a place that gets many hurricanes. We knew it was coming, of course, and many

Moses had climbed up a holy mountain with his flock, when a wondrous and miraculous sight caught his eye. There before him, a bush was on fire. Now, admittedly, in this time of wildfires, a bush that is on fire hardly seems noteworthy. Perhaps distressing, yes, but hardly worth mentioning. But this bush, though it

What does it mean to fear God? When we say that someone had the fear of God put into them, we mean that they have been terrified, made afraid of punishment or retribution, that they are made compliant for fear of the consequences. It is a usage that leans heavily on the common meaning of