Last Sunday we read the parable of the sower. As I mentioned in my sermon, this parable is Jesus’s response to the question of why more Judeans weren’t becoming Christians. To them, it seemed like there were too many Gentiles.
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The Gospel and the Outsider
The Foreign Leper
Dealing with stress is something we all deal with at some point in our lives. And the more we think about it, the worse it seems to get.
Read moreLiturgy: A Work of Love
The Consumer It’s easy to view church as just another “commercial service.” After all, we’re used to all sorts of services in our society. There are shopping centers that seek to serve our material needs. There are restaurants that seek
Read moreDiving Into Life
Learning to Swim I learned to swim at an early age. I remember, before I started taking official lessons, my father taught me the basics of swimming. He would hold me on my back and teach me to float. In
Read moreAbandoned by God?
Abandonment. This is probably one of our greatest fears. As children, we don’t want to be abandoned by our parents. As adults, we fear that we’ll be abandoned by our spouses or our friends. And, in our old age, we
Read moreBelief and Trust
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say, “All things are possible for the one who has faith.” We like to believe that this means that if we put enough mental effort into something, or if we believe something hard or
Read moreCross: Life not Sacrifice
For most of us, the cross is seen at best as a decorative symbol, or at worst as an instrument of torture. But now – at the midpoint of Lent – the cross is presented as an image of refreshment
Read moreTo Be or Not to Be… Yourself
In our world, we’re told to “be yourself.” In fact, this is probably the 21st-century American mantra. And it plays itself out in all sorts of ways. For some, it leads them on specific career paths. For others, it leads
Read moreHaving the End in Sight
This past week we’ve seen the fallout of yet another school shooting. Everyone agrees that they must end. But how? Many people are advocating for stricter gun laws. Others think teachers should be armed. And some believe we need to
Read moreForgive or Die
In January, it was good to own stock. Prices soared and, recently, the Dow hit a record high. For many of us, this is where we place our trust: it’s our financial security, our 401(k) retirement, our indication of good
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