Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 OK, so you have never heard of the Hananiah Syndrome (I just made it up) but I am sure you have experienced its effects.  Hananiah was one of those “false prophets” who told the exiles in Babylon that they would return soon to their homeland, to comfort and happiness, and be gone […]

Luke 15:1-10 This story was my best chance to keep Jesus spiritual and kind and gentle who lives in the nostalgia of my Sunday school days when we learned that Jesus was a kindly man who took us in his arms and carried us safely home.  I want that Jesus, forget the rest of the […]

Luke 14:25-33 I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog on last Sunday’s sermon to invite you to our Celtic Evensong service which begins this Wednesday, September 14, 5:30 pm in the sanctuary, and will continue each week throughout the year.  The idea came from our trip to Iona last June, from John Philip Newell himself, who […]

Luke 12:49-56 Everyone can have a bad day.  The Chicago Cubs, so the old observation goes, have had a bad century.  So we should give Jesus a little space to have a bad eight verses.  These are the verses that seminary preaching professors love to assign to anxious preaching students.  These are the verses that […]

Luke 12:32-40 We have a lot to say about fear these days.  It slides into many a conversation, shouts at us in headlines, does its best to keep us perpetually anxious, and wakes us up in the middle of the night.  One can find a preacher of fear on every corner and we dutifully listen. […]

Luke 12:13-21 We are learning that power and military might and money can’t seem to fix the deep problems facing our world.  We certainly know that division and name-calling and violence just make matters worse.  So what do we do?  I suggest we go to the deep wells of wisdom found in scripture.  There isn’t […]

Amos 8:1-12 I have never ended a sermon bent over with my hands on my knees, until last Sunday.  I was symbolically trying to catch my breath after Nice and Dallas and St. Paul and Baton Rouge.  I didn’t even realize at the time–the shooting happened at 7 am Sunday morning when I was preparing […]

Amos 7:7-17 I love Amos.  He has no pretenses.  He doesn’t fudge his resume or act self-important.  He is a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees (one who makes an incision in the fruit late in the growing season so it ripens faster).  He has no pedigree or family tree to fall back on.  […]

2 Kings 5:1-14 A quick fix.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found one?  It would be so much more convenient if solutions to the world’s ills, and our own, could be found in an easy formula, a shot in the arm, a wise proclamation, a savior. Naaman, that mighty military commander, was looking for […]

II Kings 2:1-14 Elijah kept telling his protege Elisha to “stay here” but Elisha refused, following his mentor to Gilgal, then Bethel, and Jericho, and finally to “Beyond the Jordan.”  That is where Elijah ascended into the whirlwinds of heaven and Elisha was left alone to being his own ministry. I am not sure where […]