I have a “use of language” confession this morning.  I must admit that I am immensely wishy-washy in my use of the word “hope.”  I am constantly using it in such an embarrassingly watered-down fashion.  Sometimes I use it in rather mundane matters. “I hope the weather is ......

Water.  It is an essential element in our lives.  It is also a powerful and evocative symbol.  We think of water for its gift of slaking our thirst and keeping us hydrated.  We think of water and its ability to cleanse.  But water can be a powerfully destructive ......

A wise person once said that ministry is more about interruptions than anything else. The same can be said for each of our spiritual journeys.  In other words, the Holy Spirit always arrives in guises we do not expect, when we do not expect her. Years ago, at a previous church in early ......

Never has the same story been told in two more distinctly different tellings.  Although both of these texts are immensely familiar, the juxtaposition of them is slightly disorienting.  In our story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem we hear of light, the......

John was wrong.  John was wrong.  John was wrong.  Now, I love John the Baptist.  I respect John the Baptist.  He is fiercer than I am.  He is more faithful than I am.  He is a chosen prophet of God.  If there were some laddered hierarchy of people who have sought to serve the Lord (......