Have you ever met somebody who is just really wise? Just filled with wisdom? It’s a rare thing to find, but when you see somebody who is wise, you just draw in the wisdom. Wisdom is something that is difficult to attain; it’s not something you can study for. Universities don’t offer degrees in wisdom…
Hebrews 2.6-8
But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.” So writes the author of today’s epistle…
Imagine we are living two thousand years from now, in the year 4009, and we’re looking back two thousand years, and we’re looking at the way we viewed illness and disease, and the way we treated it…
In my adventures every summer to the Appalachian Mountains for our annual Appalachian Service Project trip, I picked up a piece of wisdom that’s one of the mottos of the young adults who teach the youth on these trips, and those of us who have limited construction experience. A motto to help us get through our particular situations when we are trying to fix something. The motto is this: “think like a raindrop.”…
There’s high energy around here today. All the programs are kicking back in, all the church school programs begin today, the youth programs are beginning, the choirs are at full voice, our Clergy Forum began this morning, the Men’s Group meets this afternoon, there’s a certain energy that comes over us in this part of September as we gear up for the year together…
Mark 7:31-37
I had a really great opportunity yesterday to spend some time thinking about one of my favorite moments in the gospel, one of my favorite things that Jesus says, when Jesus lays his hands on this deaf man’s head and puts his fingers in the man’s ears and he says, “Ephphatha,” “Be opened.”
“Increase in us true religion.” Hear that phrase in our opening prayer, our collect? It’s an interesting phrase. What does it mean? I’d like to offer a couple of thoughts on that. One area of study that I find really interesting, and I wish I had studed more, is anthropology…
John 6:56-69
Do you ever wonder how it is that we come to believe the things that we do? When we look at our lives, with an eye towards the experiences and the people who have led us to believe in one thing or another, do any patterns emerge? What things along the way, be they miraculous, life-changing or thought-provoking, have led us to a deeper faith? …
A couple of weeks ago I was preaching on Sunday and I shared a teaching on the Eucharistic Prayer that we say on Sunday, and I got so many responses to that, asking for more teaching things like that, to better understand what it is we do when we gather together like this on Sunday…
The way we view the world can either limit or expand our horizons. The crowd that surrounded Jesus in our Gospel lesson in John became angry at what they perceived as arrogance, if not blasphemy, on his part. How dare he call himself the bread of life? …