- Oct 23, 2019
Living in the Now and Not Yet
It started with a question. “When is the kingdom of God coming?” When will God make things right? Because we’re not ok. We’ve been oppressed for centuries, conquered by other nations. When is the kingdom of God coming? That was the question. And Jesus gave two answers: The kingdom of God is among you. It’s within you. It’s here, now! But then he says. “The days are coming when the kingdom of God will be revealed” Two answers to the same question. It’s here, now. It’s n
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- Oct 11, 2019
The Miracle Drug (Thanksgiving 2019)
What if some big pharmaceutical company developed a medication that taken daily would enable you to sleep better and have more energy within three weeks? What if that same drug would reduce your risk of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders? What if it would help you to better manage stress, reduce your risk of substance abuse, boost your immune system and increase your overall health? And what if it would also increase your usual level of happiness by 25% and increase
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- Oct 4, 2019
Rock, Rope and Faith
One of the things I love about the English language is that our words are so flexible. You know what I mean? You can take a word and use it as a noun, as a verb, as an adjective and sometimes even an adverb. I love my work, I work hard, these are my work clothes. But there is one big exception in the English language, and that is the word “faith”. We’re allowed to use it as a noun, we can say “increase my faith” but we never get to use it as a verb. And that is a real pro
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- Oct 2, 2019
Crossing the Chasm
Did you hear the alarm go off? This is a wake-up call. Will you do something about it before it’s too late? In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable about the afterlife, about a poor man and a rich man who die, one taken to be with Abraham and one who goes to Hades. It’s tempting to use this as an excuse to speculate about heaven and hell - but if we do, we will miss both the point and the urgency of the parable. Sometimes I tell a story I heard once about the census in he
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