Author: The Rev

Photo by Christopher JollyToday is Epiphany. Epiphany is the season that leads up to Lent where the Church has historically focused on the reality that Jesus is revealed as God in the flesh and that he is the great redeemer. One of the passages in my reading today was from Isaiah 52, How beautiful upon the mountainsare the feet of him who brings good news,who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,who publishes salvation,who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”The voice of your watchmen — they lift up their voice;together they sing for joy;for eye to eye they seethe return of the Lord to Zion.Break forth together into singing,you waste places of Jerusalem,for the Lord has comforted his people;he has redeemed Jerusalem.The Lord has bared his holy armbefore the eyes of all the nations,and all the ends of the earth shall seethe salvation of our God. This is a beautiful poem celebrating the reality of God’s redemption. When Isaiah wrote it the redemption of...

Photo By Silvestri MatteoThis morning I was reading in John 15 where Jesus is bidding his farewell to his disciples. He says something that deeply challenges me and makes me wonder how much I truly do love other people. He says, “Greater love has no on than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” We know this is a foreshadowing of what is to come, that he would willingly die on the cross. This death allowed for new life. This death made a way for reconciliation across all of creation. This death was not death, but it was life and life to the full. So much of my American Christianity is not shaped this way. I avoid pain, discomfort, and death. I avoid it not only in the physical form but also in the spiritual and emotional form. To love well requires a person to metaphorically die to themselves. A person must be willing to set aside their rights and...

Photo by Annie SprattIn the United States there is a phenomenon within some Christian traditions to hold “revivals.” These revivals are usually nothing more than a speaker who comes into town and preaches for a weekend. It’s like a local conference. Churches spend lots of money and time trying to get people to come to their revival. The thing is, this is not what revival really is. Revival is not something that can be planned. It’s not something that you can make happen. True biblical revival is something that the Holy Spirit does in his own time and in his own ways. Even though we can’t make revival happen we can prepare for a move by the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 85 the psalmist writes, “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put way your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us...

Photo By Izzy GerosaYesterday I wrote about a little phrase from Genesis 12, “He went.” As I was reading the Scriptures this morning I was reading in Hebrews 11:13–22 and it reminded me of the reality that often when we “go” we don’t necessarily see things come to fruition. Abraham didn’t live to see his descendants become like sand on the seashore. He never gained possession of the promised land. He went, but he didn’t see the promises from God become sight. I think this is what stops many of us from being willing to just go. We want to be sure of the outcome. This surety won’t ever come. Unless, what we’re looking forward to is not of this world. What if we were looking forward to something more? The author to the Hebrews says this of Abraham and others who set out in faith, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed...

Photo by Dominik ScytheOn January 1, 2017 what are you hoping for? As you consider this coming year what is it that you want to accomplish? When you get to December 31, 2017 how will you know if you had a good year? These questions are more important to me than ever before. As I look around at our culture I see too many people who are losing the ability to see beyond the immediate. Every day there is a new catastrophe. Every day another famous person dies. Every day there is something that steals hope from too many people. What saddens me is that these things that leave many of us feeling anguished are nothing more than fleeting vapors of a life we wish we had. We howl about global affairs and ignore the ones next door. We cry for the celebrity but do not weep for our neighbor. As I look to 2017, Psalm 67 is my prayer. It is my hope. May...

Photo By Tegan MierleIt is so much easier to label someone than to enter in with them as person. Life is simpler if we look at someone and say, “Conservative”, “Liberal”, “Republican”, “Democrat”, and so on. However, when we apply these labels we do two things. First, we distance ourselves from them as people. We are saying, “You’re this or that and I’m not.” This distance gives us permission to caricature, to mock, to be unloving without seeing the consequences. When there’s distance we are able to ignore the response of the individual. By creating this distance we are able to only see them as a group and not as individuals. This is the second, even more insidious problem, with categorizing or labeling people; it is this, we remove their person-hood. When someone becomes a “Millenial” or a “Protester” or a “Conservative” or a “Liberal” in our minds they cease to be a person. They stop being “John” or “Sara” or “Corinne” or...

The Curse Is Gone Last night an epic World Series ended with one of the greatest game sevens in the history of sports. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in the tenth inning, 8–7. The Cubs had not won the World Series in 108 years. The reason for this drought was the Curse of the Billy Goat. A few years ago the Boston Red Sox ended their World Series drought overcoming the Curse of the Bambino (the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees). As the sun rose this morning we entered into a world where there were no more curses in baseball. Sure, there are teams that haven’t been to or won the Series in a long time but none of them point to a curse. It’s just that they’ve been bad. The Cubs and Red Sox added to the lore of the game with their longstanding curses. The curse is gone. As this reality dawned on me, this verse from the Bible...

Photo by: Joshua EarleIn John 4 there’s a story that grabs me. It’s a story of shame being turned to honor. It’s a story that is, in its purest sense, a story of redemption. In John 4 we read of a Samaritan woman who has to come and draw water in the heat of the day. She couldn’t come in the morning like the other women of her city because she was an outcast. She had five husbands and the one she was currently with, wasn’t her husband. A scandalous woman! She arrives at the well to see a Jewish man hanging out. This was shocking as many Jews would walk around Samaria altogether. Then this man did the unthinkable, he asked for water. It almost certain that he knew what kind of woman she was, coming alone to the well in the middle of the day. How could a Jewish man ask such a sinful woman to draw him water? The encounter presses...

Shortly after I got serious about trying to follow Jesus I became consumed with “the truth.” I printed off hundreds of pages of articles from the Internet that helped me argue for “the truth.” I wasn’t interested, at that time, with “the truth” so much as I was interested in being right. Often, as I shared my faith I camped out on a specific verse, John 14:6, which reads — I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It has taken me a long time, a very long time, to grasp the reality that Jesus said he is the truth. Truth is personal. When truth is found in a person, it is relational. It is both, subjective and objective. When truth is a person it means that you can engage with the truth in a much different way than you do with 2+2=4. I desperately want people to know the truth. This means that I want...