Peacemaking: Talking the Talk; Walking the Walk

One hundred-four years ago, there was a man who had to ask this same question for himself. His name was Adolf von Harnack. He was a German theologian. He had been teaching for decades as a leading voice of the “liberal theology” school of thought . . . In the summer of 1914, von Harnack would have known that war was on the horizon . . . For decades, von Harnack had been talking the talk about Jesus and his teachings. Von Harnack had spread the idea that modern Christians should figure out Jesus’s core message and try to live it in the modern world. Now he had a decision to make: was he going to walk the walk of being a peacemaker, as Jesus had instructed? More

Getting What We Seek; Giving What We Received

Oct 28, 2018   ·     •   Mark 10:46-52

Bartimaeus is seeking to regain his sight—but even more than that. He is seeking to regain his whole life back. And so, what I expected was for Bartimaeus to say, after regaining his sight: “Okie dokie Jesus, thanks! See ya later,” and return home so that he could rebuild his life and regain all that he had lost. But this is not what happens. More

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way!

Prayer is about quieting our minds and our hearts enough to hear that “still, small voice” speaking to us, that voice of sheer silence that is God speaking in our midst. Some Buddhists, when asked to describe meditation, use an analogy. They say the the mind is like a pond: if it is full of waves and ripples, its surface is confused. But if it is still, that surface becomes calm and it can reflect something beautiful and true. I think the Christian practice of prayer is similar. We have to still our hearts and minds enough to hear that quiet voice. More

Embracing the Danger of Hypocrisy

…you know, hypocrisy is a funny thing. It’s easy to accuse others of hypocrisy. And it’s actually fun–delicious really–to accuse people I don’t like or don’t agree with of hypocrisy. But it’s not so easy or fun to look at myself and consider whether I’m a hypocrite. More

We Are What We Eat

Jesus said: “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them…the one who eats this bread will live forever.” This is the way Jesus starts his dialogue with some of his students this morning–and it’s important to note that the people he’s speaking to are his disciples, not his opponents. And yet look at the pushback he gets! And you can understand why–what is Jesus talking about? Is he telling us we should be cannibals? More

Eternal Transformation

Bitterness, anger, malice, arrogance, greed: I don’t know about you, but those are things I find in myself more days than not. If I want to be an agent of change in this world, I might need to be prepared to be changed myself. You know, we can’t rebuild this building with crumbling, and cracked, and broken bricks. If we want a secure and steadfast structure, we need well-fired, hard bricks. Likewise, if we want to build a just society, we have to be struggling for justice not only out there in the world, but justice within ourselves too. If we are feeding on arrogance, and anger, and greed, what do we expect to reap out there? More

Loving Beyond the Horizon

“… to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Now, this is a sentence that, the more I read it, the less sense it made to me. I was hoping that if I kept reading it, I would get it, but, no—that’s not what happened… More

Wrestling With the Trinity

God is not like anything we know in our world, and so we struggle to make sense of God. Scott’s message explores what the Trinity can teach us about the mystery of God.

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