The Scriptures for this Homily, from our church service on December 1, 2019 come from the Revised Common Lectionary, and are as follows: Psalm 122 Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 *** Advent is the season in the Liturgical year that settles into the dark night, and waits for the revelation of God in Christ…
Hi friends, It’s been a few days since that vile video from John MacArthur came out. I have chosen not to say much about it. I hope that my silence did not give anyone the wrong idea. I certainly was not unaware, or ignorant of his hateful speech. His words were wrong and cruel, and…
Some of you know, I’ve been taking classes at Fuller Seminary. I’m taking one class a quarter, so it’s slow going. But I’m able to keep up with the course work and still do some of the other things I need to do, like drive two teenagers around every afternoon when they get home from…
Last month, I turned forty-two. John took me out to dinner the night before, and the day of my birthday the kids came home in the early afternoon and the four of us, including Olive the dog, swam out to the dock in the middle of the lake. We jumped off the diving boards, and…
This summer I’m taking a Biblical Interpretation class. It’s been fantastic. Two weeks ago, the assignment had to do with the book of Mark and the many times the author wrote about Jesus instructing his disciples to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. They begin in Mark 4:35 “On that…
I had intended to write a post on Christian feminism, which I still plan to do. However, the recent events in our country have set my mind on other things. The shootings in El Paso, Texas and in Dayton, Ohio are bone-crushing, devastating events. To continue on with what I had planned to write and…
Recently, the infamous purity culture movement has been all over the internet and in book stores. Nadia Bolz-Weber released a book called Shameless, which I read. Katelyn Beaty responded in a New York Times article. In it she asks a question that I too have been pondering for several years, “What does Jesus think?” Joshua…
There is this story in Genesis 38 about a young girl named Tamar. For the sake of clarity, there are two narratives in scripture about a girl named Tamar, the one in Genesis is the first narrative. After the sons of Jacob sell their brother Joseph into slavery, the brothers went back and began to…
Lucas just walked through the door this afternoon. He finished his final day of eighth grade. He will now tell people that he’s headed into high school, freshman year. Emma is at the nail salon with a friend. She’s finished drivers ed, her freshman year is behind her, and in a few short weeks the…
For the past couple of months I’ve been in a blog series advocating for women in church leadership. We’ve covered biblical interpretation, we’ve talked about Deborah, I wrote on I Timothy 2:8-15, which is a very complicated passage of scripture, and I’ve shared personal stories. This week, I’d like us to consider not just the…
