On Friday nights, I get a little homesick. For the past seven or so years, every week we gathered at my sister-in-law’s house for dinner with her husband and children. At 6:00 every evening we’d walk in the door and be greeted with gigantic hugs and shouts of joy. We’d place our offering for the…
Ordinary Time
A Seed, A Baby, An Insignificant Life
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that a farmer plants in the middle of their field. Two weeks ago, this farmer in Jesus’s story threw seeds everywhere. Last week, they let the weeds grow with the wheat. And today, our farmer makes another very curious choice. A mustard seed is incredibly tiny,…
In the Weeds
My husband and I moved to Cedar Rapids in October of 2012. At that dreary time of year, everything that had been growing in the flower beds had died away and dusty brown leaves covered everything. That winter was desperately cold… but I knew there had to be something planted in those flower beds. Sure…
Recklessly Lavish, Wastefully Abundant
This past Sunday, I stepped into the pulpit at Immanuel UMC for my first morning as their new pastor. I had actually been in the pulpit before. Working with Imagine No Malaria, this had been one of many churches I had visited over the past year and a half. There was something very different, however,…
How Does Your Garden Grow?
One of my biggest disappointments about moving in the middle of the summer is that I didn’t have a chance to put in a garden. Transporting peas and tomatoes and peppers and squash across the state just doesn’t work very well… not that I had time to plant and weed and care for a garden…
Willing to Yield
I want to start out this morning with a testimony… and I think it is very important that you understand this is not me preaching about what you should go out tomorrow and do… I am simply sharing what my experience of God was this past year. That is an important qualification, because I’m going…
Ships, Horses and Tongues
Jesus and the disciples were traveling along the road when he asked them a question: Who do you say that I am? We heard how Peter spoke out, “You are the Christ!” … but we also heard how merely moments later, Peter began to speak again. He was wavering in his faith, resisting the reality…
Mercy Trumps Judgment
The UnitedMethodistChurch has a mission. We have been called by God to make disciples of Jesus Christ FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD. That last piece… for the transformation of the world… is a recent addition to our mission, but it speaks volumes about who we believe God has called us to be. We believe…