This is a vuvuzula. It is a long, narrow horn that really caught on in World Cup soccer matches a few years back. These simple horns can produce up to 120 decibels of sound when you are standing just three feet in front of them. That is as loud as a rock concert or a…
Kenotic Words
worship, sermons, lectionary
The Spirit of Community
This summer at Immanuel, we have been exploring how the Holy Spirit shows up in the lives of characters throughout the scriptures. Today, we find two men who have very different attitudes towards the work of God: the sorcerer and the eunuch. Philip is a deacon, a servant of the church, and he encounters lots…
The Spirit of Kindness
One afternoon when I was serving the church in Marengo, a young woman walked into the church and asked to use the telephone. Not a problem, I said. We talked for a bit and I learned she had just been released from the county jail, was 80 miles from home, and no one was coming…
Rising Strong: Failing and Falling
In this “Rising Strong” series, we have remembered a few things so far about what it means to live as children of the resurrection. First – we have to be ourselves. God has uniquely created us with gifts and skills and has put us in this place for this time. We shouldn’t spend our days…
Rising Strong: Go All In
You know, in churches we like to use words like repentance and transformation – all words for making radical changes in our lives. But, the truth is, the church is often the LAST place change occurs. One of my mentors often reminds me that church is often our escape from rapid change that happens in…
From Everywhere to Everywhere (2.0)
This Sunday, I was making my way back from our bi-annual Global Ministries meeting and so took the opportunity to do a brief rewrite of the message I preached at Ingathering: This quadrennium, I have the honor of serving on our General Board of Global Ministries: Last fall, in our opening worship, we read the…
Scattering Fear and Gloom
Easter Sunday is a rollercoaster of emotions. We felt that as we began worship today… instead of starting with the joy of the resurrected Christ, we began with the despair felt by Mary and the disciples because their Lord and Teacher was no longer with them. You see, for the disciples, Easter morning began with…
Love Is All You Need
As Coptic Christians gathered in Egypt this morning to celebrate Palm Sunday, bombs rocked their sanctuaries. Thirty-six people were killed in the blasts. This week has seen horrific chemical attacks upon the Syrian people, but what is more horrific is that these kinds of atrocities are happening all the time, but only occasionally make it…