In today’s parable, Jesus is in the middle of teaching his disciples one last time. He is only days away from his crucifixion in Jerusalem, days away from leaving them, days away from his death. Jesus wants to make sure they are prepared for life after he is gone. He is asking these people to…
Build the Church Again
It is the last Sunday of the fair. The final Sunday of the Olympics. The last Sunday before the school year starts for our children. And the final Sunday of our Summer of the Prophets. It might be hard to believe it, but this summer we’ve covered about 400 years of biblical history. We’ve…
The Beloved Community
Today, we enter the world of Micah… a prophet from the late 8th century… just over 700 years before Christ. And to put ourselves in Micah’s shoes, I want you to imagine with me for a moment a world that is under great stress. Imagine pressure coming from an aggressive empire or state that believes…
Prophets and Politics
This was incredibly powerful. Preaching through the prophets this summer, I’m continually struck by the demands for justice that are mandated for ALL of us who want to follow God. Care for the vulnerable, the orphans, the poor, the marginalized. The call to lay our power and prestige aside for another because it’s not…
Pride and Humility
I didn’t plan it this way intentionally, but I find it providential that we are talking about humility and pride on the weekend in between our two national political conventions. Each party competes to see who can blow the most hot air and puff themselves up the most. They will talk up their achievements and…
Lamentations and Investments
I must confess it was difficult to pick just one passage from Jeremiah and in the light of the events of this week, I wasn’t sure that I picked the right one. I wondered if I should have chosen from Jeremiah 8 and 9: Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?…
Light of the World
The prophet Isaiah is a difficult person to pinpoint. Unlike some of the other prophets we have covered so far, where we understood who they were and when they were speaking, there has been great debate about whether the entire “Book of Isaiah” was in fact written by one person. Whether the book is all…
God’s Love Never Fails
This is our fourth week with the prophets of the Old Testament, and one of the things I hope you realize is that they weren’t all the same. Every single one of them were called by God to share the word in radically different ways. Elijah was called to do battle with other prophets. Elisha…