When I walked into the ballroom where I was to be married, I walked into a crowd of 120 people all standing in honor of me and the ceremony that was about to happen. Their standing gave a sense of gravity to the moment. It felt real and deep. This was important! The crowd seemed …
Today is Good Friday, the day we remember Jesus’s death. We enter into a three-day period of waiting for a very bad situation to turn good. In this season we talk about Jesus “giving his life” in order to save us, but what does that mean? I preached about this at St. James last Sunday, …
I received two notes last week on the day I posted about “Restoration not Retribution.” The first one was from a man who beautifully and articulately described his Christian faith in God and Jesus, along with the Christian practice of communion and its meaning in his own life. He just couldn’t believe that Jesus died …
The first time I encountered the season of Lent a friend of mine invited me to attend his church. I was not a Christian, I thought. I had left the church of my childhood, renounced it, because I had learned that being a Christian was primarily about ideas. And they were ideas that I couldn’t …
Last week we walked the labyrinth at Grace Commons, contemplating the burdens we carry with us into Lent. We picked up a stone as we entered and carried it with us as we wound our way toward the center of the labyrinth. Such a simple act, but so powerful. If you’ve never done it, you …