The devil shows up in scripture today. He is going by Beelzebub, which is sort of a great word, even though it is the name of Satan. It rolls off the tongue… Beelzebub. I’d like to invite you all to say it with me, but that might be a little weird in a church. Sometimes
A Treatise on the Devil
Luck in the Kingdom of God: Barsabbas and Matthias
So, there they are, Peter and 10 others sitting in Jerusalem waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them as Jesus had promised. A few days before they had witnessed the Ascension. There they stood on the top of the Mount of Olives as Jesus materialized into heaven; as his physical being became the
Time Changes
Good Evening From Leviticus 23:5: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, (in Hebrew between the evenings) shall be a Passover offering to the Lord.” What a difference a day makes. So much happens during Holy Week both in our scripture reading and in our church life, that when we
Pilgrimages From Home
Not long before the pandemic began last year, some fantastic Epiphanites loaned me three books before we knew what would unfold during these intervening 12 months. “A year later, these three books (kept in Ziploc bags as I do since I worked in a bookstore where we could read any book for free as long
Confrontng Evil When it Lives in the Light
I’ve finished a book recently called The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s a story of a young girl whose brother dies and mother abandons her into foster care. It takes place in Germany during WWII. The town she lands in is Molching, with a family living on the wrong side of the tracks, barely
Aunt Maria and Zeal
“Zeal for your house will consume me.” That is a word I get excited about, zeal. It is a word that gets a bad rap—a zealot, a person blindly compelled by an idea, irrespective of its costs, particularly cost to relationship. I believe zeal means just the opposite. I believe zeal is all about relationship.
The Bigger the Hair, the Closer to Jesus
Good Morning Christians, Seekers, and Friends! Good mornin’ and Howdy! Are you prepared for our big fast on the 29, 30th an 31st of February? Ha ha! Sorry, feeling a little extra joyful today as I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s Have a Heart and what a wonderful night we had with you—even
It’s Okay to Feel What You Feel
Good morning Christians, seekers, and friends! How are you doing this first Sunday in Lent? This time I ask this not as a nice segue way into my sermon – be nice to the people Ruth Anne so they’ll want to listen—but because in my experience, in the average Christian year, we seem to really
Authority and Liberation
Good morning. We have a short piece of scripture today that revolves around the word authority, and so, with the authority vested with me, that is the word that I am going to preach about today. Let’s begin by reviewing where we are: Jesus is in Galilee. He has just begun choosing his disciples. There