An Off-Road Faith: The Riskiest Thing You Can Do

Rusty stood glowering at my brother and sister-in-law across the yard. It was a bright, sunny day in Kentucky where they had driven from Atlanta to visit a breeder of Great Danes that they had connected with online. When my brother Gill married Annie, it wasn’t in...

An Off-Road Faith: Turn and Follow

About a month ago, I attended the Opening Convocation ceremony at Georgetown University, where my son Liam has begun his first year, and which was the last moment to which parents were welcome as part of the First-Year Orientation. Most universities have an Opening...

Divine Déjà Vu

Yogi Berra, the great philosopher of baseball, once said:  “It’s déjà vu all over again.” But after reading our Old Testament lesson today, I think it was probably God who said it first. It’s déjà vu all over again for God with the Hebrews. Once...

Hard Words to Swallow

In November 2001, I traveled with my brother in Chile. I was a pastor in New York City at the time, and the cumulative weight of responding to the September 11 attacks was weighing heavily on our pastoral staff, so we each swapped out a week’s vacation to recover. I...

An Invitation to Transformation

Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17 The gifted humorist Will Rogers once stated: “About the time one learns to make the most of life, the time is gone.” There’s tremendous truth in this.  We spend a great deal of time trying to clarify our lives, to put it into a coherent...

Together We Can

Scripture: Matthew 14:13–21 Text Focus Sentence: Jesus withdrew to be alone but the crowds followed him and he had compassion on them curing the sick and feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. Sermon Focus Sentence: Jesus instructs the disciples to feed the...