Local television news has shared with us the story of two Clydesdale horses, the breed that pulls the red Budweiser beer wagon, breaking out of their pasture, pushing down fences, and wondering on to a frozen lake in the Poconos. That frozen lake was not solid enough to hold these 1,500 lb horses and they […]

Jesus read in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth from the prophet Isaiah, CHapter 60: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to […]

When Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, we are told that the heavens were open and the Spirit of God descended.  When we are baptized into the Body of Christ, into Jesus, then, to the heavens are open and we say to the newly baptized “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked […]

Psalm 80, verse 3, verserse 7, verse 19 – Restore us [Reconcile us], O God of Hosts; Show us the light of your countenance and we shal be saved. To compromise is to meet somewhere toward the middle of two differing perspectives.  To reconcile is to move to the correct position, the right position.  In being […]

A community has always been an important building block for all human society.  We now have so many ways to stay connected – email, facebook, twitter, facetime on our smartphones and computer screens.  Of course, the more traditional means of a letter and phone calls are still available.  Our connections enhance our sense of belonging […]

Jesus, standing before Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem, on Maundy Thursday, said this when asked if he was a king: You say that I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. For the last Sunday of the church year, this is […]

Most of us are in the midst of the holiday frenzy of gift purchasing.  And after they are selected and purchased, they then need to be wrapped.  Some people are artful wrappers, me, not so much.  Perhaps that is because most of our gifts are opened by children, and they can’t unwrap quickly enough. One […]

When in the 4th century B.C. voices in ancient Israel were calling for racial purity, even to the extreme of abandoning “foreign wives and their children” (Ezra 10), the small book of Ruth was written.  It described an earlier time of famine when Naomi and her husband and sons migrated to the land of the Moabites […]

The story of blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, found in the gospel according to St. Mark, is one of my favorites.  Bart is one of the very few encounters of people along the way with Jesus that is identified by name.  Scholars suggest that this is because Bart became a disciple of Jesus and was […]

In times such as ours, when people shopping, people at yoga, people worshiping are attached, to be reminded of the promised love God is essential for our health.  I think God makes this promise to us: I take you to be my companion, “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for […]