Trying to Find Their Way Home
Pull up a chair. This one is being written by your old uncle, the one you rarely speak to, and that may be too bad because you might have missed something. He is a little strange, sure. Around here, we call him Disco Grandpa. He has been known to chair…
Balaam’s Donkey and the Road We Wanted
Sometimes the problem is not that the traditional lesson is wrong. The problem is that we have become too familiar with it. We hear “Balaam’s donkey,” and our minds go straight to the usual picture: stubborn animal, angry prophet, angel with a sword, and…
Finding Your Way Home
Give me a partially washed-out dirt road with gravel on the side. Not a perfect road. Not a smooth road, or one of those polished streets with painted lines and lights telling everybody exactly when to stop and go. Give me the old dirt road. The one with…
Martha, Mary, and the Sound of One Woman Doing All the Dishes
There are some Bible stories that feel far away until you put them in a kitchen. Then suddenly they are not far away at all. Luke 10:38-42 tells us about two sisters, Martha and Mary. Jesus came into their village, and Martha welcomed Him into her house.…
Grace To You and Peace From God
Last Wednesday, our minister asked if anyone had ever counted how many times Paul opened his letters with the blessing or said, “Grace to you and peace from God.” I had not counted them either. (For the record I count 13.) But the question stuck to me…
You’re Responsible for Your Feet, Not Everybody Else’s Mouth
There are moments when the room starts drifting in a direction you may not want to follow. It could be gossip, crude talk, or it is anger warming itself over a pile of someone else’s business. Those kinds of conversation can takesa hard turn, and before…