Happy New Year!!! I hope and pray 2019 is a great year in your life. Since 1970, the first Sunday in January has been observed liturgically as Epiphany Sunday although January 6th is “The Day of Epiphany.” This year they happen to occur on the same day and date. In...

Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent. We will light the candle of Hope and remember that in the midst of darkness and fear, with the birth of the Christ Child, hope was born. We pray hope will be born in our hearts we prepare for Christmas 2018. Of course,...

Hyperbole is speaking in an exaggerated manner to make or emphasize a point. It is often used in the writing of scripture. Of the gospel writers, Matthew uses hyperbole the most often in the telling of Jesus’ parables. Failure to recognize the hyperbole being used, people often read into the...

This Sunday, many churches around the world will observe the 500th Anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. It will be done to commemorate the act leading to what is called the Reformation when on October 31, 1517, German Monk Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door...

In the 1980s, rappers and comedians came up with something called “drop the mic.” A “mic drop” is the gesture of intentionally dropping one’s microphone at the end of a performance or speech to signal triumph. Figuratively, it was an expression of triumph for a successful event and indicates a...

“Old habits die hard” is an old saying I grew up with. I’ve noticed it’s a very true saying when it comes to legalisms we learned in church. One such legalism many of us learned in church was to be properly dressed when going to church. Even when legalism grew...

Sunday evening, America, once again, experienced the horror of an “unprecedented” mass murder, this time in Las Vegas. What seems to stand out this time is that as of this writing, there’s no known why to this killer’s heinous act. None of the usual markers – mental illness, radicalized terrorism,...

I grew up learning to trust promises from God like “a peace that passes understanding” and “peace in the midst of a storm.” Over the years they have comforted me during difficult and troubled times. Recently my heart has been troubled with the thought: “Is there no end in sight?”...

The assigned gospel story for this Sunday is Matthew’s version of the feeding of the multitude. In reading this familiar passage of scripture again this week, I was struck by the abundance you find in the beginning and the end of the story. The story begins with Jesus, while trying...

As for what was planted on good soil, this refers to those who hear and understand, and bear fruit and produce—in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one.” Matthew...