Sermon: Palm/Passion Sunday - Year C

But for them they knew in their bones that Jesus' story had become their story, and their story had become his. They couldn't beautify the torture of the cross away, and so they didn't picture it, but they also knew something had happened in those holy days that forever transformed their lives. And so that transformation has also come to us, as his followers, too.

When we look to the cross, we know that when we are rejected, he has borne that rejection, we know that when we've failed, he has borne that failure, we know that when we've sinned, Jesus has borne that sin. We know that when we die, he has borne our death....(the whole thing here)

Bear or Sasquatch? You Decide

Tony Campolo on The Hour

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Spring

It’s spring today. Finally. I don’t know about you but this winter seemed longer than usual. It’s like two months were added on to an already long snowy season.

The time change just made things feels weird. It was cold and sunny. It’s taking me a while to adjust to having sunlight deeper into the evening this early in the year.

But hey, at least the snow has melted.

Home again

I’m back. Tired from my trip. With a stack of mail on my desk. 196 emails to answer.

Vacation over.

sigh.

On vacation.

Be good while I'm gone.

Sermon: Lent 2 - Year C

So, Jesus the “lamb of God,” is now Jesus the “hen of God.” The hen who tries to pull the chicks away from their dangerous game of trying to be foxes, knowing that the game will destroy them in the end.

And Jesus didn’t pull this image from the air. After all, I’m told that chickens can’t fly. No, Jesus went down deep to find this image of himself as a mother bird. He went to the Hebrew Scriptures. He probably remembered singing from the psalms, “Hide me under the shadow of your wings, and God will spread wings over you and keep you safe.”

Then he probably heard from Sunday school the part from the prophet Isaiah, “I will protect Jerusalem like a mother bird circling over her nest.

In confirmation class he might have learned the passage from Deuteronomy that says “like an eagle teacher her young to fly, always ready to swoop down and catch them on her back.”

So Jesus is in good company when he compares himself to a momma-bird. And as I look at it, it seems a very appropriate image.

I’m reminded of a story about...(read whole thing here)

Not that I really need it...

Beauty tips for ministers.

via CMS

Shift Happens