A phrase I don’t remember hearing until this pandemic is the phrase, “super spreader.” This is a person, group, or gathering that can later be traced as the source of a major outbreak. For example, in February 200 people from around the country and world gathered at the biotech company, Biogen, and at least one […]

As this pandemic drags on, people are increasingly tired, lonely, afraid, annoyed, and angry. Many are despondent about the present and pessimistic about the future. Life can be hard enough under normal circumstances, and nothing has felt normal for a while now. And in the midst of all of that, people are craving good news. […]

If you’ve spent a little time in the gospels, you might remember that every gospel writer, when talking about John the Baptist, reference the same passage from Isaiah 40. Here’s Luke’s account.4 “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.The crooked […]

There is a certain rat race redundancy to life “under the sun” that Ecclesiastes 1 captures brilliantly.  9What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.10Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”?It was here already, long ago; it […]

Much of the sermon on Sunday focused on an odd sermon topic–the wearing of masks. But the rhetorical question I continued to ask on Sunday was this: When is a sermon about masks not really about masks? The answer: When it’s about God’s mandate to love–the guiding principle of golden rule, greatest command living. As Jesus […]

One of the most referenced sermons of Jesus comes from the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the section known as the Beatitudes. As one reads each blessing, it’s easy to accept them as a distant reward for living  well. However, if one were to replace the term “blessing” with “happy,” a new interpretation is possible. […]