Ephesians 1:15-23 Luke 24:44-53 When we think about where God resides, we have a tendency to think “up.” Humans understand things spatially. We know where things are in relation to other things. So this kind of spatial thinking extends to our thoughts about other-worldly things too. Heaven is up in the sky. Whenever we think of God, or our loved ones in heaven, we want to look up. There is an old movie made in South Africa called The Gods Must Be Crazy. A man named Xi lives in a hunter-gatherer society, far away from the industrialized world we live in. One day an empty glass Coke bottle falls at his feet – a pilot threw it from his plane. Xi has never seen anything like this before. He assumes it is a gift from the gods, because it fell from the sky. So Xi takes it back to his village […]
Continue readingMonth: May 2026
For Keeps
1 Peter 3:13-22 John 14:15-21 One Sunday years ago I took a small group of college students to a little Quaker church. Actually, it’s called a meeting house. This was in Millville, Pennsylvania, the Millville Friends Meeting, which has been there a long time – since 1795. It is a very small, simple, old building with plain wooden pews. In the front of the room there’s no pulpit because most Quakers don’t have preachers. They are known for worshiping in silence and waiting on the Holy Spirit to speak to them. When someone feels inspired by the Spirit to share something, he or she will simply stand up and say what is on their heart and mind. There were a couple of long benches in the front of the room that faced the pews, sort of like a choir loft, I guess. We were invited to sit there so that […]
Continue readingWith Steadfast Love
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 John 14:1-14 Lyndon Johnson had a long and prolific career in elected politics before he became president. He represented Texas in the House of Representatives for 12 years, then the Senate for another 12 years. Johnson was well-loved in Texas for serving his constituents well, especially in and around Johnson City. Back when I lived in Texas, driving through this area of the Texas Hill Country, I noticed a surprising number of little rest stops along the road. They weren’t fancy like the rest areas we are used to now, with all kinds of amenities for weary and bored travelers. These rest areas consisted of a couple of picnic tables and benches, a trash can. They were well-tended and attractive. And they popped up about every mile or so. One could argue that this was excessive, a profligate number of rest stops. But no one could ever […]
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