Pepé Le Pew, a cartoon character constantly in search of love, has one major flaw. He’s a skunk! Let’s face it, we do not like even being around people who smell, never mind loving them. Do you smell? Do I? Which brings me to today’s Scripture. Sheep are annoying and smelly. Jesus says He is our Good Shepherd. Now I know this is a metaphor, but we are the annoying smelly sheep. He says He loves us, stink and all. Ponder this idea...
Read MoreIf you were asked to pick an animal that represented you, what would you choose? Would you pick a sheep? My neighbors had three sheep. Ben, Bob, and… Fred. I loved to go visit them. Whenever I did, the results were predictable. If I entered the pen, they ran to the opposite corner. When Steve their owner came in, and called them, they surrounded him. They loved him. I will spare you the details about how smelly there were. The point was they knew Steve, and especially his voice. In today's reading, Jesus uses this analogy and more. Tomorrow we will look at the idea of Jesus as a Shepherd. Today, let’s consider our “sheepiness.”
Read MoreIdeas have power. They move our lives in specific direction. Most of us know the ideas that are guiding us, at least at some level. When challenges comes into our lives these guiding ideas either confirm, confuse, or collapse our world. At times these situations and challenges, often painful, reveal wrong thinking, you might say, crossed-wires. In today's reading from John 9, Jesus exposes "crossed-wire" thinking.
Read MoreSin, not a popular party topic. Not a popular topic at all. It seems that in our world today we don’t talk about sin. Is sin even real? Is sin the invention of religious types to keep the masses under control?
Read MoreWhen we experience pain and loss, we often, maybe even always, want to know “why”. It is our nature. We often think, if we could just understand the “why”, then our pain would diminish. Let me suggest there is a “why”, but it will not diminish your pain.
Read MoreEver wear night-vision goggles? I haven’t. They seem cool. What is not cool is being in the dark. Most of us in the dark slow down and even stumble about. For some, fear of the dark stops them dead in their tracks. The solution is finding and getting into light. Jesus says “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Read MoreHave you ever been caught in a fog? You can have a vague general sense of the area. Maybe you have been in that fog-filled place a hundred times. Yet somehow the fog throws off your bearings. I bring up fog, because in today's reading, that is what the religious leaders of the day are trying to do to Jesus and to those who are wrestling with just who he is. They are trying to encase Jesus in a fog. They are trying to obscure how others will see him...
Read More“Quiet!” yells the frustrated teacher, desperately trying to get their students to settle down long enough to actually hear their instruction. The crowd in today's passage is in a similar condition... There are all sorts of things grabbing their attention. Calling it noise is not meant to devalue it. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Enough with all this noise…hear me…I am the Living Water!”
Read MoreLearning to see through the noise is a mandatory skill in our frenzied world. I find Chapter 7 of John's Gospel to be somewhat “noisy”. I have reread it several times, even outlined it. Why? I want to “see and hear” Jesus. I want to know, “What does Jesus mean when he says certain things?” To help me see and hear, I need to pause at verse 10...
Read MoreMore than a Post-It Note, sticking with someone, through thick and thin is admirable. What does it take? Some of us are good at sticking with people. Some of us know who we should stick with, and who we should not. Maybe a few of you are the “sticky” type, and people stick to you! Either way, are you in a group that is “stuck together”? What does it take?
Read MoreHow do we “proclaim” that we are one with Jesus? We are what we eat. We identify ourselves by that which we take into ourselves. Yes, the language is shocking. Not because it strikes of cannibalism, but because the God that is above and beyond all, is inviting us to have oneness, to have communion, with Him.
Read MoreToday we read that Jesus’ hearers, you know the ones that got in boats and tracked him down to the other side of a lake, are grumbling. Why? Because he says he is their source of security, of eternal food—He is the Bread of Life. And then he presses in. He is offering more than security. He is offering them their destiny.
Read MoreBread of life part 1: When I don’t like something, even if I have never tasted it, my first reaction is to reject it. Many a parent has told their child that what they were eating was chicken, when it was anything but. Some ideas can be especially difficult to swallow, too... the mere suggestion of them can be like an unwelcome odor from an unusual food. Especially if we were expecting something else.
Read MoreIf you could be king/queen for a day, what would you do? Does a list come quickly to your mind? After all, wouldn’t the world be better if you were in charge? I know that is a bit sarcastic, but honesty compels me to admit: I have often become frustrated because I was not in charge! Today we read about Jesus being in complete control.
Read MoreEver driven a manual transmission? Ever sat as a passenger in a race car? (Ever wanted to?) The driver shifts gears, and you know, you just know, things are serious. You feel the power of car. In the section of Scripture we read today, Jesus shifts gears. He's talking to the religious of his day -- the people who presume to speak for God -- and he is calling them out.
Read MoreWhy do I love pondering science? Because science and faith aren't enemies. And thinking scientifically often leads me to wonder about all sorts of non-scientific things, like my purpose, the reason for me being here, love, bravery, and more. On Wednesday 1/31, a Blue moon, Super moon, and Lunar Eclipse will all happen at once. From Harvest Moons, to full moons, to blood moons, to blue moons... we're fascinated by this distant object, aren't we? But do you ever actually think about the moon itself?
Read MoreDistractions -- external and internal -- can stall, paralyze, or even misdirect our efforts. When we read scripture, there are so many things we could notice. I just don’t want us to get distracted. So today, I ask: what do you “see” in John 5:1-18? And what's is the point?
Read MoreReputations are powerful. We certainly need to earn ours. But our reputation precedes us. If you do not know Jesus, if you only know a little about him... if his “reputation is preceding him," can you pause for a moment and consider a couple things?
Read MoreIn our world, we seem to naturally divide. By race, by where we live... even in the same city, we divide by sports teams. Add geography, throw in a railroad track, and well, you know what happens. Today, Jesus goes to what some Jews would say is the wrong side of the tracks.
Read MoreDid you see the pictures of frozen Niagara Falls that were everywhere a couple of weeks ago? Awe-inspiring. When I think about this earth, this big ball we live on, there are so many amazing parts of our lives. Most of them I take for granted. I live day-in and day-out, trundling along, taking some of the most incredible natural aspects of this world, for granted. Consider water.
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