God Is Greater

Heard this recently:  Two men who were next-door neighbors decided to go sailing while their wives went Christmas shopping. While they were out in the boat, a terrible storm arose. The sea became very choppy and they had a difficult time keeping the boat under control. As they steered toward land, they hit a sandbar […]

All the talk among adults at Christmas is about gift-giving.  What will we buy/make/give to our friends, family, loved ones, and especially to our children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.  I wonder if the kids might not have it right.  For them, Christmas is more about gift-getting than gift-giving.   Religion asks us to give to God […]

Shalom (the Hebrew word most often translated “peace”) is never a negative.  It never refers to the absence of something (war, crime, hatred, racism).  Rather “shalom” refers to everything needed for life to be whole, complete, attaining the highest good. During this week of Advent peace, pray not for the end of violence, but for […]

The Bible (in Luke 3:1-6) says the following:  “Tiberius Caesar had been ruling for 15 years. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. Herod was the ruler of Galilee. His brother Philip was the ruler of Iturea and Traconitis. Lysanias was ruler of Abilene. Annas and Caiaphas were high priests. At that time God’s word came […]

In her book Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard marvels at the nonchalant way in which most Christians come the church.  We come to carpeted and comfortable sanctuaries filled with padded pews.  Everything is orderly and neat, tied down, and respectable.  Yet, says Dillard, if we really know much about the Bible and what […]

Several years ago a hydroelectric dam was to be built across a valley in New England.  The people in a small town in the valley were to be relocated because the town itself would be submierged when the dam was finished.  during the time between the decision to build the dam and its completion, the […]