The (Lieben)GOOD LIFE

One of the more interesting, and often neglected, themes in the New Testament is that of the wilderness. For a number of New Testament authors, they look to the wilderness as a helpful way of understanding what Jesus has accomplished and as a way of fomenting Christian identity and mission. To be clear, the wilderness these New Testament authors have in mind is Israel's sojourn out of slavery from Egypt and towards their inheritance, the Promised Land. This journey is cataloged in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and remembered in a variety of Psalms (e.g. 95, 105, 106). But it is important to note that in the Old Testament itself the Exodus story becomes the paradigm for a future restoration that will impact not only Israel but also the entire world. In a variety of ways, Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and Zechariah speak of a day in which God will again redeem His people from exile and slavery and fulfill His co...

Psalm 16 Acts 2.14a, 22-32 1 Peter 1.3-9 John 20.19-31 Maybe you’ve heard this story before.  If so, don’t stop me! In my last week in Scotland, Luke Tallon and I decided to “bag a few Munros”. There are 282 Monros in Scotland, mountain peaks that are over 3000 feet in height. When you climb one of those summits, you “bag it” in Scottish parlance.  When Luke and I pulled up to the trailhead it was a rare clear and sunny day in the highlands. We could see for miles; not a cloud in the sky. What a day to climb some of the highest peaks in the Scottish highlands; I was looking forward to the views!  Since it was so clear with no sign of clouds anywhere,  we decided to leave the compass in the car, along with our rain gear.  Rather than follow the well-worn, perhaps 500 year-old  path to the top that meandered to the peak at about a 30 percent grade, we decided to face the mountain--climbing over cregs and heather at about a 500 per...

A Homily for Easter 2020 Psalm 118.1-2; 14-24 Acts 10.34-43 Colossians 3.1-4 John 20.1-18 Christos anesti; alithos anesti! Christ is risen; He has risen indeed! But, to borrow from the guy who saw the double rainbow,  what does it mean? What does that mean for our lives? What does that mean for our understanding of who God is and what he is up to in this world? What does it  mean for how we ought to live today and everyday? One of the surprising themes that unites our Scripture lessons for this Easter is the fact that there was so much confusion, so much misunderstanding surrounded Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we have been paying attention to all of our readings this week, they are all clothed with deep misunderstandings. Our Psalm 118 reading reminds us that the builders rejected the cornerstone (118.22). That is, those that were called to build up the people of God, those who were called to ready the people for the Messiah that was to bring salvatio...

Dear One Hope Presbyterian, Holy Week has always been special for our church. Although we are only seven-years old, we already have some rich traditions that have been woven into the fabric of our shared life together: our Maundy Thursday evening service, where remember the Lord's exhortation to love one another as He has loved us, and where we celebrate the Eucharist, or Communion together; our "Stations of the Cross" meditation on Friday, where we recall the Passion Narrative from the Gospel of Matthew (from memory!) as we journey to the cross (around the pond at LETU); and of course, our sunrise service at the Buckeye, where we celebrate that "He is risen indeed" while welcoming the dawning sun. (We also look forward to watching Charles and Titus pull cars out of the mud!) Together with you, we are disappointed that these traditions will not be the same this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many things that we do not understand about the Coron...

In times like this it is good to acknowledge and confess that we feel anxious, vulnerable, helpless, and threatened. It is precisely in these times that we often become, out of a desire for self-preservation, our worst enemies. We turn inward to ourselves; we are tempted to trust in our capabilities, our ingenuity, our ability to solve problems--particularly through technology, medicine, and science. While we can give thanks to God for these gifts, we must always remember that apart from God and His life we can do nothing. This Holy Week I have been meditating on the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17), Jesus' last words to his disciples just prior to his heinous murder on the cross. If ever a man was vulnerable and threatened, it was Jesus at this time. It deeply salutary to meditate on Jesus' last words, to consider what he regards to be the most important things to remember in times of danger and vulnerability. I love that he does not offer false hope: "you will ...

Psalm 130 Ezekiel 37.1-14 Romans 8.6-11 John 11.1-45 What Are We Waiting For? What are we waiting for? That is a question we have all asked in the past several weeks! As we complain about, and perhaps even debate,  the shelter-in-place order and all the ways it has inconvenienced our lives and impacted our futures, we are left waiting. Waiting for the virus to run its course; waiting for the spread to end; waiting to get back to work; waiting for more bandwidth; waiting for the rain to stop so we can go outside; waiting for the day we can see our friends; waiting for the time when we can be together again and pass the peace after sharing in the life of God at the Eucharist table.  Our texts for this Fifth Sunday in Lent remind us of what we are ultimately waiting for: the restoration of all things; the defeat of death; the promises of God to become actualized. The circumstances surrounding COVID-19 remind us that we are still in the wilderness. (In the prosp...

Psalm 23 1 Samuel 16.1-13 Ephesians 5.8-14 John 9.1-41 Our Good Shepherd Sees for Us To say that these past few weeks have been unsettling, disruptive, and challenging would be an understatement. I've never experienced anything like this in my lifetime.  In the spirit of Lent, and in the presence of God I have asked-- What am I learning about myself in these times ? And, What are You, God,  teaching me in these circumstances ?  One of the more unsettling themes that has come up over and over again in the past few weeks is my inability, our inability,  to see.  Our modern self has been conditioned, trained and educated, to think that we have more control over things than we actually do--that we can see things more clearly than we actually can. And yet on occasions like this,   real reality breaks into our lives to remind us otherwise.  We can't see the Coronavirus. That is to say that we don't know exactly where it is, or w...