When we aspire to be great, we say, "reach for the stars!" Who or what is a star? At first we might think of Hollywood stars. If given another moment, we might begin to think of the heavenly stars above us.   more...

And the people noticed the misery of the psalmist's life and taunted him asking..."Where is your God?" The psalmist was asking the very same thing....for in moments of hardship, depression, unhappiness...we often wonder about God, how God could let this happen, where God is just when we need God most.   more...

Who is this woman who entered the Pharisee's house that she can do the things she does? Isn't she a sinner? Certainly she sees herself and Jesus differently than the Pharisee did and we often do. And Jesus saw her.....   more...

Let's ponder the widow with the ground meal and oil. It had been a hard year. She had just enough to make a meager last supper for her son and herself before they lay down to die from starvation. Using your imagination, let yourself become the widow in the story....   more...

Hot spots, flamers, flash fires, burns, scorched, burn baby burn...What fires you up? Gets you hot!   more...

I am not always careful not to be too critical of the Jewish leaders in the gospel stories. Think of their place in the whole religious structure of their time. Think of the cost to them..to you if you changed your assumptions. The cost of freedom is sometimes pretty high! The implications of Jesus' claims were enormous! It's as though practically everything that was understood about God was wrong. Actually, things haven't changed all that much...   more...

There are many theories about how humor works, but we won't get into that today because analyzing what makes us laugh has been compared to analyzing a frog: it can be done, but the subject tends to die in the process. Still, we can say that laughter fertilizes the brain and it feeds the human spirit. Ah spirit!...   more...

What does devotion smell like? What is the fragrance of deep caring, unselfish love? What does it feel like to have someone pour it out over you? Could a pouring out of devotion ever be wasteful? What does extravagant grace smell like...like nard? Our story finds Mary and Martha and Lazarus with Jesus once again. In joy and celebration they dine -- in stark contrast to the sorrow and loss they had experienced....   more...

You know, I don't even make it into this story....an oversight I'm sure..although maybe Jesus knew it was a much better way to tell the story to get the attention of those Pharisees and scribes..those who think themselves righteous, embedded in their heirarchies...better not to distract them into the wrong debate at this ripe time by including my story at mother in this story of father. But I was there to see it all play out over many months...   more...

After Isaiah: Did you breathe in those images...milk...everyday needs, wine...special delights needed...without price...priceless and free to you! those images...I'm near...come now! Those images...I am as the cycle of life...in due time all my purposes come to fruition..so concentrate on you...release yourself from getting entangled in the deeds of others or figuring it all out.   more...

After the psalm and before the Gospel: It seems the psalmist is much like us...feeling confident...with faith/one with God...one moment and then worrying about the impending doom and gloom he sees at hand the next... God, my light and salvation. A shelter in the day of trouble. Whom should I fear? My heart will not fear. My foes shall stumble and fall. I will sing a melody to the Lord....   more...

Milk and honey, come and go. Here today and gone tomorrow. But when we're in the land of milk and honey, we are tempted to forget it is God who sustains us... wish we could breathe into a spiritual breathalyzer! Now living in such a land, the Hebrew people stop to catch their breath, to remember their story...from where they came, how God provided when life did not, and that the story isn't over.   more...

In a few days we will be making Mardi Gras masks together. They will glitter and shine, be fun and silly and artistic. We will dance with them before the Mardi Gras Queen and King who will throw us candy and necklaces. We party masked. Then to approach "The Service of Ashes", worship God/talk to God, we take off our masks. Same as Moses.   more...

After first reading today's Lucan passage......I invite you to hear the passage again now, more deeply. Hear it as if you were there in the crowd around Jesus..as an observer. Listen to the undertone of the crowd's expectation. That's what Jesus seems to be addresing. Note the two examples Jesus gives of prophets who went to meet the needs of one person in the midst of the needs of many, going to the needs of the outsider, the foreigner, the powerless above the needs of those within the community....   more...

In the Bible, there are so many stories of extravagance and abundance...within God's timing. There was a time when a whole crowd was fed...(with basket). All I had was a basket with a fish or two and some fresh bread..enough to feed my family, and no more. He asked me to share. And before my eyes, and the eyes of several thousand others, there was more than enough as we feasted together..on a blessing...made real in us. An abundance of heaven from the meagerness of earth. In God's timing, just in time really came faith's abundance.   more...

"You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you." When was the last time you felt precious? Honored? Someone said to you, "I love you."? God is saying it to you...this morning, right now, every right now. In the more wondrous moments of being alive, we easily feel it...the feeling of being loved. But are we likely to feel it in the "chaff" moments of life...when waters overwhelm, fire surrounds, details pile up, self-doubt and pity set in, peer pressure pressures us, materialism judges us, family betrays us, church upsets us?   more...

The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem said Yes to the world's No...the Yes of peace to the No of the world's ways and its warring at all levels of life...redefining history, relationship, and what it now means to be whole. And this Yes is now part of your family tree...for you are part of the holy family.   more...

We hear the amazing story of Joseph..his opening to the mystery that is God with us in often unexpected ways! Even with all the generations of expectations before him that defined his life, Joseph puts family aside and thinks for himself..beyond what was playing out in the moment to what coud be in the future.   more...

What do you know of your own birthing story? Do you know the circumstances of your birth? Do you know what was going on in your family at the time of your birth, the mood of your mother or father, the strains and joys that were present? They were born into you as you were born into them. Knowing the stories, we can see more clearly what has been forming us and then more dearly make life choices.   more...

What do you really know about your family tree? Can you name the generations that came before you? What do you know about them...can you sum up your impression of any one of them in a simple sentence or two? Can't Well, know this...even though you may not know the family stories of those who came before you, they are playing out in you right now. Family attitudes...sometimes about very specific things like loyalty at all costs, prejudices, favorites/unfavorites, even divorce patterns and the rights/privileges of children flow through the generations. Yes! You are an off shoot from a branch from a branch from a branch of your family....tree.   more...

I'm singing in the reign....I'm singing in the rain, What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again, I'm laughing at clouds, So dark up above, The sun's in my heart, And I'm ready for love....   more...

There is so much noise in the temple, no one would hear the sound of my two coins hitting the bottom of the temple treasury. What with the scribes walking around, talking amongst the worshipers, the money changers just beyond where the treasury stands...my two coins would never be heard by any of the others. But I know my God has ears to hear and eyes to see...   more...

At Tippe, we celebrate life. Even as someone dies, we celebrate life. And as we celebrate their life, one of the sentences I say graveside is "In God's time and in God's sight, thre is no difference between the living and the dead for life is eternal. We are all part of God's enduring creation throughout ALL time." All of us, all of the time, no end time. Jesus said: Heaven is here and now for those who can see it. How would life live differently if you believed this...this is heaven...life eternal is here and now!   more...

The preacher thumped his fist on the pulpit and cried, "Ya out not to be out there cursing!" "Amen!" chorused the congregation. "Ya out not to be out there gambling!" "Amen!" "Ya out not to be out there bad mouthing others!" "Amen!" "And ya out not be out there over indulging in food and drink, smoking, so obsessed with Packer gemes you're not coming to church..."   more...

We come to worship because we want to become more effective disciples of Christ. Most of us would never say it that way. We would probably say something like: we come because we know there must be "more" to life than what we easily see...and we long to experience God (hoping the stories of Jesus will connect us to God). We come because we long to bring the power of faith to our lives....   more...

You can almost hear the sound of discouragement in Jesus' voice when He says, "What were you guys arguing about?" I wonder if His shoulders dropped as they had no immediate response...the second time not one of them responded.   more...

On the surface, these stories in Mark look to be stories about healings. Look deeper and you see these are really stories of faith and truth...facing our own truths about ourselves, and having faith in ourselves as God does...faith we can make a difference in our own lives. These are stories about how two people of faith climbed a mountain of truth....a sacred mountain.   more...

After the wind had ceased and there was a dead calm, Jesus fell back asleep. They waited until they were sure by His breathing and stillness that He was asleep. Then they huddled close together to talk. "Who is this man!? Did you see what just happened? What have we gotten ourselves into...."   more...

How can these things be? That's Nicodemus' question. If God is for us, how can these things be? How can Cindy die from cancer? How can Jim commit suicide when he has two beautiful children to father? How can Ann be in such pain when all her life she has brought joy and laughter to everyone? How can someone as able as Sue be unable to find work? How can Sam's famly be facing the loss of their home? How can these things be?   more...

On fire! We're on fire! Be on fire...but don't burn others...perhaps that could be one of Pentecost's messages combining grace with passion!! Have you ever visited a congregation that was on fire with the Spirit? Did they seem different? Were they acting differently or doing things out of the ordinary? Did it make sense to you?   more...

Can you ever really know anyone? Even yourself? In today's wisdom teaching, who do you know better...the other sheep? the fox...maybe more commonly known as the neigh-sayer or trickster...Do you know better the hired hand? the shepherd?   more...

You gave me room when I was disturbed, angry. Room to be me, to move through my feelings, to reflect on the situation...breathing room..to discover who I am..all I can be.   more...

Reflection: "The Gift of Vigil. Looking on from a distance were the women who had traveled with him and provided for him....folloiwng him in word and deed. How terrifying and gruesome that scene must have been! His pain must have been as palpable as the mornining dew or the noon day's darkness. How unbearable....an yet they stayed!   more...

Jesus revealed His secret heart to God. He did not hide His trouble from God, but went right to God with it...revealing His secret heart so His spirit would be sustained. And He believed and God spoke to Him. In your secret heart what might you hear God say to you..if you reveal the trouble of your soul/heart?   more...

What are you afraid of...your worst fear? It's always looming over us out there in the desert of our lives...isnt' it? Throughout time, people have always known fear and suffered for their fears and grumbled about thier lives. In the desert of their lives, the people of Israel complained about not having enough food but what was really at the center of their complaining was their fear they wouldn't survive...or maybe that, in the end, all the sacrifices wouldn't be worth it--a scary thought.   more...

As we move through this economy and the emerging culture that surrounds it, everything looks different. But one thing remains the same...and maybe more so. That would be the number of conversations I hear where people are expressing their anger.   more...

Jesus laid his hands on him twice...perhaps healing is a process, not a product...maybe miracles have more than one part/one stage to them....laid his hands on him tiwce, the man looked intently...the Greek says the man looked up...and his sight was restored. Up. Not down surveying himself, but up and out...might that be gratitude and a growing perspective on life?   more...

If you are a part of one then you know they can't do anything unless...you do it! But then again, they help you do it! As we join movements, we often become aware of our own power. Usually....our power frightens us...usually because when we allow ourselves to be aware of our power and use it, we have to face the fact that we are more responsible for our lives being the way they are than we would like to believe.   more...

How do you frame the events of your life? What's worth framing? Where is your focus...What's in and out of the picture? If someone came into your day and took a snapshot now and then what would you see yourself doing?   more...

What is God thinking...How does God frame life?...creation in process? God is thinking that we don't need to rush ahead to Christmas, there is plenty to do right here and right now in Advent. Waiting is not about passive resting or maintaining the status quo until something definitive happens...   more...

We enter a fallow time when God invites us into The Fallow Way - We enter God's way of holy rest and restoration. We lean into the mystery of what lies just beneath the surface of our lives and prepares us for growth.   more...

The story is told of a man in Italy whose son was estranged from him after a big fight. A few months passed without word. Finally, the father posted a notice all around Rome. It said, "Palo, I forgive you. I’m sorry. I love you. Please meet me at the square, Saturday at 3pm." That Saturday, 800 young men named Palo appeared at the square at 3pm…we all want to come home…we all want the love of our parent…and so often we need a reality nudge in order to be able to take that first step…something to rock our boat so we set sail again…toward that new horizon…of truth WITH acceptance. Today’s story is a familiar one…   more...

The gardener in the parable asks the owner to give a second chance to this tree that has not yet produced any fruit. The gardener knows things are not right with the tree and that it needs a change of conditions. Don’t’ you….need a change of conditions? It needs some room to take root, some wiggle room, some nurture and food in order to flourish…don’t you? Doesn’t your spirit call out for some space so you can take root in new ways and try on some new ways of being. We all long for nurture and sustenance cause so far life hasn’t bloomed for us quite the way we want it to. Don’t you want a second chance, too?   more...

Milk and honey, come and go. Here today and gone tomorrow. But when we’re in the land of milk and honey, we are tempted to forget it is God who sustains us. Now living in such a land, the Hebrew people stop to remember their story…from where they came, how God provided when life did not, and that the story isn’t over. Together they find strength in the story and together they rejoice in the moment. Confessing their faith, they...   more...

In a few days, we will be making Mardi Gras masks together. They will glitter and shine, be fun and silly and artistic. We will dance with them before the Mardi Gras Queen and King who will throw us candy and necklaces. We party masked. Then to approach "The Service of Ashes", worship God/talk to God, we take off our masks. Same as Moses. When Moses is in the presence of God, he goes just the way he is. In those God moments   more...

These are anxious times. Politicians play on our fears. It seems there isn’t enough of most anything to go around and so we better get what we can as fast as we can. We pit ourselves against one another rather than lean into each other’s gifts and needs. There’s a lot of pressure to be right…and we’re often seduced by the mistaken notion that there is only one right way to do everything. These are anxious times. The higher the anxiety, the more likely we will be lulled into a "cause and affect" world view, one that eliminates shades of gray or rainbows of colors…one that blames victims for their circumstances, while, at the same time, rarely names those who consciously, with ulterior motives, shape our "mis"-perceptions of reality….we rarely name what’s going on as misguided let alone worshipfully work to counteract it. During anxious times, people hide….from themselves mostly I think…out of fear….we have lost our nerve and suffer for loss of nerve of our leaders. Where are our leaders?   more...

Jesus’ words of assurance to Simon…and to you and me….are "Don’t be afraid. From now on you’ll be catching people." …not prizes, accolades, a list of accomplishments, comfort, security, a bigger salary. Your worshipful work in your everyday life, no matter what your job is…is to catch people and bring them up out of the waters and have them join you in   more...

So often we act out with the people we’re closest to…because it feels safer…they can’t leave us easily…wouldn’t really hurt us or push us back…so we think. This kind of anger sabotages life and is the underbelly, the shadow side, of trust. It is trust broken. It shatters lives! And then, here come the words on "love" from Corinthians. If you really listen to Paul’s words, it becomes clear "love" doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with feelings. Love, instead, is   more...

It says Jesus put his fingers in the deaf man’s ears. Usually that’s what we do when we don’t want to hear what’s being said. But Jesus does it as the beginning of restoring this man’s hearing….his opening up to a new possibility and new speech…and Jesus does so in private. Hmmmnn…. I like that Jesus takes him aside…for privacy…perhaps   more...

At the wedding, Jesus wasn’t so sure initially that the time was right for him to share his true identity. In our lives, it is hard for us to know what to do when, too! But even being unsure, he stayed in the midst of the party, the confusion, the demands made of him, the grumblings…he stays and something comes to him that allows him to know the time is right for him to react differently….a model of staying along side.   more...

Midrash…Wise Ones Long ago, women of wisdom from all over the earth began to gather together: mothers and grandmothers, sisters and daughters, cousins and aunts. They converged in order to witness and to midwife the birth of a holy little girl-child of mid-Eastern descent…perhaps an Iraqi.   more...

Opening to God is a life art. Before you can open, you have to be willing to open…. Be opened, willing to make a space for something new in our lives which often means letting go of something old…something that doesn’t fit…that keeps life from coming together and keeps us from articulating that which we really desire…really can be.   more...

The art of opening to the mystery. Fancy yourself an artist….for this is surely what each of us is…a life artist. The root meaning of the word "art" comes from "ar" means to join, fit together, to sense and articulate. All we are is about trying to join together the aspects of our lives so they fit…make sense…we seek to make sense of what is and what can be…which gets articulated it in all we do….consciously or not. Life is an art.   more...

What we have here is a failure to communicate! Jesus and Pilate are talking on two different planes and never the two shall meet…almost like they are talking about two different things….they are! Pilate is talking about power. Jesus is talking about truth.   more...

Where Jesus is open and affirming and inclusive, these others are often closed, absolute, and exclusive. They see things in terms of black and white where Jesus sees rainbows of choices. Be alert! Popularity and decisiveness are not necessarily hallmarks of wisdom or insight.   more...

But I know my God has ears to hear and eyes to see…. I see myself joy-filled at the sound of these two coins adding to the treasury. In so much of my life it feels like I have little choice, but here I have a choice. I am free to give…I find such freedom choosing to give. I can look at myself in the mirror and see my very best self no matter what anyone else sees…whatever anyone else may think of me or my giving. It has nothing to do with the others, really….   more...

Lord, I’m not big enough to touch and be touched! …at least not on my own. The giving and receiving scares me. What if I disappoint somebody? What if I’m too pushy? What if I linger too long? What if somebody ignores me? What if somebody truly sees me….and touches me? Lord, sometimes I’m not so sure that I deserve to be touched or that I am worthy of touching someone else….because so much of my own life feels out of control…and no one knows about my shortcomings the way I do!   more...

Jesus says, "What do you want me to do for you?" What do you? Bartemaeus answers, "My teacher, let…LET…me see again." Even if Jesus lets him see, it’s still up to Bartemaeus to open his eyes and look. God makes possibilities; we make realities!   more...

Jesus says, "The cup that I drink, you will drink" (it gets harder before it gets better because I am asking you to buck the system not for the sake of bucking, but for your sake and the sake of others….people are more important than systems, traditions, habits).   more...

God calls us to live our lives beyond what laws expect of us. Laws don’t bring justice, people do! It’s awe…not law…we are to aspire to and ascribe to in our lives!   more...

Jesus came for a time such as this…he comes for times such as these…he comes to places in your life and in our world where fear and dread have overwhelmed you, made it difficult for you to see how things could ever be different…to the point that you sometimes have not only given up…   more...

There is no such thing as an ivory tower. Wisdom is not gained by separating yourself from the everyday concerns of life. Wisdom is only available to us in the very midst of the busyness of life, in the cultural and economic heart of things. Wisdom that is of God...   more...

… that’s all Jesus ever did…one thing…one thing at a time….and he changed a world. It can change you. You can change you, one thing at a time…..if you put aside your fear, your worry….your anxiety.   more...

Clarity…gaining some clarity on some things….gaining some perspective….developing some insight….standing back to get a better look. Seeing through…people, a task, my emotions, the window, my true motives. Advent’s clarity is a window to our souls. And   more...

How many times do I have to tell you? How many times do I have to remind you? Put the top back on the toothpaste. It's your turn to do the dishes, take out the trash, mow the lawn, set up the chairs, do coffee hour, the deadline is the first Thursday of every month, your stereo is too loud, your report is due. How many times do I have to tell you? .........Funny thing about these warnings....they represent the tension between frustration and love....   more...

What a lopsided story this David and Goliath! We all love cheering for the underdog--hoping the unexpected will prevail, especially when the unexpected is good. But that's not quite what this story is about (good guy vs bad guy) ...for David is not a underdog in his own eyes, or in the eyes of God. This is a story of the power of God to defeat the Goliaths of this world....with a little help from God's friends. The question for us is:   more...

Mark's gospel tells us that Jesus chose to speak in parables. Some people find that very annoying, or maybe think Jesus is a trickster. Why didn't Jesus come right out and say what he meant?   more...

As I thought about defining the Divine I found myself humming…. What’s love got to do with it? But more to the point what's...   more...

Jesus was an amazing weaver. He wove together the stories of the Old Testament with new insights. He wove new life from the broken lives of individual people. He wove together the lives of those who heard him teach, giving them a sense of the power they have to   more...

...These words of wisdom are for us and we feel their truth deeply (we know!)...and yet we do "fear and fail" to love. We are afraid to really love....we fear fully loving those we know...let alone those we don't know. Why? Why are we afraid to love?   more...

Who do you really know? Do you even know yourself? Who do you know better….   more...

You gave me room when I was in distress. Room to be me, to move through my feelings, to reflect on the situation…..breathing room….to discover who I am….all I can be. And my part in receiving this great gift is simply to   more...

A pastor in California told a wonderful story about a little girl named Nicole who was as excited about Easter as she had been about Christmas Eve. This caught her father off guard. And so, her father wanted to be sure she understood what Easter was all about and so he asked her, "Do you know what Easter means?" She said, "Yes!" So he asked her, "Nicole, what is Easter about?"   more...

Looking on from a distance were the women who had traveled with him and provided for him…..following him in word and deed. How terrifying and gruesome that scene must have been! His pain must have been as palpable as the morning dew or the noon day’s darkness. How unbearable….and yet they stayed! They stood vigil with him right through his pain.   more...

God, rainbows are a sign of Your covenant with us always. If only I could hang onto the rainbow and put it in my pocket as a reminder You are with me! Instead, I hang on to things I shouldn’t…   more...

Elijah, the prophet/the collective memory of all that has gone before, and Moses, the law with its intention for good,…and Jesus….together on a mountaintop….and James and John and Peter are there! And Peter ...   more...

Jesus was speaking a "Yes!" He was offering grace/healing…free of charge. He was sharing the Word with the crowd, a crowd so big it overflows into the house, they were crammed IN the house. The paralyzed man and his friends couldn’t even get to the front door, let alone in it. Now, these weren’t just any people   more...

A Monologue…a woman of the time speaks: The hardest part…I would imagine…would be the loneliness….for the lepers, loneliness. But it’s not just the lepers. It’s not just them. I’m not a leper, but for me, too, it is…   more...

Paul is not a slick politician putting on different faces to persuade different people…two-faced we call it today, saying what someone wants to hear in order to get them to come on board….that is a modern take on the story as we hear it through 21st Century cynical ears.   more...

Those were such anxious times….and Paul simply points to the obvious: Stop doing the things you’re doing the way you’re doing them. That’s what’s making you so anxious! You say your anxiety level is zooming out of control and yet you continue to do things the way you’ve always done them.   more...

Clarity…gaining some clarity on some things….gaining some perspective….developing some insight….standing back to get a better look. Seeing through…people, a task, my emotions, the window, my true motives. Advent’s clarity is a window to our souls. And a chance for a do-over life. To be free to be the really, real you.   more...

The psalmist rejoices that even in the midst of hard life realities, God is God and God invites us to enter into God’s presence, heaven on earth really, enter through the gates of righteousness. To be righteous is to be a living manifestation of divine justice. So, on the way to heaven, you must pass through justice. No justice, maybe no heaven.   more...

Long before the time of John the Baptist, baptism was practiced in Judaism. Within the Jewish tradition, baptism was a ritual cleansing required of Gentiles who wished to become Jewish. John, himself a Jew, went far beyond that meaning. For him, it’s not just a matter of cleaning up your act. It was not just for those who had not yet “joined the right religious club”. For John, baptism was personal, not about being in or out of any club.   more...

Sometimes it seems we so willingly settle for less, as if we’re not worth it!…even when L’Oréal tells us all that we are! Sometimes I think we are more likely to take our clues about our self worth from corporate advertising messages than from our faith and our God who has made us, each one, wonder-full!   more...

So the new Christians, gentile converts attending house churches, are rejoicing in this new spiritual experience of faith, but some problems exist. So many of them are struggling (still struggling despite their faith) with problems of the flesh…   more...