On that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene felt lost and alone. She had loved Jesus with a holy passion, but now Mary’s deep affection for her beloved felt estranged. Then suddenly her fortunes changed! Outside that Empty Tomb, on that first day of resurrection, she became the first to witness the salvation of the world.Continue reading “Mary Magdeline and Simon Peter”
Category Archives: Sermons
A Closed Room and Thomas
The Lord’s resurrection was still “breaking news.” The empty tomb remained the talk of the town. And the apostles – filled with anxiety, their fear of human enemies proving far stronger than any hopeful word of an empty tomb – self-sequestered behind hefty doors. Then suddenly into their secretive huddle bursts Jesus to deliver aContinue reading “A Closed Room and Thomas”
Emmaus and Galilee
Mere hours after the first reports of Jesus’s resurrection fuel the rumor mill and stir anxious doubt, two of the Lord’s disciples are traveling by foot the 7-mile trek from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Together they walk purposefully and talk non-stop about all these unbelievable things that reportedly have happened at the tomb: Of a heftyContinue reading “Emmaus and Galilee”
Alive, Unbound, and Loosed
For as many times as we’ve heard the Easter story, the whole event still feels, well, kind of farfetched. Perhaps in your head you hold as fact that the lifeless body of Jesus rose from the grave, but during those dark nights of the soul, your heart nonetheless wonders: Can you trust resurrection? That’s whyContinue reading “Alive, Unbound, and Loosed”
More Than Enough
Awash in bad news about the world around us, we are proclaiming good news – God’s Good News – as our Lenten journey to the Cross moves forward. Here’s what our Sunday Scripture lessons have declared already: God’s good news is so good that it catches us by surprise! And God’s good news is greatContinue reading “More Than Enough”
And There’s Still More
In the early Church, Lent was the season when fresh converts to faith prepared for baptism on Easter Sunday. Their lesson plans throughout those 40 days arose from the cornerstone of Christianity – Jesus Christ: his life and ministry, his death and resurrection; his widespread hospitality and his care for the vulnerable; his nourishment forContinue reading “And There’s Still More”
Until Then
Among Minnesota’s supposed 10,000 lakes is the one named Itasca. Its glacially formed, finger-like geography pokes the forested wilderness in rough form of a lowercase “H.” Sandwiched between the city of Bemidji and reservation of the White Earth Nation, the otherwise-ordinary Lake Itasca holds a grand distinction: headwater of the mighty Mississippi River. At itsContinue reading “Until Then”
All Things New
When you’re flying at 30,000 feet, you look out the jetliner window and catch the general contours of the earth below. The details are lost to altitude, but you still get the lay of the land – a general sense of where you are. Even if the navigational aids are small, you nonetheless sense thatContinue reading “All Things New”
Bitter Then Sweet
Perhaps it’s a human symptom of troubled times: Hearts and minds more and more wrapped in thoughts and feelings of nostalgia – sentimental and often-romanticized yearning for the past. When you’re nostalgic, the fond pleasure of precious memory mixes with twinges of sadness for times, places, or people that cannot be recovered. When the termContinue reading “Bitter Then Sweet”
Unsealing the Scroll
If you are-now or ever-were a little kid, do you ever get so excited about telling a story that your words tumble from your mouth like an endless string of run-on sentences? And every one of them begins with “and”?! “And I was walking home from school, and I saw this big fire truck, andContinue reading “Unsealing the Scroll”