Sprinkled across the Gospels are scenes that all play out with similar plots. In the presence of his closest friends and followers – the Twelve Apostles, Jesus does something extraordinary. He cures the sick; he cleanses the unclean; he raises the dead. What for Jesus is the stuff of daily ministry understandably leaves the ApostlesContinue reading “Spotting Jesus”
Category Archives: Sermons
By the Lord’s Arithmetic
It’s the kind of banner headline that catches my attention and stops me cold: “How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society.” It tops a compelling essay by the conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks. Long one of my favorites, he well argues that consuming culture bathes the human mind with emotionalContinue reading “By the Lord’s Arithmetic”
Two Worlds Collide
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ How beautiful are the feet of the messenger.” (Isaiah 52:7) My feet hurt. My right knee aches. My left shoulder twinges. Some of my aches and painsContinue reading “Two Worlds Collide”
The Covenant: An Invitation into Lent
The 40-day season of Lent – a time of prayer, reflection, fasting, and repentance – leads up to Easter’s celebration of Jesus’s resurrection. According to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert wilderness before beginning his public ministry. During his wilderness time, Jesus endured and fought offContinue reading “The Covenant: An Invitation into Lent”
For Everything a Season
This past Christmas, we lost Snoopy. A strong gust of December wind knocked him off his perch near our back door – breaking his nose, and thus ending a long and storied career of holiday ornamentation. Julie and I weren’t ready to let Snoopy go, but time and the elements made the decision for us.Continue reading “For Everything a Season”
Entertaining Angels
Late Saturday last, I sat on a folding chair in a quiet room at Northgate Care Center. Seated with me, a wife mourning the loss of her husband, whose spirit having just been freed from his body, lay slightly reclined but peacefully and mercifully still on the nearby bed. Through the small gap of theContinue reading “Entertaining Angels”
Help When You Need It Most
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message at the funeral service for Thomas William “Tommy” Thomson, an elder and patriarch of First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, on Saturday, February 3, 2024. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Jonathan Safran Foer and Scott Hoezee inform the message. Oskar Schell is the lead character in the novelContinue reading “Help When You Need It Most”
Remembering and Finding Hope
Listen to the Word that God has spoken … I am one of the many who’ve witnessed the ferocity of God’s anger. He allowed that I be tossed into the deepest of darkness, where my flesh and skin wasted away, where my brittle bones cracked under the weight of affliction. Bitterness besieged; tribulation enveloped, andContinue reading “Remembering and Finding Hope”
The Bravest Thing We Can Ever Do
Since the start of Advent in mid-November, we’ve been asking an honest question: How does a weary world rejoice? Just exactly how do the pale and downtrodden – everyday folks like you and I – find good reason to shout for joy and bang the drums over the arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem? Particularly soContinue reading “The Bravest Thing We Can Ever Do”
Treasuring and Pondering
This morning’s Scripture lesson offers the Bible’s only account of Jesus as a growing boy. On the cusp of becoming a teen-ager, Jesus and his family are back in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and Mary and Joseph experience every parent’s worst nightmare – they lose track of Jesus and spend a frantic couple ofContinue reading “Treasuring and Pondering”