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Today is a Sunday with a split personality. It is both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. Colors turn blood red in stark reminder of what lies ahead. Our worship starts with the upbeat Gospel telling of the party atmosphere that erupts when Jesus rides into Jerusalem. It’s a festive affair, complete with a parade routeContinue reading “A Meditation for Palm Sunday”

Wherever the Gospel story takes him, Jesus always seems to attract a crowd. And loudly from that crowd more often than not arises the clatter of grumbling. This morning, nattering and griping erupt over Jesus’s self-invitation to the home of Zacchaeus, the diminutive guest star of our Scripure lesson from the Gospel of Luke. AsContinue reading “Mercy and Righteousness: Jesus Meets Zacchaeus”

Chapters from the Gospel of Luke will be guiding our journey through Lent, beginning this morning with Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem and its Cross of Calvary. In reflecting on and wrestling with these Lukan scriptures, their common thread is the depth of Jesus’s relationships that disrupt the established social, political, and religious dividesContinue reading “Intention and Action”

Demons and the stuff of unclean spirits play the villains in this morning’s Scripture lesson. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, we have an uneasy alliance with such sin and brokenness. We’ve grown quite comfortable naming the demons and unclean spirits in others, while demonstrating far less fortitude in wrestling with our own. ThanksContinue reading “‘Be Muzzled, Be Gone’”

Somewhere along the journey of faith, too many of us get the mistaken notion that following Jesus somehow drapes our lives in an invisible cloak of spiritual bubble wrap that wards off all trial and tribulation. Actual experience proves otherwise: bad and evil things really do happen to good and faithful people. While surely weContinue reading “Angels Attending”

The Christian Church traditionally celebrates 12 days of Christmas from Dec. 25 through Jan. 5, which makes today the fifth day of Christmas. These dozen days inspire the holiday carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” According to its lyrics, the fifth day brings “my true love’s” gift of “five golden rings.” That typically conjures imagesContinue reading “Golden Rings: A Prayer for the Fifth Day of Christmas”

At a place called Marah, the Old Testament prophet Moses – at God’s command – tosses a mere stick into a pool of water too bitter to drink. That cane of wood no sooner splashes the surface when the waters turn sweet: Like the sultry spe-chew of a cold one popped open on a hotContinue reading “How Many Licks?”

Once crimson poppies bloomed out in a foreign field,each memory reminds where brutal death was sealed.The crimson petals flutter down,still hatred forms a thorny crown.– Stanza 1, Remembrance Wise and compassionate God, you know as well as we do that the wounds of war are slow to heal, and sadly, some wounds continue to festerContinue reading “From the Pastor: A Prayer for Veterans Day”

Listen, now, to the Word that God has spoken;listen to the One who is close at hand;listen to the Voice that began Creation;listen even if you don’t understand. At that moment, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and he prayed, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from thoseContinue reading “When Love Finds a Home”

Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message at the funeral for Bill R. Withers, M.D., on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa. Literally until the day he died, Bill actively served as an ordained elder of this church. In the Presbyterian tradition, ordained elders and pastors equally share in leadership,Continue reading “Towel-Waving”