Easter’s hope is not only of life resurrected after Christ’s death or  the death of loved ones or even ourselves in the hereafter; I believe it is also the profound promise of life - our lives – in the here and now, resurrected from fear filled dead ends and transformed through love forevermore....

          “Who will roll away the stone?!” they ask; half asleep, tired, filled with grief, fear and doubt, hurt, anger, and disappointment. “Who will roll away the stone?!” Last week’s triumphal entry is little more than a memory. Joyful cries of “Hosanna!” lost amid the betrayal and humiliation, denial and pain. Mos...

          Eleven years ago Palm Sunday fell on April 1st – April Fools’day. We were in the early stages of forming a new church and spent each Sunday visiting different worshipping communities. That morning we visited a congregation on the North side of Chicago. Arriving 20 minutes before the start of worship, big rai...

          How much might you bid for a $20 bill?  $1? $5? $10 maybe?  Well, several years ago a business school professor says that she began her class by asking this very  question. She tells the story of opening one class with the $20 auction.  Many people participated early on, as the bidding approached $20 most dr...

          Perhaps it goes without saying, however we are living in a time when our word is increasingly divided, our nation is fragmented and our communities falling apart.  All the technology that connects us makes it easier and easier for us to choose the programing, the kind of new and the information with which we...

          From a practical perspective our table manners say a lot about who we are and what we believe about ourselves and others, love and life.  In our dining rooms and living rooms, coffee shops and lunch counters, at school and work, fellowship hall and especially at the communion table who do we invite? Welcome?...

          As our country, communities and world become increasingly broken, fragmented and divided how might we respond to the fear and violence, extreme poverty and prejudice, hot button issues and knee jerk reactions how are we to respond to the questions, challenges and crises we see? And for a community such as  o...

         No one knows when or where or even how she came by it. Only that at some time or another, Mother Theresa found this simple this poem about loving one another, which begins…  “People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered - Love them anyway.” She enlarged it, nailed it to the wall in the lobby and rais...

          From the second letter of Corinthians, hear this powerful affirmation: no matter how filled with doubt, uncertainty, or fear you may be or feel; no matter how misunderstood or persecuted you may feel; no matter how afflicted in mind, body or spirit you may be; You have everything you need to live joyfully, p...

          Whoever you are, wherever you are on your life or spiritual journey, God is with you! Cares for You! Loves You!  God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit lifts up the weak, empowers the powerless, and renews hope among the weary, lost and hopeless.  

         This is th...