Sunday, February 1, 2026 – Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12 Our first reading today is a well-known section from the Book of Micah. Who was Micah? He was a minor prophet in the 8th-century BC from Judea, known for defending the poor against corrupt leaders and warning of God’s judgment on […]
Sunday, January 18, 2026 – Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 40:1-11, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42 Years ago, I found myself on a journey that changed the way I think about faith and community. In my church in Marietta, Georgia, I joined a small group study based on the book The Edge of Adventure: An Experiment in
Sunday, December 21, 2025 – Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25 How many of you have a dog? I used to have two dogs. Now I have two cats who I love my cats very much, but I miss my dogs. Sometimes that feeling is so intense that my heart literally hurts.
Sunday, August 17, 2025 – Jeremiah 23:23-29, Psalm 82, Luke 12:49-56 One mark of maturity is the ability to tell—and to hear—the truth. I’m reminded of that famous line from A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson’s character yells, “You can’t handle the truth!” The truth can be painful. Today’s readings invite us into that
Sunday, August 3, 2025 – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21 When I got my dog, Cotton, back in the north Georgia mountains, I developed a particular whistle I would use to call him. It was a way for my familiar “voice” to cut through the other noises of the environment, to reach
Sunday, July 13, 2025 – Luke 10:25-37 Have you ever been watching a movie and know just what’s going to happen next – even before it happens? I’ve experienced that when watching a whodunit mystery on television. Sometimes we’re extra observant and notice subtle cues before other people do. That happened to me when I
Sunday, July 6 – Galatians 6:[1-6] 7-16, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 One of my first jobs after college was in sales. I worked for a company that sold Brittannica reading skills programs for young children and sets of the Compton’s Encyclopedia. It wasn’t easy and for my first six months, I couldn’t sell a thing. Someone
Sunday, June 29, 2025 – 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Luke 9:51-62 Though there is a lot of rich material in all of our readings, today, I’d like to explore the idea of freedom. What does freedom mean to you? In the gospel of John, Jesus says If you abide in
Sunday, May 4 – Acts 9:1-6 [7-20], Psalm 30, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19 I’m currently reading a book called Why Religion Went Obsolete, by Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of Notre Dame (see his conversation with Tripp Fuller below). In it, Smith writes about societal movements and changes since the 1990s that came
Sunday, March 16, 2025 – Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Psalm 27, Philippians 3:17—4:1, Luke 13:31-35 There’s a story motif that appears in many different cultures and historical periods throughout the world that mythologist Joseph Campbell called “the hero’s journey.” It’s a pattern that has become familiar to us through books or movies like Star Wars and
