The Parable of the Talents
Matthew 25: 14-30 (November 19, 2023) If there was one thing that stuck with me from my class in biblical Greek at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, it was the insight that biblical translation is an art and…
The Parable of the Bridesmaids
Matthew 25: 1-13 (November 12, 2023) For thousands of years, humans have built spiral-shaped labyrinths. You may think that a labyrinth is just like a maze, but where a maze often has dead-end paths, labyrinths do not. The pathway of…
The Beatitudes
Matthew 5: 1-12 (November 5, 2023, All Saints Sunday) Matthew's Focus We shouldn’t think of the Gospels as being like the transcript of a news reporter who was present at all of the events and recorded them just as they…
The Reformation of Our Hearts
John 8: 31-36 (October 29, 2023) Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience…
Whose Image?
Matthew 22: 15-22 (October 22, 2023) I watch a lot of animal rescue videos, especially from an organization called Hope for Paws. They’re always getting calls from people who report animals who’ve been stranded or abandoned. Often, the dog they’re…
The Wedding Banquet
Matthew 22: 1-14 (October 15, 2023) I mentioned last week that we were beginning a series of texts where Jesus is in confrontation with the religious authorities. Parables, we remember, were used by Jesus to “reveal what had been hidden…
The Parable of the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46 (Sunday, October 8, 2023) I’ve rented more than one home in my life. For a period of time when I lived in Marietta, GA, I owned a condominium. But ever since I left Marietta for the northeast Georgia…
My Leap Into Ministry
On Sunday, October 1, 2023, I became the interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, Florida. This is the first sermon I preached on that very same day to introduce myself and talk about how someone who prepared for…
There’s no “Right” to not be Offended
I fear we’ve normalized the expectation that we have a right to never be offended. Human life - being a mixture of conscious and unconscious psyche and of emotionally intelligent and unintelligent people - affords us no such right. Life…
Can You Meet God in Your Dreams?
For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds… Job 33:14-15
What is a Good Life?
In this video, I talk about the aspects that make up a good life well lived. I even gives shout-outs to The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, and the movie "The Village," directed by M. Night Shyamalan. What…
My Musical Christmas Offering
In this video, I offer two original Christmas songs and a brief reading on this Christmas holiday, 2020.
Trauma, Brokenness, and Wholeness
In this video, I talk about the brokenness of American society, the ACEs study and the negative effects on adult health of adverse childhood experiences, and wholeness, what it is and how we can realize it.
What is Spirituality? (And why should I care?)
In this video, I answer my friend Jazz's questions, "What is spirituality? What can it do to improve your life? How is it different from being religious?”
Can We Experience a Sacred Presence?
In this video, I talk about experiencing the Holy as a sacred presence. After watching this video, check out the Deep Dive Sacred Presence Meditation video.
Do our Dreams Mean Anything?
In this video, I talk about whether or not our dreams mean anything and how we might begin to work with them. There's also a link to a Deep Dive on a technique called Image Association.
Is there a Deeper Rhythm that Guides our Lives?
In this video, I explore the Deeper Rhythm that I believe guides our lives.
Dreams, Spirituality, and Transformation
I recently launched a YouTube channel called Deeper Rhythm. In this first video, I talk about dreams, spirituality, and transformation - the main topics that I plan to explore in the channel overall.