Sunday, July 19, 2026 – Isaiah 44:6-8, Psalm 86:11-17, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Last Friday I had the joy of recording a conversation with Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack, the novel that touched millions of readers around the world nearly twenty years ago. At the center of the story is a father […]
Sunday, July 5, 2026 – Zechariah 9:9-12, Psalm 145:8-14, Romans 7:15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Yesterday our nation celebrated Independence Day and marked 250 years of freedom. It is right that we give thanks for those who sacrificed so that we might enjoy freedoms many people around the world still long for—freedom of conscience, freedom of
Sunday, May 3, 2026 – Acts 7:55-60, Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14 It may seem like an odd time of year to talk about Christmas movies, but one of my all-time favorites is A Christmas Story. It’s the story of a young boy named Ralphie, growing up in the 1940s, who wants
Sunday, March 29, 2026 – Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 31:9-16, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 27:11-54 Years ago, when I was home from college over winter break, I went into Manhattan with two friends to be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The crowd was enormous—packed so tightly that we were literally jammed together like
Sunday, March 8, 2026 – Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 There is something deeply human about thirst. When we are thirsty enough, everything else fades into the background. The Israelites in our reading from Exodus knew that kind of thirst. They were in the wilderness, far from the familiar world they had
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, 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, 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, December 1, 2024, First Sunday of Advent – Luke 21:25-36, also Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25: 1-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, psychiatrist Carl Jung had a series of visions that he later interpreted as foreshadowing the First World War. His visions included an image of a sea of
