All We Like Sheep

This week’s lectionary passages center on the Good Shepherd. Last Saturday Doug and I took the kids to a sheep shearing festival at a nearby farm. We got to see a sheep sheared and feel the wool. We got to watch some amateur sheepdogs herding sheep. Jack’s favorite...

Simple

simple: adj., composed of a single element; not compound or divided –Merriam-Webster’s 10th Collegiate Dictionary Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him,...

A Mustard Seed Moment

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And they do: the “whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32), the living embodiment of unity. According to Acts, none of the believers owned...

Mea Culpa

On Palm Sunday at our church, we do the whole palm processional, with the kids tromping in during the opening hymn, waving palm branches and grinning proudly. We celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the adoring crowds, the waving branches, the cloaks in...

One Thing

“Purity of heart is to will one thing.” –Soren Kierkegaard The alternate Psalm for this Fifth Sunday of Lent is from Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible (176 verses), the whole of which is a paean of praise to God’s law. I read this psalm last week as part of...