At the heart of the gospel message is the mercy of Jesus. A merciful Messiah, who is our blood ransom. A merciful healer and teacher who hears the begging of outsiders otherwise ignored by...

AUTUMN – September The Pastor’s Pen‘After a summer of discipleship through “binary challenges” (a call away from; … a call toward … ) and moments of decision, St. Mark in his gospel now moves...

Saint John continues our late-summer Gospel readings with Jesus feeding the ancient crowds with bread, and feeding us with his Word. We are confronted again with the ‘either-or’ questions of discipleship we have been...

Trinity Sunday is the great hinge between the two halves of the liturgical year: The incarnation of Christ, and Our response of discipleship. Though we are saved by grace , discipleship calls us to...

Maybe our congregations perceive Pentecost as a one-time celebration of the Holy Spirit. While red is the color of our paraments, hangings, and vestments for only one week, the Festival of the Holy Spirit...

I heard of a local mega-church that raised a “sunrise” colored billboard one year that said simply “Easter: April 18-21.” The message implied a multi-day “come-when-you-can” Easter bonanza. The dates simply conflated the Church’s...

HOLY WEEK. For people who are accustomed to being at worship just once a week, the shift from once-weekly worship to the five liturgies of Holy Week (count them!) is a huge planning-calendar adjustment!...

LENT. Some years the season of Lent becomes merely a six week narrative of following Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. This year, when St. Mark tells our gospel stories, is a good time...

A novel that grabs and keeps our attention gradually reveals that which is not known. A novel, at each turn of the age, reveals the detail and progression of the story. The time after...

ADVENT is about the art of waiting. BUT … holiday decorations have been on the shelves in our “box stores” since well before Hallowe’en, and the world will declare that every day after Thanksgiving...