Tag: transformation

  • GOD and Power

    GOD and Power

    In his interaction with the widow, the encounter’s parallel with Elijah, and his commissioning of apostles, we see that GOD is doing something big in Jesus — and with us.

  • How to Make a New Year’s Resolution Stick

    How to Make a New Year’s Resolution Stick

    Yesterday, I wrote a bummer of a piece telling you that you would most certainly fail. That great New Year’s resolution to lose weight or not eat chocolate? Sorry. You’ve already failed, you just might not know it yet. And that resolution to read everyday, that’s hanging by a thread. That was yesterday. Today I’m…

  • Why Your New Year’s Resolution Is Bound to Fail

    Why Your New Year’s Resolution Is Bound to Fail

    Do you make New Year’s resolutions? If you are like the millions who do, you no doubt find that they are always harder than they seem. Looking back at the last few years, many of us recognize a pretty poor track record. Even the words “New Year’s resolution” conjures thoughts of failure and personal experiences…

  • Jesus has gone swimming

    a Sermon for Epiphany 1A Text: Matthew 3:13-17 I insist This morning’s gospel story begins with the most unlikely of conversations. It is a titanic theological battle of You go. No, you go. No, I insist. John the Baptizer and Jesus dance over who baptizes who like two men arguing over which one gets to…

  • On Rising With the Sun

    If I were to personify the sun, I would find myself waking with a secret companion, hidden in plain sight. So obvious that she could be missed by each of us – especially my spouse, who is no morning person. The sun, my mistress rises before I want to, before I can even bring my…

  • Breaking Our Fast

    Of all the spiritual disciplines, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that this one is the most important: the discipline of breaking a fast. The foundation of the word discipline is in speaking of common order–and one’s relationship to order. When we speak of the church’s laws and principles, we refer to the “doctrine and discipline”…

  • The Scandal of Lent

    The Scandal of Lent

    Every year I struggle with Lent. I struggle with what we are really called to do. Certain things are different, and yet we don’t really live all that differently. We fast or we take on new things or we mark our worship differently. But something doesn’t ring true about it for me. As I wrote…

  • Saul or Paul?

    a Sermon for the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle Text: Acts 26:9-21 From Saul to Paul In the story of the Conversion of Paul, we have perhaps the ultimate Christian example. Paul speaks of his old self, a conversion, and a transformation. Before he became Paul, he was Saul: a self-proclaimed zealot. He was…