One of my favorite stories from Clarence Jordan’s life deals with a conversation he had with a newspaper reporter who came to Koinonia Farm to investigate this radical Christian community. Koinonia Farm was Jordan’s attempt to gather Christians of all races together into an intentional community based on the teachings… Continue reading
(22 minutes) Around 760 BCE in a small, insignificant village in Judah, a most monumental event occurred. A shepherd was called by God to prophesy in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This shepherd did not belong to any of the prophetic guilds—in other words, he had no “professional” training. But… Continue reading
I have been asked why John wrote his message using such bizarre and confusing symbols. If his point was to communicate the spiritual, life and death struggle between Rome and the church/between Caesar and Christ, then why didn’t he just say that in ways that are easy for us to understand? Continue reading
(I have included at the end of this sermon the pastoral prayer, communion meditation, and commission that were given during the service when the sermon was delivered.) There are times I think I should go back to school and earn a Ph. D. in patience. But then I realize one… Continue reading
We are told by astrophysicists that our universe began with the explosion of something smaller than an atom. A universe that is measured in billions of galaxies (each containing up to at least a billion stars) and trillions of miles should create in us a gigantic sense of awe and… Continue reading
If you ask someone what a saint is, they might say, “Someone who is holy.” I like the definition given by a little boy in a Sunday school class who thought about the images of saints in the stained-glass windows of his church. He defined a saint as “somebody the… Continue reading
(The following sermon was delivered at our grandson Jeffery’s dedication service.) An honest study of the Scriptures will not provide a lot of specific guidance regarding the rearing of children. And to be honest, some of that guidance is not helpful: “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” “If your… Continue reading
[When I was pastor of the Wabash Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) I wrote this article on July 7, 1993, for the church newsletter. I wish so much that someone had given me a message like this when I graduated from high school and college—and to be honest, from seminary… Continue reading
“Amen, I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” A well-known saying from Jesus, but what is it about children we are called to embrace for the sake of our salvation? Well, there is the trust children have in their… Continue reading
The background to our passage is the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. Those descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have suffered the harshness of slavery for centuries. Generation after generation has cried out for freedom. The Hebrews experience despair, agony, humiliation, suffering and, perhaps worst of all, hopelessness. The… Continue reading
