One of the biggest misconceptions about Jesus is that he expected and wanted his disciples to suffer. As the Rev. Naomi Washington-Leaphart said, “Suffering is not redemptive.” These words fly in...

God’s way of seeing the world is fundamentally different from the way we see it. This is never more clearly illustrated than in the Beatitudes that we read today. Every statement...

Today’s Gospel reading makes a curious claim about Jesus. Luke says that “power came out from [Jesus] and healed all of them.” This is one of the most compelling claims about...

The Resurrection is one of the most challenging claims that the Christian faith makes. It takes a lot of faith to believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sins...

The people we surround ourselves with shape our perspective and lifestyle the most. We’ve all had the experience of being around someone who is always negative, always expecting the worst thing...

The grass in my backyard remains constantly brown unless we water it every day. But we live in southern California where droughts are common, so water conservation is more important than...

Faith often requires us to trust in a perspective other than our own, which is an incredibly hard thing to do. It often asks us to suspend our rational judgment for...

Christ began to call me to ordained ministry eleven years before I answered. Even when I did, it was not a straight or certain path. As I prepared to preach my...

It’s a pattern: God calls; the one who is called demurs, claiming unsuitability for the task; and then, in a startling turnaround, the one who is called accepts the task. Isaiah...

What does it take to be accepted by those to whom God sends us? In an earlier reading this week, the prophet Isaiah volunteers to join the new thing that God...