It’s the first Sunday in Advent—a time when when we’re usually prepared to sing songs of the season and hear the familiar stories that will lead us up to the manger, whether it’s the preparatory texts in Luke’s Gospel or the prophecies of Isaiah, or the echoes of the Exodus story in Matthew’s Gospel. While …
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 This has been a historic week by any measure. As we gather here on Sunday, after Tuesday’s election, we suddenly realize that the usual way of things—the predictable politics of the past—is no more. Whether you are dejected or elated over the results, we share in common the fact that none of …
A Game of Thrones: A Sermon After the Election Continue Reading »
Exodus 32:1-14 Last week we talked about the Passover as the meal signifying Israel’s freedom from slavery in Egypt. Remember the way the rabbi described it? “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!.” The story of Passover is a microcosm of the larger liberation project God launched for the whole creation, summed up …
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Laureate and survivor of the Holocaust, died this past week and there were a lot of rightfully reflective articles about his life and work in the media. If you’ve read his work, you know that it is powerful because it came through the lens of intense suffering and hope. One of …
When was the last time you had a good cry? For some, it might be a long time—tears don’t come easy. But crying isn’t so hard for a lot of us. Our kids cry when their feelings are injured, when Mommy leaves them with the sitter, or when the teacher scolds them for being disruptive …
One of the occupational hazards of being a pastor in a larger church is that a lot of people know you, but you don’t always recognize them. Many times at, say, the grocery store, I will see someone whose face looks familiar, like I know they’ve attended our church, but I don’t know their name. …
Word came this afternoon through a variety of online classic rock and musician sites that drummer Neil Peart (pronounced “PEERT” for the uninitiated. Accept no substitutes.) is putting away his ProMark 747 drum sticks for good. His announcement was a subtle one, as befitting a thoughtful wordsmith like Neil: “Lately Olivia [his young daughter] has …
Exit the Warrior: Thoughts on Neil Peart’s Retirement Continue Reading »
Jonah 3:1-10; Matthew 12:38-42 We have arrived at the third chapter of the Book of Jonah, and when we last left our dubious hero he had been barfed out on to the beach by the fish—this after his self-justifying prayer in chapter 2 and his flight from God’s presence and his mission in chapter 1. …
Jonah 1:17-2:10; Luke 18:9-14 So, let’s catch up on the story of Jonah. Last week we talked about Jonah as an advice tale for people in exile, living in a foreign culture and we learned that Jonah has a lot to say to us about how we Christians should live in a post-Christendom world. We …
Jonah 1:1-10; Matthew 28:16-20 A lot of people have asked what the Kaylors do on vacation. The answer is, not much. Some people go to exotic locales. We usually go to Pittsburgh. The upside of that, however, is that you do have a lot of time to read on the long flight and this year …
Ask most pastors which they’d rather do—a wedding or a funeral—and most will tell you they’d take the funeral every time. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I like to explain it terms of focus. At a funeral, everyone is focused on their own mortality, so their attentiveness to spiritual things is …
We began our last day of hiking with a marvelous breakfast at the Shavit family guest house featuring some of the cheese and fruit that they grow right there in the Moshav (a different sort of collective than a kibbutz). It was tasty and plentiful and fueled us up for what promised to be a …
After a restful night at Kibbutz Lavi, we traveled on the way to Arvel via the Horns of Hattin. The Horns are the remnants of an old volcano crater and were the scene of the practical end of the Crusaders’ quest to conquer Palestine once and for all.
If you were to travel anywhere around the Mediterranean world in the first century, there’s a pretty good chance you’d have done it on one of the roads constructed by Rome for the purpose of moving both the Roman Army and the trade goods that were the life blood of the empire. These meticulously constructed …
All Roads Lead to Rome – Jesus Trail Day 3 Continue Reading »
Checking my Twitter feed after dinner yesterday I was reminded that Rush kicked off their 40th anniversary-pretty-much-last tour last night in Tulsa. I’ll be seeing them in July when they make their final stop in Denver, and while I don’t know what the set list looks like, one of the songs that came to mind …
Finding Our Way – The Jesus Trail – Day 2 Continue Reading »