Jesus challenges his followers to be in the world, but not of the world.  But what does that mean?  The Beatitudes in Matthew 5 give us a clearer picture.  The poor in spirit.  Those who mourn.  The meek. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  The merciful.  The pure in heart.  The peacemakers.  Those who are persecuted because of righteousness.  The insulted.  Sadly, we, in America today, don’t mo

People are much like sheep.  Without the voice of a trusted good shepherd, we can easily be led astray to places we never intended.  In today’s scripture, Jesus tells a parable about The Good Shepherd.  His sheep listen to his voice and they follow it.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd who leads us to life and life to the full. 

Jesus and those who had followed him, but no longer were, had a heated discussion about truth and their source of truth.  Jesus’ truth came from God the Father.  Whereas their truth had come from other means.  In this day and age, we must weigh the world’s truth that seems to change daily with God’s truth in his Word which never changes.   

How we live our lives on earth has eternal consequences.  In Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus makes that plainly clear.  As Christians, God calls us to care for the most vulnerable not only in our community but around the world.  We cannot and should not turn a blind eye to the suffering of others when it is in our power to do something.  We may not solve poverty, but we can start small and let that impact grow into

Today, we can’t be more cautious about fraudulent emails, text messages, phone calls claiming one thing but in reality, are another.  Somehow, we need to be able to authenticate what we are hearing is true.  In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders had somewhere between 200 to 570 Old Testament prophecies of what the Messiah would be like.  Scholars indicate that Jesus fulfilled all of them and yet these leaders still would not believe that

In today’s day and age, it is far too easy to fall into an “Us versus Them" mentality.  As for myself, I would much rather spend time with people who are just like me.  But that is not the way of Jesus.  In our scripture story, Jesus forces us out of our comfort zones, so that we can face our sin and to be reconciled with those with whom we’d rather avoid…so that we can worship God in Spirit and in truth.  

Terroir is a french term used in wine making that describes the environmental characteristics in which grapes are grown. In other words, this is the soil, climate, and sunlight that give the grapes their distinct character and taste. Our Christian faith has its own terroir which includes the idea of spiritual rebirth.  Jesus said without being reborn in the spirit that we cannot being to understand spiritual things.  

In today’s Gospel story, John tells of when Jesus overturned money changer's tables and drove out animals being sold for sacrifices in the Jerusalem.   What got him so irate was how the religious hierarchy of his day had constructed barriers that got in the way of people freely worshiping God in Spirit and in truth.  We explore more of the details of the story and ask what might upset Jesus in our practice of Christianity in America today.  Wha

The example of how Jesus’ first disciples came to follow Him shows the power of a personal invitation by a family member or friend.  All we need to do is faithfully invite people to “Come and See Jesus for themselves” and then let them make up their own minds, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit.  What if evangelism was to be that simple?  If we all did that, the Church would be overflowing with followers of Jesus Christ.  

The most important thing we can do as Christians and the Church is to point people to Jesus Christ.  We proclaim Jesus to others, not convince, that he IS the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  And then we trust the Holy Spirit do the work of bringing people to faith.