This weekend our church remembers the day when Mary and Joseph named their child Jesus.  We commonly say that this feast of naming happens eight days after Christmas, but that is an anachronism.  In our church, the naming of Jesus is Christmas just as much as his birth and his baptism, they are all part…

So here we are, and today I want to invite you into our Christmas scavenger hunt. If you want to be a Christian these days, you must go on scavenger hunts and work to recover the lasting things buried under so much stuff.  For behind the inflatable lawn ornaments and the three billion dollars of…

It doesn’t matter how you learned to pray, the great equalizer is the prayer of desperation, the upside-down prayer, the prayer we pray with our backs up against the wall. And for so many people, scratch the surface of this holiday season and the New Year, and you will find times of great trial as…

This again is not a question of prohibitions, but of priorities. Have your holiday spiced latte. Put dozens of giant inflatable lawn ornaments in your yard like my neighbor. Buy a bunch of gifts for yourself and your loved ones.  But make sure you don’t buy into what you are buying, don’t live your life…

Christianity is first and foremost an applied religion, and so therefore like all things on earth, there is a seasonality to our church and spiritual life.  Today we begin the season of Advent, fifty days of learning to hold loosely the things of this world and hold fast to the one thing needed.  ‘Seek first…

A man and a woman are chatting over dinner. The woman says, “John, are we ever gonna get married?” The man obviously doesn’t want to answer the question. He stutters a little and replies, “Umm, thank you.” It works! The woman is so pleased to hear these two words that she forgets all about her…