Who was Crucified for Speaking Truth to Power THE CROSS The man they called Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross around the year 33.  The Roman cross was reserved for those people who publicly tried to subvert the Roman Empire.  These criminals of the state were called insurrectionists.  Thousands of people were crucified by the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus.  This tool of death was

Who Loved Those Unloved, Fed Those Who Hungered, Healed Those With Sickness, Who Taught Adults and Laughed with Children JESUS PLAYS I grew up in Northern Minnesota where my dad was the pastor of two small rural churches.   The names of the towns were Embarrass and Forbes.  I don’t remember much about them except that they were small and in the middle of nowhere, farming and iron mining communities. 

Loved Those Unloved, Fed Those Who Hungered And Healed Those with Sickness COVID 19 You might think this is a perfect time to talk about how God heals us from diseases like the Corona virus.  While I have seen people who have been healed dramatically I want to talk about another way that Jesus heals.  Jesus can heal our relationships. TO SEE AGAIN There is a story in the Gospel

Who Loved Those Unloved, Fed Those Who Hungered, Healed those with Sickness BIG CITY LIFE The first time I lived near a big city was when I was 21, it was Portland Oregon.  I remember driving through the city and seeing men wearing dirty clothes, pushing shopping carts full of belongings.  Some of them muttered foul things under their breath.  Some were not so polite or quiet with their mutterings. 

Loved Those Unloved, Fed Those Who Hungered, Healed Those with Sickness WEE LITTLE MAN Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.  This is one of the lines to a Sunday School song I learned when I was a wee little boy.  Actually, the Zacchaeus of the Gospels was not only short, but a tax collector.  As such, he was in charge of discerning how

To Bring Peace to All People We confess that Jesus lived to raise up the lowly (Saturday’s blog) and to bring peace to all people.   When I first wrote this a few years ago, what I meant was that Jesus came to teach us that we need not live in fear of an Angry God.  I remember hanging out with a neighbor who had been to prison multiple times,

Who lived to raise up the lowly and bring peace to all people. IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES IT WAS THE ….. In the time of Jesus there were those who had, and had a lot, and then those who had not.  For the Jews there were those aristocracy who lived in Jerusalem and were part of three different political groups.  Excavations of their homes in and around Jerusalem

Who showed through His Life, the Heart and Character of God  HAMSTER WHEEL One of the most significant theological insights I have had, happened in Hebrew Bible class in Seminary.  We we were talking about Moses and the burning bush.  My professor was teaching us about the Hebrew words that are translated into English as, “I am.”   As in, God telling Moses, “I am who I am.” and “tell

Who Shows Through His Life the Heart and Character of God THE PIVOT This past year, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we were singing a hymn in worship and I noticed that the first verse was about angels announcing the birth of Christ.  The very next verse was how Christ came to earth to die so we could live forever.  I thought, “This captures the whole of the

We believe in Jesus, God’s own Son THE NEW MATH There is a debate at Seminaries about the nature of Jesus.  This belief structure about the nature of Jesus is called a Christology or Christ-ology.  One way to characterize them is a, “High Christology” and a, “Low Christology.”  Another, less helpful way is, “right” and a “wrong,”  though people who characterize them in this way all have a funny way