Tagworship

Breath of the Spirit

Wowzers! What a week! I think I’ve expressed this sentiment at least once a month for the last year or so. It seems like just when I think I know how to operate, some change comes that upends some aspect of my plan. The challenge for me is to see these changes as Spirit-led movements…

Will I Or Won’t I?

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory…

Different But the Same

Our thanks go out to Adam Lefever Hughes for offering this weeks’ devotion. Justin the Martyr, a 2nd-century convert to Christianity wrote some of the earliest accounts we have of how early Christians conducted their worship. He writes: “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together…

Our Sages: Models for Our Worship

Traditional Sermon Pentecost 11 I’m not much for preaching on the Old Testament lessons that we read each week in church.  If you pay any attention to my sermons, you know that already.  I’ve always been most interested in talking about Jesus, from the pulpit. But when I started my sermon prep last week, and…

Episodes and Epiphanies

New Day Sermon Epiphany Sunday January 6 is Epiphany Sunday, a day we recall the wise men visiting the holy family. The Gospel writer Matthew gives us few details about these travelers. Imagine if we could be a fly on the wall…or in this case a fly on a camel…and listen to the conversation of…

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Lent and the Center

  Lent is in full swing and we’re rapidly approaching the center of the church year, Holy Week. Late in Lent this lectionary year we hear many readings from the gospel of John. Often cited as being the more difficult and ‘heady’ gospel, John emphasizes the depths of Jesus’ authority and personhood where the synoptic…

In Your Own Backyard

Email Devotional Pentecost 6 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields. –Matthew 13:23 Upon encountering need in the world, sometimes we are prepared to be a good disciple. Sometimes God asks us to be an agent…