Intersections

  How do you deal with change? I'm not trying to give you any subtext here... but just trust me. I'd like to think that I deal with change really well. Plenty of weird stuff has happened in my life that I've had to accept what is and adjust. But one that most of you could probably relate with... the night before Tadj was admitted to the hospital when Ali's due date had passed. Over the course of the next couple of days, which were kind of a blur, our family grew from two to three. We had anticipated becoming parents, and read all the books, thought we knew what to expect... but as we were leaving the hospital, like many people experiencing the same thing, thinking... you're just gonna let me leave with this thing? Driving away it's not like I had to show papers to anyone...   the change over the next month or so was really more what it's about. Those late night and early mornings were quite a change to how free-wheeling and footloose we had been even the wee...

  The last few weeks since Easter, we've been considering what it's like to be a witness to Jesus' resurrection, and what the early church did as written in the book of Acts. We are shifting away from the well-known stories of Peter and Paul to this lesser known story of Tabitha this morning. Now, this is kind of a strange story, and one that almost doesn't seem appropriate for Mother's Day. Even though there's a resurrection in our story today, there's no mention of Jesus. The witnesses were even sent out of the room, so what's he trying to pull... There's really no explanation for this other than Peter trying to toot his own horn.  But here's the spoiler - this story isn't about Peter. This story is about the impact that Tabitha has made on her community. She saw the others among her, especially the poor, the first says in the Living Bible translation. She was a seamstress and so she did what she could with what she had.  When she die...

     Last week, we were with Peter while he and some other disciples are in court for preaching and teaching the Gospel. The Sanhedrin wanted to quash this new movement that has started with Jesus, so they are trying to root them out and silence them.       We come this week to a familiar passage, the conversion of Saul. The whole story continues from our passage today until verse 20, and I encourage for you to read the rest of it some time this week. It’s only another… fifteen verses or so, pretty easy.       Now, our main character this week is Saul. He’s what some may call a pretty bad hombre. He was a Pharisee, and was introduced in chapter 8 as the one who approved of the apostle Stephen’s killing, which he also witnessed. That’s kind of his background right now at the beginning when it says “STILL threatening and plotting against the disciples”, like a bull in a china shop, or a rabid animal after its prey. His story continues...

  A little background on this week’s reading: The apostles, starting in verse 12 of this chapter, are teaching and doing “signs and wonders” in the temple. Peter is getting to be known, almost as a celebrity for teaching and preaching on the Gospel, so the religious authorities have them put in jail. The priests want to question the apostles about what they are doing, and find that they have escaped (via an angel of the Lord) to continue preaching and teaching about the Good News. They are “non-violently” re-arrested, and they are currently standing trial as our scripture begins.  Our story this morning is part of a bigger story, which goes clear through verse 42, which I’ll let you read at your own time, because this is the part I’d like to focus on today. We have a quick back-and-forth with the priests and the apostles because they each kind of have their own agendas. Imagine being one of these apostles. They were given the task of preaching the Gospel, but now they end up i...

Hallelujah! I didn’t hear you - hallelujah! I just needed to get a few more in there this morning, it’s a great morning!  It’s been pretty quiet around since Friday night - and all day Saturday, but here we are… Jesus is risen! Hallelujah! Thank you all for being here on what seems to be the second-most popular day of the year, since the marketing machines haven’t found a way to monetize this holiday - yet.  Anyway - We have our familiar story… Luke is a classic text that I’m sure most of you are familiar with, and if not, then… I hope you enjoy this sermon I’ve prepared for you today, and hopefully it may inspire you to want to come back next week.  So we start out early in the morning, when it may have still been dark or light was just breaking over the horizon, kind of makes you think of the story of creation. Although Jesus was dead, God still commanded the sun to rise. God raised Adam and Eve out of the dirt, and raised them up in their image, as it say...

  April is here, and I am ready for it! I don’t care how many showers there will be, I’m just ready for those May flowers. We are witnesses to the changing of the seasons, and how faithful God is in bringing those to us. It may not happen on our schedule, or even when the calendar tells us it’s going to happen, but regardless, our world will SPRING FORTH and bear all the life that it is given for the lively warm months ahead.  Our sermon series this month beginning after Easter will be called “We Are Witnesses”, and it’s a reminder that we witness all the glory that God provides us in our lives, whether we actually see it or not. Our scripture will come from the book of Acts, starting in chapter five. We skip through the book, according to the lectionary, and end on the last Sunday of May in chapter sixteen. The Book of Acts is an extension of the Gospel of Luke, who we have been studying this Lenten season, and is an important book for the fact that it details where the churc...