Easter Sunday (Year 1, NL)

In six short verses, Jeremiah makes sermon illustrations of three different exile stories.

The bewilderment of the women at the tomb gives way to a hope that overturns power, shame, and death itself.

As I pressed my sermon’s pages across the book’s valley, I couldn’t keep them from sliding into the groove.

Perhaps the psalmist is referring to limestone, important to ancient civilizations for construction and also as an agricultural and dietary aid.

The Bible offers conflicting answers.

In the Palm Sunday narrative, all the signs are there: something big is about to happen.

Even if we think we don’t need a savior, we seek one.

What kind of faith gets you through 25 years in a refugee camp?

The phenomenon of women in groups, in community, has been near the front of my mind for some time.

When she knew she was dying, my grandmother took me to see the cornerstone of a small brick church in my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. I didn’t recognize the sign outside. It was a Baptist church, I think. It was pretty rundown, but still in better shape than the neighborhood. Overgrown vacant lots were everywhere; it was like visiting an abandoned church in the jungle.