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Elijah
Of all the stories and sermons I remember from growing up, and being a young preacher, the stories of Elijah are the most captivating to me. His life is fascinating and there are just a dozen great sermons (and titles) I think of when I read through the stories of Elijah. I’m fairly sure this guy would be on meds…
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Allegiance
I love July 4, fireworks, patriotic songs, movies about the Revolution… all of it. That cop that sings “God Bless America” at Yankees games gets me every time I hear his wonderful tenor voice. But my allegiance isn’t here. It is in another land. Another place. Another kingdom. The country of my birth is a place I love. The Kingdom…
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The Place of Holy Habitation
N T Wright’s work on the Kingdom of God, and lately his book Simply Jesus, has given me a fresh look at the Temple. Wright’s view on “heaven” and “earth” have stirred up my thinking and I’m still processing the whole idea he keeps putting out in his writing. The separation of “heaven” and “earth” is not a matter of how…
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Independence
The week is slipping by and with my wife still out of town, I’ve had a hard time remembering what day of the week I’m on! July 3, so let’s feature one great quote from a writer of the Revolution, Thomas Paine. People just don’t talk this way anymore: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier…
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Gettysburg — Why They Fought
Another excellent piece by David Brooks in The New York Times today. It is a reflection on the difference in soldiers from the Civil War to today. The language, the letters, the thoughts, are so completely different. We look so small today in comparison. In our current era, as the saying goes, we take that which is lower to be…
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Don’t Cross the Man of God
When we get into 1 Kings, we get more stories of the prophets. This is quite a bunch in these stories. In 1 Kings 13, Jeroboam is met by a man of God who prophesies doom on Jeroboam. Jeroboam doesn’t like it, and being king, he thinks he can simply arrest the seer. Not so fast. 4 When King Jeroboam heard…
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Why We Need Multiple Generations — the lesson of Rehoboam
After Solomon’s death Rehoboam came to the throne. The people came and made a request: Please ease up on us! We’ve worked hard doing all this work to build Jerusalem! It’s time to let up on the gas a bit. Rehoboam consulted two groups: his father’s advisors and his own “posse.” What would Solomon’s advisers know, anyway? They were all…
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The Beauty and Ugliness of Cities
In our trip to the Tenderloin in San Francisco, the beauty and ugliness of a city hits you in the face quickly. Living in Minneapolis, I realize this as well. Every city has its “gorgeous” side that shows up on TV during “game day.” New Orleans is like this. TV crews at the Super Bowl will show you Bourbon Street…
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Giving up Facebook
I will be taking a break from Facebook… in a way. I’ll still have the account, but the discipline I need to follow is only connecting my blog, and maybe an occasional Twitter comment, to Facebook. No more Facebook “stalking,” or trying to update my own status. I have hopefully loaded up the pictures from the San Francisco trip I…
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San Francisco, the Tenderloin, and the Supreme Court
We were in San Francisco the same week as the Supreme Court made two key rulings on gay marriage. Several people set me texts or messages asking how things were going in light of that decision. Some of the messages I didn’t get for a little while because we had lousy cell reception in the Tenderloin. Go figure. Here is…
