September 9 2018 16th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:31-37  (The Message)

31 Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. 32 Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. 33 He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue. 34 Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha! - Open up!" 35 And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain - just like that. 36 Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, 37 beside themselves with excitement. "He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless."

They couldn’t keep quiet about it; but they didn’t say all there was to say..

They missed the most important point - that these miracles, as with all miracles, means that salvation has come to our earth!  God has come to dwell with us in human from, in the man Jesus to heal ALL our infirmities, not just of the body but of the spirit as well!

There is a healing and a wholeness which is deeper then the physical.  He has come that all might be saved (be made whole from within) and come to the knowledge of the truth.

To be so saved is to be open to God’s love moving in our lives and through our lives into our world.  It  is to be able to smile, no matter what, and to be a beautiful, healing person for others.  Physical handicaps cannot keep a ‘whole person’ down.  They simply radiate joy and love, and bring healing into living.  This is Christ in us, the love of God making us whole!






“It isn't easy, but I believe that God
is in all of this.  With every obstacle,
a way has opened up to provide what I have needed through this entire ordeal.  God keeps amazing me!"
                 A cancer patient







Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to see your love in all that happens to me, not always in ways  I like, but in ways which keep amazing me.”

Sept. 2, 2018 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:6,7

6 He (Jesus) replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites;
as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, 
   but their hearts are far from me. 
 7 They worship me in vain; 
   their teachings are merely human rules.’


No one sets out to be a hypocrite.  We too easily become one when we let our greed, jealousy, pride, folly keep us from being congruent from the inside out.

Maybe the best way to be religious is to not try to be religious.  Be spiritual! Open, loving, sensitive, kind, gentle, compassionate, etc.  To be religious is to be a warm caring human being who lifts life up for others.  It is to have a secret - God loves me and everyone - and it is to live out that secret in the ordinary affairs of life.









A man once said to Mother Teresa,
“I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.”
To which she replied, “Neither would I,
but I will for the love of God!”










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to not be so heavenly minded (religious)
that I am no earthly good.  Give me strength to live what I believe -
and help me to believe that You love me and everyone.”

Aug 26, 2018 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:1-8 (The Message)

1 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. 3 The Pharisees - Jews in general, in fact - would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, 4 with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans). 5 The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?" 6 Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. 7 They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, 8 Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads."

“The most apparent meaning of this (text) could be summarized as a criticism of surface things and a call for deep things.” (Source unknown)

Religion is not meant to be something we play at; it is not meant to be superficial, mechanical, ritualistic. It is meant to be something which comes from the heart - a heart touched by the love and grace of God.
Observing the traditions of the elders is not what is important.
Living as one who has been touched by the love of God is.



"We have enough religion
to make us hate,
but not enough to make
us love one another."
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)



Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to not be so heavenly minded (religious) that I am no earthly good.  Help me to love, even when it flies against my religious certainties.”

August 19 2018 13th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:51-58  (The Message)

51 I am the Bread - living Bread! - who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live - and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self." 52 At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: "How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?" 53 But Jesus didn't give an inch. "Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. 54 The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. 55 My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. 57 In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. 58 This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always."

This is a troublesome text.  As one theologian said of it -
“The language in this text is raw and probably ought to shock our sensibilities.”

What ever we do with these words, we dare not take them literal - for then we will miss the point of what Jesus is saying - as is often the case when the Bible is take literally.  We end up with a distorted, disconnected message which leads to distorted and disconnected living.

So what is it Jesus is trying to say to us today?

Robert Kyser, a Biblical scholar of today makes a good point as to what Jesus might be getting at here, in his book “Preaching John”.  He suggests that Jesus is telling the hearers that they literally need to take Jesus into themselves, make him “part of their essence”

Too which another theologian, adds:  “No arm’s-length relationship here, no safe distance between us.  As (those) who long for the abundant life, we have no other way to such a life except by taking Jesus in, having him become so intermingled with our own being that we cannot separate one from the other. “  Adele Resmer

Then we will no longer be able to live indifferent to the urging of the spirit to place faith, hope, and love at the center of our living and let nothing push in aside.







Faith is  “a power and passion in authority
among the powers and passions of life”
P.T. Forsythe,













Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to be passionate about faith and life, empowered by your love to do good no matter what.”

August 12, 2018 12th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:35,36,41,42 (The Message)

35 Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me…. 41 At this, because he said, "I am the Bread that came down from heaven," the Jews started arguing over him: 42 "Isn't this the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father? Don't we know his mother? How can he now say, 'I came down out of heaven' and expect anyone to believe him?"

Jesus was too human for the people of his day.  He was Joseph’s son who lived in their midst.  He was too human, too real, too common for them to believe he was God’s Son.

We also struggle with things of God being too human.  The truth is, the most spiritual (God like) things we can do are often the most human.  We dare not be afraid to be human for that is the essence of what it means to be spiritual (eat of the Bread of Life).

Every time we touch intimately, lovingly, compassionately in the midst of the pain and joy of being human, God is there with life giving bread to impart eternal life.  This is how human God is!






”To be human is to be spiritual;
to be spiritual is to be human.”
Ron Hinrichs











Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, you created me ‘human’, with your spark of life
in me.  Help me to discover the joy of being human.  And discover how spiritual it is
to lovingly bring joy to others in our human journey. “

Aug. 5, 2018 11th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:26,27  (The Message)

26 Jesus answered, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs - and for free. 27 "Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last."


The people in our text were looking for the easy way out.  They had a free meal (the feeding of the 5000) and they wanted a free meal;  a life without difficulty, pain, suffering.  They came to Jesus for the wrong thing.

They wanted Jesus “not because (they) saw signs, but because (they) ate their fill of the loaves.”

They wanted Jesus for the wrong reason - and so often do we.
We come not because we want to be “renewed in our spirit”.    We come because we want to have our bases covered. We want Jesus as an insurance policy against bad things happening to us.

But this is not how it is with Jesus.  God did not send Jesus to dwell among us so life could be a bed of roses.  God sent Jesus to dwell among us so that life could be different - strangely, powerfully, eternally different!  For strange as it may sound it is true:  “The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.”







“I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.”
                         Jesus






Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, feed me with your eternal love so I hunger or thirst no more, ever.”

July 29, 2018 10th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:53-56  (The Message)

53 They beached the boat at Gennesaret and tied up at the landing. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, word got around fast. 55 People ran this way and that, bringing their sick on stretchers to where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, village or town or country crossroads, they brought their sick to the marketplace and begged him to let them touch the edge of his coat - that's all. And whoever touched him became well.

Jesus did heal.  Miracles did and do happen.  But they are not always obvious, because some times they happen in a different way.

“A miraculous healing of a physical illness is wonderful. But even more impressive … is the way God's grace gives some people the courage to live creatively, and even joyously, within their suffering. The profound faith of those who live with crippling affliction or disease-ridden bodies does not look spectacular to many. But their confidence in God and love for others are as beautiful a miracle as any physical one you're apt to ever see.”
Peter W. Marty







"There are two ways to live:
you can live as if nothing is
a miracle; you can live as if
everything is a miracle."
            Albert Einstein









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, sometimes it seems that miracles never happen.  Help me to see the miracles that do happen, even though they seem hidden.”