Sometimes our eyes do lie to us.  Often times our ears do not hear the whole story.  Even our hearts are swayed, many times with the best of intentions, but are led to that point not knowing the real truth. Sometimes statistics can be interpreted in different ways.  There tends...

This is the title of the Hymn of the Day for this coming Sunday for the traditional portion of our worship services. It’s actually an Advent hymn, but very fitting for this particular Gospel. It is Matthew 14:13-21; it tells the familiar and loved story of Jesus feeding over 5,000...

“…We know…” As human beings, we know a lot of things.  When I look at modern technology, science, and medicine, I am simply amazed at the things humanity can do that we couldn’t do even ten years ago.   We also know the difference between right and wrong.  We learned that...

Stories and rumors, facts and riddles seem to fill the social media, airwaves and newsprint these days.  There is a lot of terrible things happening even as we speak—threats and finger pointing over all kinds of potential, explosive situations.  From harmless children trying to find a safe place to live...

I sat through many, many lectures in my life. Most of them I made it through without falling asleep. Of course, with seminary studies, I rarely fell asleep because the topics of study were so interesting. Sure, there can be some core courses even in seminary that might be a...

When I was growing up, there was this folk group who had a number of hits on the radio.  Some of their tunes were very politically charged (as were most songs in the 60’s and early 70’s) and some of them were simply good, solid, sing-along tunes that stick with...

In the cult-classic movie, “Wayne’s World,” there is a scene where the two main characters, Garth and Wayne, get back stage passes to see (of all people) Alice Cooper.  Sensing a truly surreal experience, when they actually have a chance to meet Alice back stage, all they can do is...

Almost every year, when the Sunday of the Holy Trinity comes upon us, I think of Mrs. Jakes.  I never knew her first name, although in the days when I knew her it was quite usual that the first name she might have given would have been that of her...