Lent 2, March 8, 2026 “Faith for the Journey”
There is a saying that no question is a dumb question. All questions are valid. Some say you may be asking a question that others need the answer to, but they are afraid to ask or do not know how to ask. However, as many of us have experienced, not all people adhere to that maxim. If you ask a question that others find dense, they may make fun of you. If a question doubts someone’s authority, they may seek to humiliate you. If they just don’t want to answer the question they may ignore you. These responses can leave us no better informed, and a little worse for the wear.
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Epithany 3, January 25, 2026 "Jesus Calls"
The most memorable part of today’s gospel reading is Jesus’ calling of the disciples. What has always struck me about this call narrative is the response of the fisherman brothers—Simon and Andrew, James and John. When addressed by Jesus, they drop what they are doing and follow immediately. Imagine a call to a new life so powerful that you would leave your family, community, and job to follow a guy you have never met. Imagine being a fisherman who was being called to “fish for people.” They might have wondered what it meant to fish for people, but they followed because the power and charisma of Jesus was irresistible.
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Epithany 2 January 17, 2026 “The Point of Leadership”
Music has always been an important part of my life. When I was a little kid, my parents taught me how to use the cabinet record player. It was not a stereo console with two speakers and storage for your LPs that came along later. This was a cabinet about two feet wide and three or four feet tall. The speaker was in the lower part, and the turntable was in the top. Rather than plopping me in front of the TV, my mom would set me on a kitchen stool that would get me to just the right height. There I would sit putting forty-fives on the spindle and playing pop songs.
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Epithany 1 January 11, 2026 “Immersed in the Faith”
Baptism is an important rite of the church. Whether you have been baptized or not, what does baptism mean to you? As I was reading this week, I learned that in some evangelical traditions, baptism is a sign of stepping out of the world. Baptism is a denial of your former life and a denial of the world. I wondered about this, and I think I understand how that fits in with the way some religious people think.
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Christmas 2 January 4, 2026 “The Light of Christ”
The question arises, “Why was the Holy Family in Egypt to begin with?” According to the Gospel of Matthew, and only the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Family was escaping persecution by King Herod. As Matthew tells it when the Magi were following the star to Bethlehem to see the child whose predictions would be the King of the Jews, they stopped in Jerusalem. There, they met King Herod. They told him of their prophesies. Herod got worried. Was this child king going to grow up to lead a rebellion against him and his family? There was only one way to prevent that: he would kill the child.
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