Scripture: Isaiah 9:6-7 (NRSV) To the Jewish mind, peace is a positive way of being and relating in the real world. Peace helps you engage the world’s chaos, rather than flee from it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Peace...

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 (NRSV) What are some of your favorite things about Christmas? Christmas Lights? Family gatherings? Gift giving? Eggnog? Cheesy Hallmark movies? For me, my favorite part of Christmas is singing the carols, particularly...

  Prayer of Adoration Lord God, we continue our journey to Bethlehem, Where we stand with the shepherds, amazed at your glory. We sing with the angels, rejoicing at your work. We wait with Joseph,...

Scripture: Isaiah 9:6-7 (NRSV) Paul Auster writes in his memoir The Invention of Solitude that, “You do not stop hungering for your father’s love, even after you are grown up.” Whether young or old, we...

Scripture: Isaiah 9:6-7 (NRSV) Human history has been the story about the quest for power and the discovery of power and the harnessing of power: manpower, firepower, horsepower, steam power, wind power, electric power, battery...

Scripture: Isaiah 9: 6-7 (NRSV) What’s in a name? Nothing defines us more in our lives than our name. When we name a child, we name them how we want to see the child. Sometimes...

Scripture: Matthew 6:13b (KJV) We love moments of glory, where we’re in the limelight, living life on our terms—doing it “our way,” rather than God’s way. But there’s a price to pay. “There is a...

Scripture: Matthew 6:13 (NRSV) Doesn’t it drive you nuts that it’s so dang easy to repeat bad habits and so darn hard to form good habits? There’s a reason for that: The costs of a...

Scripture: Matthew 6:12, 14-15 (NRSV) This is the hardest line in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gives us no wiggle room, no escape clauses. Our lips should tremble and our knees knock when we kneel for...

Scripture Readings: Proverbs 30:8 (NRSV) Matthew 6:11 (NRSV) In Exodus 16, the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you … and you shall have your fill of bread;...

Scripture: Matthew 6:10 (NRSV) What do we really want? Knowing what we want and wanting what really matters is the difference between going somewhere or just going. If we don’t know what we want or...

Scripture: Matthew 6:10 (NRSV) Each time we pray Thy kingdom come, we’re reminded that God’s kingdom is not a purely heavenly kingdom. Christians don’t ask to flee earth to go to heaven. We ask for...