Exodus 1:8-2:10

Shiphrah and Puah are unwilling to favor their national pride over their obedience to God. And it is this obedience to God—and disobedience to their nation’s autocrat—that drives them to do what is unimaginably difficult.

Matthew 14:22-33

Sometimes, even though we try really, really hard to trust in God, and live like Jesus wants us to live, we just can’t seem to do it. But even when we can’t get it right, Jesus shows up to help us out.

1 Kings 19:9-18

This is a story about self-revelation: about revealing ourselves to God, and letting God reveal God’s own self to us. It’s about intimacy in a troubled, heartache of a marriage between God and humanity.

Isaiah 55:1-5

The road from Babylon back to Jerusalem can be excruciating. And after its crucible, it doesn’t always feel tidy, or good, or joyful at first. Sometimes we return to rubble, and wonder if it was worth it.

Genesis 12:1-12

But every way we read scripture—and every way we theologize about God—has a real-world consequence. Every choice has its consequences. We have another choice in how we listen to scripture — one that doesn’t end in war, or violence, or dehumanization.

PENTECOST | 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 and Acts 2:1-21

As the Holy Spirit descends, things don’t get tidy; they get really, really messy. In fact, the disciples’ ways of life fall apart. The status quo—the way things have been, the 'good old days'—it splinters into pieces.

John 20:19-31

In revealing the broken bones and bloody toes we experience, we are drawn into a great circle of healing and being healed. There is this constant dialogue—constant dance—of us caring for one another and being cared for.

EASTER SUNDAY | Matthew 28:1-10

When the truth is proclaimed loudly and boldly, like we see at this empty tomb, it causes an earthquake. But it also brings Christ into closer proximity to our fear, and doubt, and pain, and brings us into closer proximity to his love, and grace, and freedom.

Matthew 14:13-22

The crowd is faced with a similar temptation as Jesus: should we leave this wilderness out of hunger...? But this time, Jesus doesn’t need them to martyr themselves. Jesus lets them be hungry, and meets them with compassion.

Matthew 5:1-13

There is no blessing for those who place order above wholeness, or the law above what is truly right. But there is a blessedness beyond reason to those who place wholeness and righteousness above human whims.

John 1:1-14

We will only be able to worship this tiny, fragile baby Jesus, when we dwell in his presence with those who are vulnerable.

Luke 2:1-20

Christ is brave enough, strong enough, powerful enough to stand the smell of this world, the ugly reality we know, the darkness all around us, and invite it into his eternal light.

Luke 1:26-38

Joy makes us live in new ways, with new habits, and new families, and new responsibilities, because we are called to herald the complicated, yet saving birth of Jesus Christ. We are called to herald new life—each and every time—by choosing joy.

Job 19:23-27a

Before any social or material change to his circumstances, and before anything concretely changes in his life, Job’s redemption comes in the form of an authentic articulation of his inner life.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Once we shake up the etch-a-sketch, and we accept the reality of our circumstances, that’s when we get to have fun. Try drawing a new image, in a new style, with a different story. You can use that image you drew to give inspiration to the next; our dreaming was practice for the new dreams ahead of us.

DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20

In the exodus from Egypt, in wandering in the wilderness, in observing the sabbath, in building the homes of God, and in prophesying against injustice, we see that choosing life places us on a path that is anything but straightforward; and we see that choosing life requires choosing it again and again.

Galatians 6:1-16

Paul writes to the church of Galatia about the obsession to be right and its close bedfellow: the obsession to gain power over others. But Christ’s crucifixion gives us a very different set of rules and affections, ones which will surely lead us to plant seeds for tomorrow.

Luke 9:51-62

Let the dead bury the dead, and let’s start making room for the living. Everything depends on plowing a furrow ahead, getting ready for the Spirit’s seeds of hope, and anticipating a harvest that our children and grandchildren will reap.

Acts 2:1-21

The Spirit pours out flames upon each of us, not for the sake of growing our finances, or for the sake of larger membership, but for the sake of our neighbors. We’re not a cargo freighter at sea; we’re a dinghy on a lake, and when we open our sail, can easily catch the wind of the Spirit.

ASCENSION OF THE LORD ∙ Acts 1:1-11

These disciples are rubbernecked to heaven — to a spiritual event of the past, and a ministry of the past, and their ways of the past. In trying to figure it out, they forgot about Jesus’ words: “To Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.