Yes, questions are important. Just think about your own life. How many times were you in a situation that got blown all out of proportion because you, or someone else, did not ask a question. Relationships are based on asking questions not on assuming. Relationships are built on open communication and not secret whispering. I cannot tell you how many times I have been involved with counseling couples whose problem stemmed from not asking a question about some situation.
Read MoreJohn’s deliberate choice to include Jesus’ use of, “I Am,” was to emphasize Jesus’ divinity. “I AM,” had become the name of God in Judaism. It comes from the many times that God identifies himself in the Old Testament: “I Am YHWH, I Am He, I Am who I Am.” John is making sure the reader of his gospel knows that Jesus is the Great I Am.
Read MoreIt seems that Luke is not trying to prove that the resurrection of Jesus occurred here (his readers already believed that) but to tell something about Christian life. Remembering the early name for the church was “The Way,” and the other encounters that Luke tells us that happened on a journey such as Philip instructing the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:40) or Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19), you can begin to see why Luke chose this story as his lead article on the resurrection.
Read MoreIn this time where we are keeping social distancing and staying at home how then are we to answer Jesus’ call?
Read MoreI have had several discussions lately about how sad Easter will be this year since we cannot gather as family. Both as church family and our own family. Yet, if you think about it, this Easter will be, in nature, closer to that first Easter 2000 years ago than any other Easter that we have celebrated in the past.
Read MoreWe have been processing with palms for a long time – and washing feet, and stripping the Altar, and experiencing the darkness of the tomb, and hearing once again the passion of Jesus – but now we must go it alone. Jesus did.
Read MoreOf course our self-isolation is not some arbitrary thing foisted upon us by some authoritarian figure. It is a needed response to slow the COVID-19 pandemic and save lives. We know that, but it still makes us feel as if we are Mary or Martha and have lost an important part of our life; or even feel that we are in the tomb with Lazarus.
Read MoreI can tell you of many instances when tragedy-struck people wondered why God was punishing them. Or that they no longer will worship God because God allowed something tragic to happen: financial loss, cancer, death of a loved one. You know them. Perhaps you have been one of them. I know I have certainly questioned God about why things have happened.
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