Pastor’s Blog (Page 6)

The sun has now set for good this Friday. Strangest thing happened earlier this afternoon: complete darkness for about three hours, then light again for a while before sunset. In all my years there’s never been a day quite like this one. Three men crucified together—that’s not unique. Neither was the soldiers’ disparaging and brutality of the condemned—I’ve come to expect…

In the opening pages of his gospel, Matthew informs us that the King entered our world as an infant. Matthew contrasts Him with that very small man who called himself Herod the Great. Remember the despot who was so threatened by what the magi said that he slaughtered all the babies in and around Bethlehem? Fast-forward from His infancy to the triumphal entry into…

Gaza…! and Jerusalem…! Two cities at war, headlining the news! Sometime back, the names of these two cities—Gaza and Jerusalem—were uttered by an angel. In the same breath! “Philip, arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26). Things were different then. There wasn’t a war going on. Or was there? When Philip arrived, he found a…

As a kid I loved watching Mutual of Omaha’s weekly episodes of Wild Kingdom. I never tired of Mel Perkins’ travels to the far corners of the world and the drama of the animal kingdom in their natural habitat. And I can still hear in my mind the insurance company’s advertising jingle: Mutual of Omaha is people You can count on when the going’s tough. Recently…