Advent always begins in the wilderness with the voice of John the Baptist crying out. But what does the wilderness have to teach us? And why do we have to go through the wilderness in order to get to the manger in Bethlehem?

We are still in the wilderness with John who is preaching a firy sermon about repentance . . . and yet the other texts for today tell us to rejoice and shout for joy. Wait, what? What has repentance to do with joy and rejoicing?

Two miraculous pregnancies. Two prophetic songs that put the world on notice.

What if we need to lose Jesus so that we can find him and see him anew?

Christmas is not just an event for a day or even 12 days . . . its a way of life.

The early church found the story of Jesus' baptism "embarrassing." Why? And, are we any less embarrassed by Jesus, let a lone his baptism.

They have no wine. With these words, Mary speaks a truth about our lives.

Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah and in his first public sermon takes a very public stand about who he is and what his mission is all about. But that's not just about him, it's also about us.

Though these oft-quoted, much beloved and well-known verses in Paul's letter to the Corinthians are mainly heard these days at weddings, that was not what Paul really had in mind. He was actually trying to reorient a congregation that had lost its core--the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus gets into a weary and frustrated fisherman's boat with an empty net and tells him to go into deeper waters and cast his net again. There is more than one surprising result from Simon's tired obidience. 

Jesus delivers a sermon "standing in a level place" with a teaching so costly only grace could pay the price of it.

If you thought the beginning of Jesus' "Sermon on the Plain" was challenging, wait until you hear what comes next.

We follow Jesus up to a mountain top experience (yeah!); only to follow him down the mountain into the valley where reality awaits (yeah??).

Two paintings in my grandparents' dining room represent the Lenten journey--from broken hearts and dust smudged faces to new kennings and Easter Day.

The future is always coming to us and it comes to us as promise and risk.

A rapacious, conniving fox and a mother hen stand off.

In reponse to the daily news of tyrants and falling towers, Jesus responds with a parable about a fig tree. Wait, what?

In response to the criticism of the company Jesus is keeping, he tells this parable of two sons--one who runs away and one who stays--and their incredibly and prodigiously gracious father.

Often extravagantly generous gifts cause suspicion and disapproval--but not by Jesus.

On this night Jesus does something that definitely steps out of the "respectable" into something that seems "disreputable." And his disciples--especially Peter--are freaked out.

Faith in Christ's resurrection has not only been the heart of Christianity and the foundation of our hope, it has also been called an idle tale--even by Christ's most ardent followers from the very beginning. We need the empty tomb, and yet we struggle with doubt.

One week after the day of Resurrection, the disciples are still behind closed, locked doors. What will it take to get them to open those doors and realize Easter freedom?

Peter and and about a half dozen disciples have unlocked their doors and made their way out into the world again, and yet they return to what they knew before Jesus. Now Jesus calls them anew and sends them out to live the good news of Easter.

"How long are going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly" some people say to Jesus in the Temple one late December day. Jesus responds . . . not very plainly.

What would you want to say to those you love before you die?

We continue to be gathered with Jesus and the disciples in the upper room on the night of his betrayal. Last week we heard his "final marching order." This week he gives us the gift of peace and the promise of the Spirit.

The promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit arrived with rushing winds and tongues of fire but, most importantly, the gift of language.

It is a seriously humbling thing to contemplate God who is a blessed Trinity.

Using only his words, Jesus conquers Legion.

Jesus makes some uncompromising and uncomfortable statements about discipleship. How will we respond?

What does peace mean to you?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is always in danger of becoming a cliché. And, yet, if you pointed to this parable to state the essence of Christianity . . . would we be far wrong? Yet this parable is about much more than saying "be helpful when you come across someone in distress or need  . . ." This is a parable that proclaims the costliness of the gospel in a hostile and dangerous world.

Should we sit and listen or be active and busy? Is it a choice of one or other or both/and?

This gospel lesson would be a whole lot easier to hear (and to preach) if it weren't for the unanswered prayers in our lives.

Guest preacher, Mark Singleton, a member of St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken.

Waiting is a part of life--of every day life. But . . . no one likes to wait.

Is Jesus a disturber of the peace?

Compassion that sees the broken body, the broken spirit, the broken heart before it sees the broken commandment.

Jesus is a guest at a meal at a leader of the Pharisee's home on a sabbath day. He makes some observations about his fellow guests and his host and offers a parable . . .

Jesus is offering one of his "hard sayings" about what it means to be his disciple. We have choices. What and how will we choose?