This is a big prayer— not a prayer for the timid! When we pray those words, we are asking God to take this world with its suffering and pain, its sin and oppression, and transform it into a world that reflects God’s will. Read More...

“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
— What we owe the government can be measured: for instance, the “total tax due.” That’s “line 56” on Form 1040.
— But what we owe to God has no limit. Read More...

This section of Paul’s letter to the Galatians might be headed “How to Grow a Christ-like Character.” The first time you try to plant a garden, you would profit from a more experienced person to act as a gardening mentor. That’s where Paul can help: “Paul’s Gardening Guide to a Bountiful Spiritual Harvest.” Read More...

When something is very familiar, you can forget how powerful— and often how radical— the message really is. That’s true for the verses before us today, especially, I think Galatians 3:28.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

To me, that verse is one of the great high points in the Bible, a great summing up of the epic Story that sweeps through the Book. Read More...

On August 23rd, 1973 two machine-gun carrying criminals entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. Blasting their guns, one prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson announced to the terrified bank employees, “The party has just begun!” The two bank robbers held four hostages, three women and one man, for the next 131 hours. The hostages were strapped with dynamite and held in a bank vault until finally rescued on August 28th. Read More...

This is Pentecost Sunday. Obviously, Pentecost isn’t a holiday the Christmas and Easter are holidays. But it deserves to be a special day on your calendar because it’s an annual remembrance of one of the great turning points in God’s Story. Read More...

Have you noticed how much of our lives are occupied with stories? We tell them. We listen to them. We watch them. There are the stories of the good old days, stories told to kids at bedtime, stories at family gatherings – including church-family stories. There are the stories that are a big deal on the news until there’s a bigger deal in the next day's news, and there are stories that have been read and watched and listened to by generations. Read More...

Before Jesus returned to the Father, he began preparing them to be witnesses. And he promised that he would not abandon them but send them the Holy Spirit. Jesus made that clear in the Upper Room as he prepared the disciples for his soon coming death and resurrection. In one sense, Jesus was leaving them. In another sense, Jesus has never left us: he has come to be with us in a different way through the Holy Spirit. Read More...

At the heart of Easter message is the powerful declaration that the worst onslaught of evil and suffering is no match for power and goodness of God. God’s power and love triumphs in the end! Read More...

The Church world-wide is having a difficult time right now. There are scandals over abuse. There is division over politics. So, today I want to say, I believe in the church. Read More...

This is a true story. A man attempted to rob a Bank of America in San Francisco. He walked into the branch and wrote, “this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag.” While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he started worrying that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he got to the teller’s window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. Read More...

I hope you have discovered and used the church’s web page. [If you are reading this, you obviously have!] It is simple, but it’s usually up to date with the latest information church happenings. One thing you will see there is a great church motto: A Church for the Least, the Last, and the Lost. I do think it’s one of the few church mottos that Jesus might have actually used. Read More...

Keep those emails coming! You share some of the greatest stuff. Bonnie had her granddaughter, Megan Rose, in church last week. Bonnie was explaining to her who was who. Megan got it about the pastors, the musicians, but she was interested in Larry. Megan’s take was that Larry is, to quote her, “the guy who makes sure you don’t leave early.” We mustn’t be having that. No leaving early. Larry, you are in charge of that. Read More...

There are times that are like views from a mountain top: we can see the terrain, we see where the path leads. It’s like being given a map: you see how the twists and turns of life fit together. If we could keep that perspective! If we could let those experiences nurture out values, hopes, dreams and decisions, we would be a far better and wiser persons. Read More...

“We were sitting at church this morning and Joel said the funniest thing. How kids minds work!  Nick walked in and Joel said, “Momma look Jesus is over there.....” I wanted to just roll over and crack up laughing but I couldn’t. He relates to Jesus by seeing pictures of him and his long hair.” Read More...

Have you experienced a call from God? If you are a Christian, God has called you even if you wouldn’t describe it that way. Read More...

In Valley Grace worship services, we stand when we read the main scripture of the day. This is not an empty ritual: it’s like standing when an elder comes into the room: we show respect and honor because they deserve it. Today’s Bible readings have the reading of scripture at their heart. Read More...

Jesus is full of surprises! I might like things to be predictable. Jesus doesn’t follow my agenda. I need to get used to the fact that Jesus may do things differently than I would! Jesus is surprising. Read More...

We might be surprised that Jesus was baptized at all. John the Baptist had predicted that the Messiah would come as a baptizer, not come to be baptized. Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Read More...

Why am I not wishing you a happy new year? Because according to the church calendar, it’s still Christmas! Huh? It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas any more to me. I went back to work yesterday. The decorations down, dried out Christmas trees in the street, everything dark and dreary. But according to the Church Calendar, this is the second week of Christmas. Christmas Two! Read More...

Mary did you know? Mary, what did you understand about Jesus? We know Mary as a model of faith and trust in God’s word. When Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive and bear a son to be named Jesus who would “be called the Son of the Most High,” and who would reign on David’s throne forever,” she was puzzled but ready to trust God’s word. Read More...

The Christmas season is filled with emotions. One emotion that you may not often feel is awe and wonder. It’s the feeling of being in the presence of something very great and marvelous. You may want to hide your face or dance with joy. You may be overcome with a certain kind of fear, or you may forget yourself completely. Read More...

Our text for this morning is Luke 3, the story of John the Baptist, but I would like to begin with Luke’s quote from Isaiah 40. These very beautiful verses are written for the people of Israel in exile in Babylon about 500 years before. The people of Israel were exiled in a country far from home. The temple now lay in ruins. They had no king of their own. They are a powerful announcement: dramatic change is on the way! Read More...

Both Jesus and Jeremiah, separated by six centuries, stood on the streets of Jerusalem and announced its destruction. The announcement gave them no pleasure: it brought both of them to tears. A prophet is someone who knows what time it is. Jeremiah knew that it was time for the people of Jerusalem to let go of false hopes: after a long and terrible night, Jeremiah said, God would bring a brilliant dawn of righteousness and justice. Read More...

One of my great joys is the Farmer's Market. We go to the one on Thursday mornings in front of Sears on Florin Road. I love the multi-cultural atmosphere, I enjoy meeting the people who sell their crops, and I very much enjoy eating the fresh fruits and veggies all week long. We've had fun trying new things. Read More...

Lots of us have been in church for a long time. And it’s possible that we still don’t know what the Lord’s Supper (we call it communion) really means. Read More...

There is a paradox that runs through at the heart of this passage of scripture as well.
• On the one hand, there is the deep assurance that our salvation is sure and certain, even guaranteed.
• On the other hand, you must take sin seriously or you risk God’s judgment and even loss of your salvation.
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There are times in your life when you become very aware of the passing of time. Time goes by relentlessly, like breathing, there are moments when the passing of time seem more significant. Read More...

I have been thinking about the pastoral message I will share during the ceremony. What will be my text? I got out my trusty mac-Bible program and put in the words “married, marriage” and did a search. This was one of the texts:

"From now on those who are married should live as if they were not." Read More...

For those of you who don’t know, in addition to being an online book store, and amazon is a medium sized parrot and this particular amazon was a good sized bird, beautifully green, very well behaved, sitting on the guy's shoulder. I like birds so I started a conversation. He introduced me to the bird and I was delighted. He said, “You can rub his head.” I don’t get a chance to be around the big birds very often. I asked him if he was sure and he said, “Absolutely.” The bird obediently put his head down to be scratched and I reached out. Instantly I had a parrot clamped onto my finger. Read More...

Paul's message was Jesus crucified. Yet it's not obvious that Jesus' brutal death is an expression of God's amazing grace and love. It certainly isn’t elegant and persuasive wisdom. Faith is a miracle of the Holy Spirit.
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Can people with obvious faults, weaknesses and failings be effective for God? God can use people like you and me because God’s grace is sufficient. Read More...

The Apostle Paul could not be accused of saying only what people wanted to hear! The gospel message that he proclaimed was amazingly effective as he went his missionary journeys through the Roman world. But the effectiveness did not come from changing the message to make it more acceptable. Read More...

I want you to imagine that Paul is writing with two groups in the Corinthian church in mind. This makes sense when the church is so divided. One group is happy the way things are; the others are disturbed with the condition of the church. One group we’ll call the satisfied; the other we’ll call the dejected. What Paul writes in these verses is for both groups. Read More...

What do you think more people experience anxiety about than anything else? We worry about health, relationships, success, whether someone we love will come to be part of God’s plan, but all these are dwarfed by our constant preoccupation with money and what it buys. The religion of western culture is consumerism. And we are all practitioners. High Anxiety. Read More...

OK, let’s start our Journey – our Great Adventure. There are lots of good journeyers to learn from, but, today we’re going to look at the teachings of The Master of Journey and Adventure, of Jesus himself, on this maybe even still, a little scary, topic. Read More...

The Kingdom of God is present when God so reigns in human hearts and the affairs of the world that his will is accomplished in its fullness. Read More...

Today we finish The Story. Of course, The Story doesn’t end, but we’re ending this particular series. So, why did we do this in the first place? We all need to see the big picture. There’s far more to being a Christian than Jesus-’n-me, and going to heaven when I die. Pop-Christianity so distorts the power and excitement of God’s plan that it’s no wonder people aren’t interested! Read More...

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Read More...

God poured out his Spirit on all the followers of Jesus at Pentecost and ever since, inaugurating a union with Christ that will be fulfilled at the end of time. That union cuts across gender, race, culture, class, and begins the uniting of all things in Christ in the here and now. Read More...

Let’s talk about calling. Cell phones have taken over our existence, right? I work in customer service. Lots of emphasis on giving really good service. And that’s a good thing. But how about some lessons in courtesy for customers? Amazing. People walk up to a teller, who is trying really hard to be friendly, helpful. Cell phone tucked under their chin, they grunt at the teller, make some kind of hand gestures which they apparently think lets the teller know what they want to do, and keep babbling on the phone. Never mind that there are people waiting behind them, and the teller really can’t do anything until they can break away from their chattering and explain what they want done. Read More...

As we saw last week, the Story we have to tell begins with creation. God made this glorious universe and all that is in it. And God declared that it was very good. At the pinnacle of his creation are human beings, the Eikons. Read More...

We want to get a feel for the large narrative of the Bible. Memorizing individual verses and short passages of the Bible is important. But knowing the grand sweep of God’s word is just as important. Read More...