by Susan C. Lim | Apr 23, 2024 | Scripture, Sermons
Love Loving the Word of God is a great pursuit, but it’s not always easy. Like most love relationships, there are inevitable highs and lows. And as teachers of the Bible, many of us walk a delicate balance between scouring and savoring the Scriptures. We carefully...
by Paul Koptak | Apr 16, 2024 | Book Reviews, Preaching
How Will We Preach and Teach from Proverbs? Reading, let alone preaching, from The Book of Proverbs comes with its challenges. Sometimes those sayings can seem just plain obvious and not much help in making real life change. John Goldingay’s new commentary reminds us...
by Scott Bullock | Apr 9, 2024 | Ministry
Lessons Learned in Quarantine and Beyond Do you remember that first Sunday when you stayed cloistered in your home with the immediate family, when you exchanged your dapper church clothes for a pair of pajamas and made pancakes in the pan instead of preaching from the...
by Scott Bullock | Apr 2, 2024 | Book Reviews, Great Books
A Great (and Weighty) Work of Literature That Will Delight Like Moby Dick and War and Peace, Les Misérables is a hefty novel. Affectionately known as the ‘Brick’ for its formidable length, it could either frighten us away or be kept on a night stand as a trusty...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 30, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection It is striking that after Jesus’ death there are no close companions left to claim his body. All his public followers scattered. Only a secret follower, Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, both members of the Sanhedrin, requests his body for...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 29, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection The television series Alone follows ten individuals who are left to fend for themselves and by themselves in the wilderness. Now, these aren’t everyday individuals plucked from Main Street, USA or Times Square. They are survivalists, hunters, and trappers,...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 28, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection We all are aware of cultures that have a hierarchy—a pecking order. The elite and the hoi polloi. The acceptable and the unacceptable. In such cultures, the hierarchy determines the role. The “hoi polloi” serve the elite, the “unacceptable” serve the...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 27, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection “I took the money, I spiked your drink, you miss too much these days if you stop to think… waves of regret and waves of joy, I reached out for the one I tried to destroy,” sings Bono of Judas Iscariot in the song “Until the End of the World,” from U2’s 1991...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Mar 26, 2024 | Easter
Easter after Resurrection Sunday One of the challenges of the Christian calendar for pastors is that we often put so much energy into Holy Week, that by the time we reach Easter Sunday, and particularly, the afternoon of Easter Sunday, all we want to do is rest:...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 26, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 book Dead Man Walking, adapted into a 1995 film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, tells the story of her work with two convicted killers on death row. She finds empathy for these men as they relate their lives to her. In the...
