Staff Trax

If you remember, last week we began reading what we call Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. John had been arrested and Jesus had begun his ministry and started to call his disciples. He had begun traveling around Galilee, “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). And as he did this,…

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen.

Let me set the scene for you. Jesus had recently learned that John had been arrested. Once he had heard this news, he decided to move way from Nazareth to Capernaum, about 60 miles northeast. Capernaum was a seaside village on the north end of the…

I don’t know about you, but last Sunday was not a good day for me. First of all, I never like not having worship on Sunday and when I had to cancel worship because of the forecast, it put me in a bad mood. Then to make matters worse, I had to watch the Chiefs loose that night and get knocked out of the playoffs. The Chiefs had such a promising year going, they went 12-4 in the regular…

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen.

Our gospel story today begins with an image that the Jews of Jesus’ day would have easily understood. When John saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The mention of the “lamb “would…

Do you remember anything about your baptism? If you’re like me, you were baptized as an infant, which means you have no memory of your baptism.

Now, I ask this question because I find it very interesting that most Christians have no memory of their baptism, yet, we confess that baptism is the pivotal event in the life of a Christian. And the other interesting thing here is that…

Merry Christmas! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now I love this text, but it doesn’t seem very “Chritmassy,” does it. Where is baby Jesus, where are Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the manger… In the Gospel of John, you will not find any mention of baby Jesus, or Marry, or Joseph, or the shepherds. And, yet, the Gospel story…

Most of the time, when I see a friend or greet someone, the typical greeting is usually “Hi, how are you?” To which the typical response is “Fine,” or “I am doing well.” But I noticed recently that this time of year our typical greeting changes. Abut a week ago I noticed this typical greeting change to “Hi! So, are you ready for Christmas?” To which the typical response…

Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

When you hear this Gospel text today, you can’t help but think of Christmas, right. Oh, I know, technically, we are still in the Season of Advent. Technically, we are supposed to be in “wait” mode. You know preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming,…

Last week, we read about John the Baptist and he was confident, bold, and compelling wasn’t he? Remember how he had the courage and audacity to call the religious leaders a “Brood of Vipers?” Remember how he challenged every one to repent? And now today, only a few months later in the story, John’s tune changes. Now, he is sitting alone in a dark and dreary cell and he questions…

Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

So, throughout the fall our stewardship campaign theme was Now is the Time. As we focused on that theme we talked about how Now is the Time to get going; now is the time to make changes; now is the time to step up and do what…