One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (Which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). Let’s stick with the gospel of John a little bit longer, shall we? I…
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is really greater than me because he existed before me.’ Even I didn’t recognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified, “I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and it r…
Good morning! We’re going to try a little experiment here, and hope that it goes well. Each morning (or evening, depending on how the day shapes up) I’m going to take a read of the daily lectionary texts (follow along here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/daily/) and then share a few thoughts with you about them. Hopefully we’ll have all forty days of Lent together without missing any! …
A few days ago I was having a conversation with someone who had just recently discovered that I was a youth pastor. I love that moment, when people look at my bearded self and try to reconcile all their pictures of what a pastor is with what’s standing before them. It can illicit all kinds of responses. Sometimes people will try to convince me that they go to church, which is an interesting first r…
Matthew tells us that on an evening during Passover Jesus and his closest 12 friends joined around a dinner table to share a very special meal – although at that moment only Jesus knew how special it was. With sorrow but certainty Jesus looked from one of these friends to another. He caught their eyes and perhaps smiled, perhaps just looked into their souls as he could do so well. They waited in t…
