In the gospel of Mark, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly and almost immediately goes into the temple to overturn the tables calling for justice and transparency in the religious leaders who are profited off of people seeking forgiveness and reconciliation to the God. Jesus exposes their money-changing practices as self-serving rather than God-fearing. In the gospel …
I have to admit, I am not sure that I knew the rest of the story of Jonah before my second year in seminary. After Jonah is saved from the big fish, he follows what God originally asked him to do and goes to Nineveh. After he shares the message from God (which isn’t a …
Close to Charleston, on Johns Island, sits the Angel Oak. The Angel Oak is hundreds of years old (some estimates even say it is over 1000 years old) and used to be nestled in the heart of a thick forest. Now, it sits in Angel Oak Forest and is free for anyone to visit. It …
On Monday, our five-year-old and I were reading an informational text about rainbows. One of the facts she read was that each person sees a different rainbow. Each person sees a different part of the rainbow because of where they are in space. Not everyone is the same height. Not everyone’s eyesight is the same. …
I was born right before Nike launched its “Just Do It” campaign. I remember the commercials vividly and I took it to heart. I was a three season athlete and took pushed through sprained ankles, two a day practices, with this phrase circling through my head. Those last moments of a nail biter, close match …
During this season of Pentecost, we are engaging in a series called “Teachings from the Trees.” This is an extension of our Creation Care series where we looked at our role and call to live in harmony with the created world around us and remember that we, too, are a part of that creation. We …
Teachings from the Trees: The Temptation to Judge Read More »
“Mom, look what I made,” our five-year-old exclaimed holding up a coloring page. “Wow! I love all the colors you used, but look you didn’t color over here,” I responded. Slowly, she turned the coloring book around and looked. “Mooommmm, you don’t have to fill every space.” As she moved on to another page, her …
During Eastertide, we are engaging in a series on Creation Care. We are asking the questions: What does it mean to live at peace with the natural world around us? Does practicing peace in this way change the way we interact and relate to others? This past Sunday, we looked at Genesis 2 when Creator …
Yesterday marked the first day of Spring. It was a chilly one here in South Carolina and necessitated digging through the coat closet to find the winter coats we had put away thinking the cold mornings had passed. This isn’t unusual for where we live. There is often a taste of Spring that tempts and …
Our kids love going on nature walks. They want to find creatures and treasures. It’s always interesting and fun to see what they find that qualifies. Often our Saturday trip to the park ends with what we call “turtle time,” or the search for turtles in the pond that is adjacent to the playground. For …
