In Matthew 23, Jesus calls the Pharisees out for a strange practice – they tithe their household spices, but they “neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faithfulness.” What Jesus is doing here is not denouncing the practice of tithing, but rather pointing out that the Pharisees have gotten to a…
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Pastor Jay has been gone for a little bit, so you may have dropped behind in your reading for Mark. We recommend that you catch up via the podcast with the following episodes: Mark 7 and 8 – https://universitylutheranchurch.org/sermons/together-with-jesus-mark-7-and-8/ Mark 9 and 10 – https://universitylutheranchurch.org/sermons/together-with-jesus-mark-9-and-10/ Mark 11 and 12 – https://universitylutheranchurch.org/sermons/together-with-jesus-mark-11-and-12/
I learned to play chess when I was young. I actually taught myself from a Bobby Fischer book, but because I taught myself, I never really got the actual playing concepts of the game. I knew how the pieces were supposed to move, but knowing how the pieces are supposed to move is an important…
I’m writing this before I leave for Kenya, but if the Lord wills it and everything has gone well. I should be back in the United States when this newsletter goes out. That will mean a lot of things, but probably one of those is that things will be returning “back to normal” in many…
I’m writing this message before I actually leave for Kenya, but since I have been once before I can give you the broad strokes of some of our trip to Kenya. We left Atlanta in a flight to Amsterdam and then another flight to Kenya. All in all, that’s a lot of time in the…
“Well I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the kind….” As I write those lyrics, you may remember them as the one-hit wonder “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers. For whatever reason, the Scottish duo’s band name has stuck in my head – the “Proclaimers”. Our…
I have rarely been without clothes. When Jesus tells the people in Matthew 25, “I was naked and you clothed Me,” I have a hard time conceptualizing that personally. But I can understand not having the right clothes. I remember moving to the United States from a tropical country and needing a winter coat. There…
I used to be the president of my neighborhood association. I don’t know that I have ever had a more disillusioning position. When Liz and I moved into our neighborhood, we were greeted by a smiling, bubbly woman who came bearing some kind of bready sweet thing. Later, we met the old hippie who walks…
Today (April 25) is St. Mark Day, the traditional commemoration of Mark the evangelist. Normally speaking in terms of church history, we commemorate someone special in Christianity on the day of their death, the day they go to be with the Lord. St. Mark died a long long time ago, so I’m not sure how…
I have one of those watches that tells me how my sleep was last night. The news isn’t good this morning. Under the number of hours that I should be sleeping and getting up more in the middle of the night than what is restful. The software that tells me about the metrics taken by…