Repent
Dan Schrock
Most news reports focus on sad, evil events. “Three People Die in Weekend Crash” says the headline on the front page of the paper. Listen to the news on your car radio and you might hear something like, “Today in western Kansas, a tornado ripped through several towns. As emergency workers rushed to the scene, […]
Meditation for Easter
Dan Schrock
There’s a detail about this story that always intrigues me. It’s this: Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus the first time she sees him. This is interesting because she had spent lots of time with him during his ministry. She knew the way his eyes twinkled when he told stories. She was familiar with the way his […]
A Time for Everything
Ginny Martin
Ecclesiastes is an unusual book of the Bible. It covers everything in life with bluntness, humor, and questioning. If you are an individual of doubt, then you could read this book. Here is some background information from the NRSV Harper Collins Study Bible (c1989, 986-988). Ecclesiastes stems from the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew […]
What The Preacher Said
Richard A. Kauffman
“In consolation, remember desolation. In desolation, remember consolation.” A great paradox; and this too sounds as though it is from Eccl., although it’s not. Ecclesiastes is full of paradox, contradictions, ambiguities that have long left readers puzzled. The writer seeks wisdom, knowing it is better to be wise than foolish, yet the wise and the […]
Easter
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
The challenge of Easter is that we have heard this story so many times, we stop listening to it because we know what happens. We know how it ends. Jesus died, and rose again. End of story. Now what’s for dinner? That’s the challenge for all of us, preacher and listener alike. We know this […]