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I’m sure you’ve heard of “Christmas in July.” But Advent in August is probably something new. I doubt that it will become a catchy phrase, though I do like the alliteration. The Session, Deacons, and I are having a planning retreat on Saturday, August 15. The major theme will be Waiting on God’s Spirit--hence, the connection between Advent and August, since Advent is a time of waiting. We’ve been reading a book by co-authors Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand that encourages

When you read this, my family and I will be with eight other members and friends of Covenant Presbyterian Church at Iona Abbey in Scotland. We are participating in the “Wild Goose Worship Week” from June 27 to July 3. The “Wild Goose” is a Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the Wild Goose Resource Group, who will be leading the workshops at Iona that week, is committed (“are” committed as they say in the UK) to worship renewal and helping congregations find new, innovative

Pastor’s Ponderings June 2026 . . . is the name of our new sermon series on the Book of Romans. I also thought about naming it “A Summer in Rom(ans)” but I ultimately decided that naming it “A Summer in Rome” sounded more enticing. If anything, we should use more adventure metaphors in our Bible studies to remind us that studying the Bible is not only like reading a travel guide to an exotic place but it also involves time travel and imagination and prayerful watching and lis

Just in case you’re not familiar with the expression “The 100 Days of May,” it is a colloquialism for the chaotic, high-intensity final month of the school year, commonly used by educators and parents. It symbolizes packing 100 days of hectic school events, projects, graduations, and preparations for summer into May’s 31 calendar days. My wife recently made an allusion to the “1,000 Days of May,” which might have been hyperbole but could also have been an acknowledgement that

For all of you who are inclined to attend the Easter Sunrise service this year on April 5 th at 7 a.m., I hope you will linger afterwards for our Easter Breakfast. I realize that Easter brunch will always be more popular than Easter Breakfast, but I love the tradition of Easter Breakfast. One of my favorite stories in the Gospel of John is the story of Jesus making breakfast for some of the disciples after they had spent a long night of fishing without catching anything (Joh

As we begin our Lenten journey together, I’d like to share something from church historian and author Kate Bowler on what Lent really entails. In a recent Instagram post she said, For the next thirty seconds, I’m going to de-influence Lent for you. If Lent is a reset, that is not Lent. If it’s a glow-up or a plan or forty days to get it together, that is not Lent. If it promises relief, or closure, or emotional resolution, that is not Lent. If it expects your grief to behave

During the month of February we continue with our sermon series on the Gospel of John. And this month the focus is on healing stories. We’ll witness the healing of a man who had some kind of infirmity for 38 years, the healing of a man blind from birth, and, perhaps the ultimate healing story, the raising of Lazarus. In John 5, the man with the 38-year-long infirmity keeps trying to crawl to a pool when it gets stirred up in hopes of being healed. When Jesus asks him dir

“The Gospel of Light and Love” During the month of January we will begin a new sermon series on the Gospel of John, and I’ve titled the sermon series: “The Gospel of Light and Love.” The first meta-metaphor (is that a word?) which we will explore is LIGHT. The Gospel of John begins by declaring that Christ is the LIGHT of the world, and we will explore what that means in our own day and time. Throughout the Gospel LIGHT is used as a metaphor for understanding (seeing). Ho

“Stay Awhile – Lessons in Divine Hospitality” You may be familiar with the expression, “Why don’t you pull up a chair and stay awhile?” In today’s fast-paced culture that expression might even seem a little quaint. But I’m becoming increasingly convinced that genuine hospitality is a gift that the church can give to anyone who’s exhausted from the rat race and ready to stop racing. This Advent, beginning November 30, Covenant will offer a book study of Stay Awhile—Lessons

Pastor’s Ponderings October 2025 At our Session and Deacons retreat in June we discussed how important hospitality is to the life of...

Pastor’s Ponderings September 2025 “Coming Home” The Bible is rife with homecoming images. God tells Abraham to go west to a new home...

Pastor’s Ponderings August 2025 In the month of August, we will conclude our summer sermon series: “Catching Up with the Spirit.” We...

Pastor’s Ponderings July 2025 “You’ll like this one! It’s about a prison break!” One of my favorite scenes in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” is that moment when Andy Dufresne, who has just acquired a significant supply of books for the prison library after persistently bugging the Maine legislature for more books and funding, begins recommending specific books for his fellow inmates to read. One of the inmates, Heywood, picks up a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo an

Pastor’s Ponderings June 2025 Catching Up with the Spirit This summer we begin a new sermon series on the Acts of the Apostles. We journeyed through the Gospel of Luke in the Winter and Spring, and the Acts of the Apostles is essentially the sequel to the Gospel of Luke. They were written by the same author. On first reading, Acts can seem like a truly wild ride. What are we to make of stories of miraculous healings, thrilling prison breaks, dramatic testimony before tr

Pastor’s Ponderings May 2025 Sharing with Others Where We’ve Found Bread One of my favorite definitions of evangelism is that evangelism is essentially sharing with others where we’ve found bread. It might mean sharing with others where we’ve found a supportive faith community that accepts us as we are, that welcomes us wherever we may be on our spiritual journey. It might mean sharing with others where we’ve found a community of people who want to learn together what it

Pastor’s Ponderings April 2025 In the Deep Dawn: A Reflection based on Luke 24:1-12 According to Luke, the women went to the tomb when it was deep dawn. Many translations say “early dawn” or “first thing in the morning,” but what the Gospel writer Luke is trying to tell us is that it was DEEP DAWN. Bathos in New Testament Greek. How early is Deep Dawn? I suspect that it’s very early, so early that my Apple Watch, when it’s set to the Solar Graph face, would still say

Pastor’s Ponderings March 2025 “On the Road with Jesus” In Luke 9:51, we read, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (New Revised Standard Version). Luke 9:51-62 is our Narrative Lectionary text for Ash Wednesday, and with that text we begin our Lenten Journey. This section of the Gospel of Luke depicts a long journey. In Luke 9:51, Jesus and the disciples begin their journey toward Jerusalem, and they keep traveling for

Pastor’s Ponderings February 2025 Praying and eating. Hardly a page goes by in Luke’s Gospel without Jesus doing one or the other. Accordingly, “Prayers and Tables” will be our focus as we continue our journey with Luke on Sunday mornings. Nine times in Luke, Jesus is described at prayer. Jesus prays at his baptism (3:21), after a hard day of ministry (3:15-16), before choosing his disciples (6:12), at the time of Peter’s confession (9:8), on the Mount of Transfiguration

Pastor’s Ponderings January 2025 During this time of year I think about Howard Thurman’s famous poem about the work of Christmas. And this year in particular I’m thinking about how closely the major themes of Thurman’s poem echo the major themes of the Gospel of Luke, which we are about to explore as we journey through the Narrative Lectionary. I hope that each of you has a had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas and I wish all of you the best in the coming year. Grace a

Pastor’s Ponderings December 2024 Weary is a good way to describe the state of our world as the calendar year 2024 comes to an end. Our world is weary of war, as conflicts in Ukraine and in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon continue. Our country is weary of conflict and strife and economic uncertainty. Collectively, many of us feel worn out. Weary. The world into which Jesus was born was also weary. The Jewish people had previously suffered oppression under the hands of the Bab