Matthew 1:18-25 At the end of this passage, Joseph suddenly seems brave, awaking with resolution. Matthew describes Joseph as righteous and obedient, but we may add afraid. His fiancée, with whom he intended to start a family, is already with child. This will bring social disgrace, even from family and friends, but Joseph …

Luke 1:26-35 “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” Recently a young couple confided to me that they were trying to have a baby. Of course, I offered the traditional congratulatory affirmations and thanked them for letting me share in their …

Isaiah 11:6-9 When the prophet Isaiah gets around to describing God’s hopes for the world, the imagery sounds somewhat utopian. The wolf and lamb will lie down together, same for the calf and the lion, children will play where snakes live and somehow won’t be hurt. Woody Allen famously said …

You often miss it while traveling through airports in large cities.  But you can still glimpse it here at our antiquated airport in Kansas City.  Because our airport gates are arranged in a circular pre-9/11 configuration, you still get to witness the moment of arrival.  A middle aged couple wearing …

One of the little boys in our church’s preschool raised his hand and volunteered to be a donkey in the annual preschool Christmas pageant.  Then a few days later one of his friends told him it was “stupid” to be an animal.  So he went home and told his mother …

John 3: 16-19 A 13 year old’s Christmas Morning Checklist: Open stockings. Eat cinnamon rolls. Call paramedics. Wait, what?! Paramedics aren’t on the list. There’s supposed to be church and a big meal and playing with presents, right? Well, that long-ago Christmas morning in our house there were paramedics. Then …

Mark 1:1-3 The Christmas tree has been trying to tell me something. It’s the perfect Currier & Ives tree. So pretty you can almost hear the baby angels singing O Holy Night. But moments after we think the tree is secure in the stand, the cat innocently sashays underneath and you can …

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 Scholars call it intertextuality, placing one thing next to another. One of the classic examples is how the prodigal son parable in Luke’s Gospel could be echoing the Jacob story in Genesis. Lots of reverberations there when you set those two next to each other. Whenever I …

Luke 1:46-49 We are just a few days from the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus and I can’t help but think am I ready? Questions and thoughts keep bubbling through my mind…. Have I taken time to think through all the ways I can make the day special …

As we prepare for the church year, it’s my practice to think about Christmas during the previous July. For 2018, I wanted to find a piece of music with great spirit to it (something that would cause Rev. Joe Walker to spontaneously whistle in the hallway after church), but with …

John 1:1-5 The Bible helps us understand Jesus better with references to light. For example,  He illuminates the darkness, His glory glows, and His love radiates in us and through us. In the physical world, we are drawn to sources of light like basking in the sun, watching a candle …

Micah 5:2 Hope is a part of being human, and hope takes many forms. We hope that traffic isn’t bad on our way to work, or we hope for our favorite sporting team to win their next game. All December, children hope for their favorite toy to be wrapped underneath …

Matthew 1:18-24 One day in Catholic school the dear old nun was teaching us about Joseph’s dream in which he is called to be Jesus’ earthly father (Matthew 1:18-24). Sister told us that Mary was a better example of discipleship than Joseph because Mary said “Yes!” almost immediately to God’s …