Theodidacti

“No Mumblin’ Word”
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
October 4, 2009

Since I was a young man, I have had difficulty hearing out of  my right ear. When I get hearing tests, they tell me nothing is wrong but still, if my right ear is toward you and you don’t speak loudly enough, chances are, I am not going to [...]

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Habakkuk, says—and I paraphrase like a good Midwesterner: Though apple trees do not blossom and there isn’t a single red strawberry to be found, though the corn rots in the husk and the fields produce no wheat, though the cattle die in the fields and the milking barns dry up… I will shout the triumph [...]

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James 5:13-20
September 27, 2009
Augustine, the fourth century Bishop of the Church in Hippo, Africa (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless till it rest in Thee.” This seems related to the much older rabbinical teaching that a man cannot be healed until he deals with his [...]

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“Where Have You Been?”
James 3:1-12
September 13, 2009
Homecoming Sunday
Mark Twain once said that “it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” He probably shouldn’t have said that since it very likely offended someone. It is so easy to say the wrong thing or [...]

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During devotions this morning at the Police Department, in trying to explain the beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-11) to a friend, the following occurred to me as a way to read the core teaching of Jesus:

Happiness isn’t in wealth.
Peace doesn’t come from never having friends and family die.
There is no rapture in having the world cower [...]

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2 Corinthians 8:7-15 talks about grace in a little different way. We typically think about grace in terms of salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9). This passage tells of acts of grace and excelling in grace. I have long been compelled by the idea of receiving “grace upon grace” (John 1:16) so this idea of some excellent grace [...]

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My sermon yesterday was from 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 and was about not receiving the grace of God in vain. That’s a curious phrase, “we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Paul doesn’t seem to be saying that grace can be lost. What he is saying is that grace [...]

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Devotions at the Police Department are a new kind of thing for me. I mean, I’ve been doing devotions with the officers for years now but it’s always a different devotional experience. A little rougher; a little more in your face; a bit more basic. For example, a guy finds one of last Thursday’s [...]

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I was invited to pray the invocation and benediction at a local high school’s baccalaureate service today. Ashleigh Denny, a teacher at Rivermill Academy asked me and of course, I said I would. Since I’ve never been to a baccalaureate service before and wasn’t entirely sure what such a service was and how to pray, [...]

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The worldwide Church celebrated Maundy Thursday yesterday. It is a day that commemorates the last supper Jesus had with his disciples and the new commandment (mandatum novum, from which we get the now archaic word “Maundy”) he gave, to love one another. It is an occasion for Communion and Foot Washing in many churches. In [...]

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