The Progressive Reverend

The other night, Neil and I decided to watch a movie. Scrolling through Netflix, we saw a new movie called Society of the Snow. The title intrigued us, so we clicked on it, only to find out it was about a plane crash in the Andes.  Neil and I have been nervous flyers since we encountered horrible turbulence on a flight back from St. Louis. I immediately said I didn’t want to watch a movie about a plane crash, and Neil hurriedly agreed. We don’t need any more reasons to hate flying.  I didn’t think much about this again until I went to write my sermon this week. As we wrap up our series on Jonah, we explore trust and God. Trust is a difficult concept for most humans; it doesn’t help because the internet, telephone, and in-person scams are constant. The media scares us every chance they get. We are always on alert for danger, so trusting someone new can be difficult. But why is it so hard to trust God? On that turbulent flight back from St. Louis, I sat between Neil and Kaie, ho...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how Jonah has much to teach us about our lives and our relationship with God. Unlike the other prophets, Jonah does not obey God. He seems a little more down-to-earth and relatable.  As I spoke to our new Sunday School staff on Tuesday about this week, there were a lot of questions regarding the validity of Jonah’s story and how they are supposed to investigate the fact that the whale swallowed Jonah because he didn’t listen to God.  The story of Jonah is an epic “fish tale” told by ancient storytellers to get people's attention. Listen to God, or else this might happen to you! But yes, this message can be scary, especially for children.  This raises the question: does God punish us for not listening? I think before Jesus, this was the tactic God used to get people to listen; however, because of Jesus' life and death, the cycle has been broken, and we have extended grace.  ...

  Happy New Year! I was talking to a colleague about New Year’s resolutions, explaining how badly I failed at last year's resolution to read 52 books; I think I only made it to 20. (Lee, you told me so.) How embarrassing! I ran out of steam after about six weeks, and then my reading schedule slowed to a trickle. I mentioned that I was somewhat shy to proclaim yet another resolution that I might end up failing. My colleague declared how wonderful it was that I read 20 books! I gave her a strange smile, and she said she read the most amazing blog post by theologian Rev. Nadia Boltz Weber, which changed the way she thought about the New Year. So, I want to share this blog post with you. I hope that, like me, you can see the humour in it, but also take a moment each day to be a little gentler with yourselves. If your New Year's resolution is to lose 40 lbs and you lose 6 lbs, then celebrate that you lost 6 whole pounds. If your resolution is to climb a mountain but you only manage ...