Insights Blog, Church of the Resurrection

Exodus 20:17: The spiritual hazard of envying others’ lives

For some of us, envy is a constant companion, a set of lenses through which we see each experience, each person. It compels us to compare ourselves, our lives, our part...

Insights Blog Church of the Resurrection

Jesus really doubles down on “do not kill” (Ex. 20:13) in Matthew 5: 21-24. Jesus calls out contempt for others as a form of interpersonal violence, a form of murder. 

We live in a world of knee-jerk responses. Cycles of reactivit...

Commentary on Scripture for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Acts 28, "They Showed Us Unusual Kindness"

Paul’s journey to Rome is full of lots of action. Just picture it all: rough sailing on choppy seas, shipwreck, foreign lands, strange people, snakebite, healings, m...

Insight Blog Church of the Resurrection

Do not use Yahweh your God’s name as if it were of no significance (Exodus 20:7).

We call people we hardly know by their first name. That is a development of the late 20th century. Until the 1960’s, courtesy required using titles w...

Insights Blog - Church of the Resurrection

Luke 7: 1-10

To even call this passage about the Roman centurion a story about “prayer” (since that is the theme for this week’s GPS series) seems to say too much. There is no sense of any formal prayer here. No one falls on the...

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Commentary WorkingPreacher.org

July 7, 2019

This is the third passage in the last four weeks that invites us to step out of the reactivity that the world around us reinforces.

Jesus offers instead the consistent promise of peace and the nearness of God...

Luke 9:1-62 Commentary WorkingPreacher.org

June 30, 2019

We’ve all felt it. The rise in our gut when someone rejects our most cherished beliefs.

We recognize the need to justify our views, prove we are right, defend our faith. But we don’t stop there. We also have the im...

WorkingPreacher.org Commentary

Pentecost Sunday June 9, 2019

Acts 2: 1-21

It happened on the subway platform in Moscow. I’d been there for a week and I don’t speak Russian or understand it. For several days, my ears had been in a sea of gibberish, random sounds that I co...

Insights Blog, Church of the Resurrection

My first and deepest welcome came from my parents. I’ve been incredibly blessed to be loved by a mother and father who welcomed me into the world, into their lives, into my own life. This gave me the model for how God welcomes e...

Acts 9:1-6 WorkingPreacher.org Commentary     For Sunday, May 5, 2019

It’s a dramatic story.

A villain struck down by a flash of light. Jesus’ disembodied voice calling him out. We tend to assume that Saul is the bad guy in the story. But is he? It’s important...