Canticles of Advent: Raised Up

Steve Lindsley Luke 1: 68-79 Have you ever had a song get stuck in your head?  The melody so catchy and a hook so irresistible that it will not let you go. The lyrics, clear as day, looping endlessly in your brain, long after the music itself has faded into the...

Canticles of Advent: Lifted Up

Rev. Rebecca M. Heilman-Campbell Selected Verses: Psalm 25:1-10; Luke 21: 26-35 It’s the first time I traveled out on my own in the capital city of Lusaka, Zambia. A bustling city with people selling their goods, traveling to work, building walls and businesses....

Not the Embrace of Retribution, but a Commitment to Justice

Steve Lindsley Selected Verses: John 8: 2-11 I’ve shared before some of the stories in A.J. Jacob’s best-selling book The Year of Living Biblically. You might recall this book recounts A.J.’s year-long journey to follow the Bible as literally as possible –...

Not the Absence of Evil, but the Boldness of Righteousness

Steve Lindsley Selected Verses: Luke 4: 1-13 He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, into the desert. He’s led there at the very beginning of his ministry. How’s that for diving right in? He heads into the desert, a place of absence, of nothingness, of scarcity....

It’s All That’s Easy, and It’s All That’s Hard.

Steve Lindsley 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 He was a prophet from the sticks. Not like Isaiah and Jeremiah and those big-city preachers. They got most of the press time and eventually lengthier books in the Bible. Micah was from the country outside of Jerusalem and was...

Not the Absence of Chaos, but the Presence of Hope

Rev. Rebecca M Heilman-Campbell Selected Verses: Jeremiah 32:1-17 I’m going to dive right into our passage today. Let me start out by giving you some context. This detailed story that I admit, if you have never read before, will raise major questions and maybe even...