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It’s one of my favorite questions -and one of the 80’s more mediocre sitcoms: Who’s The Boss? That is also what this reading from Acts is all about: Who is in charge and why does it matter? Acts 16:16-34 16One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave... Read More
The blog is back! I took the week after Easter to do…very little. Mary Beth and I took a trip to Mason City to do a little Music Man tourism. I binge-watched a Norwegian political thriller. I baked my very first pound cake, which was not very good, and my second ever pound cake,... Read More
This week’s blog post is simply an invitation: come and see. Holy Week is better experienced than explained. First, a little autobiography: I discovered Holy Week as a college student. My Low Church evangelical upbringing treated Easter as a one-off. The notion of commemorating, for example, Maundy Thursday seemed exotic and strange to me.... Read More
Who is really in charge here? As the trial of Jesus comes to its terrible climax, the question hangs in the air: who is responsible for these events? Who can we blame? The answer, unfortunately, is: us. John 19:1-16a Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns... Read More
Are we ready? Are we really ready for God to come to us? Are we ready for the transformation that will entail? Are we ready for what will be required of us? John’s Gospel suggests that we are not. Over the last two weeks, we have learned how, at the moment that mattered most, the... Read More
This week our text offers us a hard look in the mirror –if we are willing to see it. Peter denied Jesus three times. Who am I to think that I will do any better? Or do I care enough to even bother denying Jesus at all? John 18:12-27 12 So the soldiers, their officer,... Read More
The Marie Green Award is given each year to two outstanding high school seniors who have been actively involved in the life of Plymouth Church. ... Read More
After a brief, flu-related hiatus, this blog is back. And just in time: Bring on the feet!... Read More
At face value, it is a pretty simple story: a man born blind is healed. But the more closely we read the story, the more complicated—and interesting!—it becomes. Who is truly blind? And who can really see? These are the questions we take up in the 9th chapter of John’s Gospel. John 9:1-41 As he... Read More
What happens when you talk to the wrong kind of people? You may end up surprising yourself, and your neighbors.This week’s text tells of an unlikely encounter between two people who have no business talking to each other. But the transformation follows in the wake of their meeting. It’s the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.... Read More