‘Follow the Leader’ My husband is a big Bob Dylan fan, so we hear Dylan’s music quite a bit in our house. Not that I am the greatest fan, but Dylan’s lyrics, more often than not, make me think. No wonder he was an icon of the 60s, and his early […]
Can you believe it’s almost Labor Day again? Labor Day traditionally signifies the end of summer, although, according to the calendar, we still have a couple of weeks of summer left. For many students, school has started again – or will start after this weekend. Good-bye to the carelessness of summer, hello again to […]
‘Light of the World’ Music and words by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson I am just a stranger, in a promised land I am only learning a game with the rules I don’t understand Going round in circles, I’ve been round before I am lost in so many ways, I can walk no more […]
Over the next Sundays, you will hear a lot about the Jesus Christ, the bread of life. I have to admit that I am relieved that I don’t have to preach 4 times on this subject matter, because talking so much about bread would go stale quickly – pun intended. The next two Sundays, […]
After the feeding… Today’s gospel story is very dense, very complex – there is a lot happening. But the central story of the feeding of the 5,000 stands out. What a spectacular event, what a miracle! And I could preach something you might have heard before: Jesus Christ has the power to satisfy our […]
It’s been 15 years now that a book by Dan Brown was a smash sensation. Do you remember this book? It is the ‘Da Vinci Code’. Has anyone here ever read it? I have to admit that I gobbled it up. I like good stories, and this IS a good story – […]
An Inconvenient Truth In the gospel stories we heard over the course of the last weeks, Jesus more often than not challenges and even upsets those around him. A Greek word that is used repeatedly in those stories is ‘skandalon’, from which our word ‘scandalous’ derives. Jesus causes quite a few ‘skandalons’, quite a […]
Just a couple of days ago, we celebrated the 4th of July, the day on which, in the year 1776, the Declaration of Independence from British Rule was ratified. Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence? I admit I just did in preparation for this sermon. And I’m glad I did, because I […]
A couple of weeks ago, the news broke that Anthony Bourdain, a renowned chef, author, and host of television shows like ‘No Reservations’ and ‘Parts Unknown’, had committed suicide. Has anyone here watched any of his shows? My husband and I loved to explore the world with Bourdain. And for us as pastors, for […]
And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s go across to the other side.’ But before we travel with Jesus and the disciples to that ‘other side’, let’s quickly recall what happened on ‘this side’, which is the west side of the Sea of Galilee, the territory called Galilee, which includes Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth. Some […]
Today is June 17th. For many Germans, who are a bit older – which includes people like me and most of you – this day holds a special significance. From 1954 until 1990, June 17th was the Western German National holiday, called the ‘Day of German Unity’, ‘Tag der deutschen Einheit’. Now everyone who […]
A couple of weeks ago, a quite curious court case made the headlines: a couple in upstate New York sued their 30 year-old unemployed son to move out of their house. They had asked him repeatedly to pack his things and leave, become independent, to get a job and a life, but […]
One, two, three, one, two three… This is a special rhythm. The technical musical term is three quarter time; the most famous dance to this rhythm has become known as the waltz. But even before the waltz became fashionable at the court in Vienna in the late 18th century, it was a favorite among […]
Pentecost – the commemoration of the coming of God’s Holy Spirit among Christ’s followers – is one of the high holidays on the Christian calendar. But it doesn’t have the same significance to believers as Christmas or Easter – I mean, just look around you. We don’t draw the same crowds as on other […]
As you all know, our church calendar sometimes competes with special secular days. Today, we observe the Ascension of our Lord – in fact, last Thursday was Ascension Day, but since we don’t come together for worship on Thursdays, we commemorate it today instead. But what does our society celebrate on this day? Mothers’ […]
It is one of the most beautiful words in the world: amour, lyubov, amor, rakkaus, ahaba, Liebe, love. Every culture in this world knows this special affection we have, this thing we often cannot explain, this emotion that defies all reason, this deep bond we have to people, which causes us to sacrifice of […]
Who here likes wine? White or red or both? Or maybe grape juice? We are spoiled here in California, and especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the finest wines, not only in the country, but in the world, are grown here. Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley may be […]
When my kids were still in elementary school, we lived on the coast, just north of Half Moon Bay. We had 3 large dogs at that time. That was quite a handful, but fortunately there was plenty of open space around to just let the dogs run. Yes, I had heard that, occasionally, a […]
Maybe you have heard about it in the media: there are not only professional dog walkers out there, but also people walkers. I’m not kidding. It started 2 years ago with a man named Chuck McCarthy down in the LA area. Chuck is one of the many aspiring actors who is more […]
One saying we have in the English language is, ‘Don’t hold your breath!’ And what this basically means is, ‘Don’t get too excited about something – it might not happen, or not be as exciting as you think’. Have you ever been in a situation where there was so much excitement, so […]
