Arguing with Heath about the tree in his front yard. I commented that it is a Live Oak. He said it was Willow Oak. Live Oak trees are only on the coast. No, I said, they are spread throughout the south and here is proof: you have one in your front yard. He insisted it was not a Live Oak.

Last week it fell to me to cook dinner, and I decided to try a new recipe that Patty had found online for Orange Chicken. The list of ingredients was not in the same order of appearance in the instructions, so I was jumping back-and-forth on the screen to get things together.

Listen, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Listen, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

If you know what it is like to feel — or to know — that you don’t know what you are doing; if you have ever had the experience of guessing correctly — or of being sure you knew what you were talking about when you did not; If you have ever been saved from a bad situation because of the good judgment of someone else — then you will understand how wonderful is God’s faithfulness to you, and how wonderful is God’s grace.

Me behind slow car — tried to take shortcut to get ahead — ended up on the wrong road.

“If you have ears to hear, listen.” Of course, the people to whom Jesus was speaking had ears. They just weren’t using them.

Pardon me if I’m a little groggy today — I just returned last night from attending the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden, and I am just worn out! Whew.

I don’t remember all of the details. But I remember the details that matter. The five of us — my parents, my brother and sister and myself — were on our way home from a visit with my grandparents. We lived in northern Indiana and my grandparents were in the bottom half of Florida, so the trip was about 1,100 miles. My dad often drove it straight through.

I was seated in the front, passenger seat of a police car. It was near the beginning of our shift — around midnight — and the police officer with whom I was riding that night had pulled into a parking lot. I had been the chaplain for the police department for less than a year, and I had discovered that being accepted by police officers was a tough nut to crack.

In Japanese mythology, there was once a woodsman named, Visu, who lived on a barren plain with his family. One night, while sleeping, he was awakened by a great “crack” from deep within the earth.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the most beautiful drives in our country. Beautifully maintained, it curves gently along the ridge line of the mountains, offering incredible views of the surrounding country. It’s peaceful, too.

This morning I had a piece of cheesecake from Camino Bakery in Winston-Salem. I often read something when eating breakfast and for lack of anything better to read today, I read the ingredient label on the cheesecake.

With our texts today, it’s hard to know where to start — there is so much for us to take in. In our gospel reading, we hear the disciples are gathered in fear, walled off from the world — but Jesus meets them and says, “peace be with you.” And then he shows them his hands and his side. Jesus — after all that has happened — after all of the hatred hurled at him — still proclaims peace.

In many ways I feel as if I haven’t got anything new to say today. In fact, this sermon is not so much a finely-polished sermon as it is an attempt to say the same thing over and over, in as many ways as possible — and I think that in this case that is okay, because there are some things that we need to drum into ourselves over and over.

Imagine that it is a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, and you are standing beside Saint Paul. He is standing in front of the supreme court of the Greeks in Athens— this council of judges is named after the Greek god of war, Ares — It is a court created to be intimidating, and they have called Saint Paul to testify before them about the things he has been saying to the people.

Jesus seems to be doing a lot of coming and going in our gospel reading today. And he asks for a lot of knowing and believing and being one — it's easy to get lost in it all. There are three things that come to mind for me in connection to our gospel reading today. First is the fourth of July. Second is a really bad book, and third is a vacation. If that doesn't make sense to you either, don't worry — I'll explain.

We celebrate today as the Fourth Sunday of Easter. It is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because every year our scripture texts pick up the theme of Jesus as the good shepherd.

The people of Calgary, Canada, had a few hours of excitement when a full-grown bull moose wandered into the suburbs and got lost among the houses. After two hours of trying to coax the magnificent and massive animal from one owner’s backyard, the Fish and Wildlife officer finally shot a tranquilizer at it.

All anyone wants is to be happy, really. That seems so simple, yet it often eludes us. Martin Luther spoke of “two kingdoms” in which we live. The ‘kingdom’ of this world, and the Kingdom of God. We stand with one foot in each. Luther’s “two kingdoms” recognizes that there are two diametrically opposed ideas regarding how one may obtain happiness. What is the secret to unlocking a life of peace and happiness?