By Paul Koch – What a great day this is to be together in our Lord’s house. A […]
Christ
By Tim Winterstein – Today is a day for the silence of God. Through all the false accusations, […]
By Joel A. Hess – “Why would God allow that?” she mumbled through tears as she sat bent […]
By Cindy Koch – Wherever you look you will find me there In the heart of a rose, […]
By Cindy Koch – As a Christian, it should be a natural thing to know how to pray. […]
By Paul Koch – Ever since my wife and I returned from our adventure backpacking in the High […]
By Cindy Koch – Today in our world there is a battle between men and women. As a […]
By Paul Koch – Today in the church year we turn our attention to the transfiguration of our […]
By Cindy Koch – Most of us tend to go one way or the other. Along the spectrum […]
By Paul Koch – Easter is one of the greatest celebrations of the church year. Alongside of Christmas […]
By Joel A. Hess – A couple of years ago, Pope Francis announced that it would be easier […]
By Cindy Koch – Revelation is the scariest book in the Bible, says almost everyone. I just mentioned […]
By Joel A. Hess –
Lions don’t make good pets. Every year we read a story about some poor fool who wanted to have a wild animal as a pet. A couple of years ago, a woman’s monkey mauled her friend. I remember trying to have a raccoon as a pet. It didn’t work out for either of us. Then, of course, there are pythons sneaking in the neighbor’s bushes, alligators in New York sewers, and from time to time a Lion leaping over his owner’s fence and rambling down Highway 131. Wild animals don’t make good pets. Yet we can’t help trying to domesticate them.
By Cindy Koch –
“It’s just confusing,” she said. I waited another minute as she fidgeted with her pink ribbon headband. As force of habit, she twirled the ribbon and then chewed on a chipped blue nail polished thumb. Not usually the careful thinker of the class, I almost wasn’t ready for the question for which she was trying to find the words.
By Paul Koch –
When you go to a church, not just this church but really any church, you enter a place that is intentionally designed and laid out for a specific purpose. There are places to sit, these days padded pews or even chairs that are designed to keep you engaged and comfortable but not drowsy. There are the places where music is played and where the word is preached. There may or may not be various symbols of the faith in a church, there to give the wandering eyes something to focus on. Often times there is a large cross that serves as a focal point. There could be screens upon which images are projected that are used to help convey the message and set the mood, to keep the hearers up to speed on what is coming next. We have things like air conditioning for the warms summer days and heaters to keep us toasty during the winter. All in all, church is something we’ve come to see as a comfortable, predictable, reliable place—something that is well established and controlled.
By Paul Koch –
There is something fascinating and beautiful, even poetic, about a well-set table. When you enter into a room and the table has more glasses, plates, and silverware than seem necessary for a single meal, you know you are getting ready for something special, something beyond the usual. It is no longer just about eating; it is about an experience, about conversation, laughter, and fellowship. There is a ritual to the whole event as well, movements that all the guests will go through as they create memories that evening. There is love, I think, encapsulated in the abundance. In the courses and the wines, the cloth napkins and the dessert forks, there is graciousness and kindness.
By Paul Koch –
The moment when our Lord steps into the waters of the Jordan River to be baptized by John is of great significance for the understanding of our faith. Here the identity and purpose of our Lord’s arrival come into focus. John the Baptist is doing what his namesake calls for him to do: He is baptizing. He is washing the repentant children of God in the Jordan River as a testimony of their confession of sins and their longing for a new hope in the coming Messiah. Remember, John is preparing the way for the Messiah. He is the voice calling out in the wilderness. Things are going well. People are flocking out to him, to be part of this new thing. But all of it takes a strange turn when Jesus enters into those waters. The people had been entering the water to repent and so be ready to receive the Christ, but why does Jesus enter? What does he have to repent of? What sins does he confess?
By Joel A. Hess –
January is a dark month. Christmas is over. Family has gone home. Decorations are down. The days are short. The nights are long. And in the northern Midwest it is downright freezing! The Winter blues even has a name: seasonal affective disorder, or winter depression. Apparently the lack of light can affect our outlook on life. No duh!
By Paul Koch –
Today we arrive at the twelfth day of Christmas. On the first day of Christmas, we celebrated the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ, a partridge in a pear tree, born of Mary in the little town of Bethlehem. He came with the herald of God’s angels, appearing to shepherds tending their flocks by night. God had come to his people, and his people worshiped him. This was the long-awaited Messiah, and as we learn from the story of Simeon in the temple, the arrival of Jesus was the arrival of the consolation of Israel. Here was hope and assurance, comfort and promise. However, on the twelfth day of Christmas, we recall another group that came to worship our Lord, a band of unlikely guests that search him out and bring their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
By Cindy Koch –
We’re on the brink of another new year. It’s exciting to think of the big changes that could happen. Maybe I’ll start that kitchen project I’ve put off for so long, or drop those 10 pounds. Maybe I’ll put a little more time into friendship or family. Success, prosperity, love—these are the things you strive for as the seconds tick along the timeline that continues from before you were.