Story of Bible School This summer, The Vacation Bible School organized by the Bluffton Area churches, featured an ancient middle eastern marketplace. The kids were given tokens to go to different tents that each had a different activity that pointed to a bible story, or maybe a snack, and even...

King Darius, a rock and a hard place A common evening in my house consists of everyone on their hands and knees, crawling around the house, roaring. After watching a few scenes from the Disney movie, the Lion King, finding a lion Simba stuffed animal at et cetera, and buying...

Christ is king In 2019 rapper and musician Kanye West introduced a new album that took pop culture by surprise. At this point in his career, he had already stormed the stage during Taylor Swift’s Grammy reception to tell the world she didn’t deserve it, he shocked many with his...

Elizabeth Dirks One of the sermon writing practices that I have been doing each year for all saints day is to tell the story of a Mennonite from the Martyr’s Mirror as part of my sermon. We remember today an anabaptist forebearer, as we remember our loved ones who have...

Wounds that Heal Pain and Suffering I know what it feels like to be left out. I know what it feels like to be a teenager, unable to figure out how to enter into social spaces with “cool” kids. I know what it is like to not be invited. I...

Social Media and Polarization It felt like somewhere around 10 years ago, facebook became a different animal. Facebook came into the mainstream when I was in high school. At that point in time, you had to take a picture of yourself with a digital camera, then upload the picture onto...

Wisdom of Ants From Proverbs 30 vs 24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer hyraxes are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; locusts have...

Told to not Trust Desire This morning we are approaching the book of Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, depending on your tradition. If you ever want to feel a little hot under the collar, check out the rest of this book. Our section was pretty tame compared to...

This morning, we are going to be thinking about reparations: what they are, the history of conversations around reparations, and ways that the biblical story, and theology that has been created since, may support reparations. Clearly, I will be making an argument for them; however, this does not mean that...

King David’s third son, Absalom, was not the type of Old Testament character you would go to for informing your sexual ethics, your style of leadership, or what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Absalom was known for his love of pomp and royal processions. He was apparently...