Text: Psalm 39 Some psalms soar. “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, thou are there.” Some psalms make you want to dance. “Praise God with clanging cymbals. Praise God with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Some psalms wrap their arms around you like a loving parent: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, fo

Text: Luke 7:36-8:3 “Paint a picture of the church.” As a child, you take things quite literally, concretely. So, that is how I took my Sunday School teacher’s instruction to do an exercise that I hated, largely because I flunked “Coloring 101.” When I looked around the class, though, my best friend, Robbie, loved this exercise. He could draw an amazing cathedral with a towering steeple and a long, seemingly endless nave. He would then add gargoyles, just for a bit of flouris

Text: Genesis 1:1-3 The year was 1925. The place was Dayton, Tennessee. The occasion was the trial of a biology teacher, John Scopes. The charge was teaching the theory of evolution, which was illegal at that time. The prosecutor in the case was the three-time Democratic candidate for President, William Jennings Bryan. Using his formidable rhetorical skills, Brian fought fiercely to uphold a Tennessee law that made it unlawful, quote: “to teach any theory that denies the stor

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14 My grandfather attended the Newport News Apprentice School soon after the First World War. He then went to work for the Newport News Shipbuilding Corporation, where he worked for the rest of his life. His job was routine and far from exciting, but it was where he made his closest friends. He was a part of a community that he cared about and that cared about him until he died. I am sure that some of you can tell a similar vocational story, but not many ca