As winter approached in 1941, German forces attacked Moscow. It was a massive maneuver — part of literally the largest military operation in history — and one that Hitler believed was vital for the success of his fascist empire. In fact, however, proved to be not just one of the most misguided military initiatives of…

Our first Sunday together was 12 January 2025, almost exactly one year ago. Anniversaries like this always render me reflective, a reality exacerbated by the installation celebration you have planned for me (and us) this coming Sunday, 11 January 2026. There’s a song by the group The Pretenders called “Mystery Achievement.” In it, songwriter and…

“We three kings of Orient are…” begins the famous carol. And perhaps like most things famous, it’s fairly polarizing. There’s the fact that the biblical story does not say there were “three,” and they certainly were not “kings.” It is also an Epiphany carol that gets nestled within Christmas carols. Across the years, “We Three…

Nearly 200 years ago, a man named Arthur Henry Hallam died at the age of 22 of a cerebral hemorrhage. His death profoundly affected his college friend, a man we know as Alfred Lord Tennyson. His grief was deep, and Arthur’s death literally shook the foundations of his world. He journeyed into and through his…

On Sunday, we reflected on truth and lies, considering in particular how truth endures no matter our attempts at twisting, distorting, or spinning it into something else… or our attempts to deny it completely. Jesus, as we saw and read clearly from Luke 8:17, insists that all those hidden machinations that are required to support…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how two people often experience the same thing in vastly different ways. In dramatic ways, we see this every news cycle as those within political silos of isolation receive vastly different information about what has happened and which is purposefully presented to provoke contrasting responses — and usually responses of…

Tonight is St. Nicholas Night; tomorrow is the Feast of St. Nicholas. I won’t pretend that the existence of a real St. Nicholas in the fourth Century is news to any of you, or that his sneaking gold into a house to save girls from being sold into slavery seems to have been the inspiration…

This Sunday, we move into the season of Advent — and with it, a new year in the Christian liturgical calendar. It is thus fitting that the Song of the Season with which we begin our worship each week likewise changes. And the song selected for this season is a new song (lyrics composed this year!)…

For most of the history of the United States, we did not have an official motto. There was, however, one dominant un-official motto. It was a saying so pervasive to our cultural and historic identity that it appeared on our coinage even before our Constitution was written… so widely appreciated that it appeared on the…

Within the scripture texts prescribed by the lectionary of late, as well among some of the song selections, there have been a considerable number of pronouns used to refer to God. For our readings, I have aimed to adjust those pronouns in accordance with our Community Baptist policy of more inclusive language and out of…