Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. I think it’s time I got to some fundamentals preaching with you. Let’s eat. Let’s eat. Let’s talk again about the fact of our eating together. This as a gift from God, the ability to eat together at one another tables. And it makes us good, primitive apostolic age Christians too. We hear in the reading from Acts today that the disciples were generally having a joyous and good time together back in those days after Jesus ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire, gifts of wonder, healing, power. Lives being transformed, hearts turning to the still small voice humming within them like a swarm of bees, announcing that new life has taken up residence in the old self. “And day by day the Lord…

In stories of the roads, travelled with companions, and at the tables where we rest after our journey, we recognize God. We know God in the breaking of the bread, the gift of words broken open, stories from the difficult and dangerous roads shared in hope. On the road we share stories of life, of failure and going bust, of being picked up and stepping forward into the unknown, of wisdom and beauty gleaned as we went. At supper we dare to dwell with one another more deeply, we begin to let one another into our hearts. And our hearts are strangely warmed, set on fire as we listen, as we share a table and food with our companions, and know and trust God present and at work in and among us. And because the road I dangerous and difficult, we need each other there. The news media this week…

The prophet Ezekiel made sure to indicate that the bones were very dry. Where was this place? A graveyard, a charnel yard for letting bodies decompose down to just the dry bones, so that these could be collected and placed in a small tomb?  Was it a battlefield half-forgotten, the violence of war or siege long gone, but the bones still here, only drier? We don’t get to know that just yet. Just that the valley was full of bones, and that they were very dry. So, when presence of God, the spirit of God, the hand of God, asks Ezekiel ‘can these bones live?’  Ezekiel might plausibly have replied, ‘Maybe if they were nice fresh bones, but hmm, have you noticed that they’re very dry. I mean all the marrow is gone, not any red blood being made there in the hollow of the bones that can collect all…

“whether this man is a sinner I don’t know-one thing I know, once I was blind, and now I see.” Jesus is remarkably uninterested in sin in the gospel today. It’s not that Jesus does care about sin, or put another way, doesn’t orient his whole work and being toward destroying our bondage to those things that hinder and harm God’s creatures, and turning our hearts to be renewed in God’s image and likeness. It’s just that in this gospel he is just not very interested in the various people’s registers of debits and credits, their merits and demerits, who sinned and how much in our family. He is remarkably interested, indeed his gaze, his countenance shines graciously upon this blind man and his heart. Christ has established a work of healing and grace in the entire cosmos, we receive the way to eternal life from it. We might call…

Jesus thirsts. Jesus is not alone in thirsting. The thirst of all creatures, the thirst of God’s people, his thirst. Jesus reminds of our thirst. Jesus thirsts, and so lets our thirst lead us to God. All creatures thirst. You know, I was walking my dog yesterday, we go for a long walk on Saturday morning after we’ve eaten our oatmeal and kibble, and mr. dog has licked out the cooled oatmeal pot. In the summer we always bring a little collapsible bowl and a bottle of water. It’s cool but not cold, as I understand letting an overheated dog or horse drink too much too cold water can be dangerous. We stop in the shade, and we pour him a drink. We don’t even have to strike a rock or anything like that. We might open a spigot in the cemetery. Well, that’s the summer, when it is warm…

I’ve been pondering the words we hear today from genesis. “God placed Adam in the garden to till and keep it.” And I also wonder if you’ve ever been in position of being an employee-someone who works-or a supervisor or boss-someone who supervises. And something in the work went awry, went wrong, didn’t turn out the way it was expected. Or you aren’t happy with someone’s work, or you are happy with your work and the place you work. Believe me, I’d love to just talk about plants and gardening, and knowing how many gardeners are among you, and discuss what soil amendments you use, and what kind of shovel, and where you get your seeds and what you’re planting. Believe me, I think a whole big part of what God’s job description for the earthling, the Adam, involves taking good care of the earth and discovering the love of…