Author name: Pastor Ariel Ferrari

Mark 5: 21-24, 28-43   I love the story of Captain Hook and the nasty crocodile in Disney’s version of Peter Pan. At some point in his life, Captain Hook’s hand was bitten off by a crocodile. The crocodile liked it so much that he spent the rest of his life chasing after Captain Hook, […]

Philippians 4:1-7;  John 16:28-33 I’d like to begin with a story about a man who was a tremendous worrier. He worried too much, and about everything. Even worse, he was worrisome — he worried other people with his worry. He couldn’t sleep at night because he worried so much. Well, one day he came out

1 Corinthians 11:23-26;  Luke 24: 13-18, 28-32 Friends, did you ever ask yourselves why we celebrate Holy Communion, and why we do it the way we do it? Depending on your own Christian heritage, you may be inclined to talk about Holy Communion as the Last Supper, or the Lord’s Table, or even “the Eucharist,”

Isaiah 66:13;  John 19:26-27;  Proverbs 31:26;  Luke 1:46-49   Someone mentioned a new American version of the Bible that opens like this: “In the beginning, everything was created by Hallmark, and Hallmark saw that everything created was good. . .” Friends, even if such version of the Bible exists, let me tell you something that

Genesis 32:22-31;   John 16:31-33   Today I’d like to talk about Mr. Jacob, one of giants of the Old Testament, someone who, I’m sure, must have inspired Jesus more than once. A true giant, for Jacob never stopped struggling. As a matter of fact, Jacob was born struggling. Even in his mother’s womb he struggled

Habakkuk 3:17-19;   John 20:19-29 From time to time, we may come across friendly folks who say that they would believe in God if God would only send them a sign –I take them seriously, for there have been times when I felt the same way. Frederick Buechner, a well-known preacher and inspirational writer, has read

  Isaiah 6:1-6;   John 21:1-19 Our Gospel reading today narrates one of the most dramatic “incidents” with Jesus’s disciples, right after Easter. Somewhere by the Lake of Galilee, a bunch of weary, dispirited professional fishermen lament an unsuccessful night – in fact, they have caught nothing. Suddenly a stranger appears and gives them some unrequested

John 20:1-18 One of the most entertaining and inspiring stories I ever read can be found in the book One Hundred Years of Solitude, by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. For this book, García Márquez was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. The story I like so much is about an insomia-like illness

Mark 16:1-8   Mark, in his gospel tells us that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome come to the tomb of Jesus covered in black, prepared to see a corpse. Instead, they find the stone rolled back and see a “young man dressed in a white robe.” This “young man” all in

The Easter story and the Easter news, if you remember, begin very early one morning when a messenger tells the women by the empty tomb not to cry because Jesus isn’t there — he is already on his way to Galilee. “Ladies, Jesus is not among the dead, neither he belongs to the past! He