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Habakkuk 3:17-19; John 20:19-29   From time to time, I come across friendly “skeptics,” 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, […]

1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 20:1-2, 11-18 One of my favorite stories can be found in One Hundred Years of Solitude, by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. For this extraordinary book, García Márquez was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. The story I like so much is about an insomia-like illness that one day

John 20:1-2, 11-18   John 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 an angel, who smells sweeter than all their perfumed oils. The angel

Psalm 118:14-29; Mark. 11:1-11  Friends, we have arrived in the Holy City. Finally!  After a long, interesting road journey with Jesus, we just entered in Jerusalem.  But Jesus is not an ordinary visitor, which explains how he is received with shouts of welcome and triumph – “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! “Salvation is here, salvation has come.

Acts 16:5-15; John 16:16-22 Our Lenten journey with Jesus continues – in just a few days, on Palm Sunday, we will walk across the walled city of Jerusalem and a multitude along the main road will be waiting for us. We all walk with Jesus to celebrate a new Passover – the annual festival to

Jeremiah 8:18-22; Luke 6:1-11     Like most nations on earth, Israel at times experienced very harsh days and suffering, and most Biblical witnesses felt that all that distress, all that suffering was caused by the nation’s idolatry and unfaithfulness. For prophet Jeremiah, for instance, some 600 years before Christ, these two words – idolatry

1 Samuel 17:1-11; Mark 4:35-41 Friends, I believe I told you that in the summer of 1977 I literally dragged both my wife and my 5-year-old daughter, Alejandra, all the way from Buenos Aires to Dallas for postgraduate studies at Southern Methodist University. Only 3, 4 years max in the US, and then back to

1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Luke 7:36-50   Friends, guess who’s coming to dinner? Do you remember this wonderful story in the Gospel of Luke? About a man named Simon the Pharisee? Well, Simon was hosting a special dinner in his own courtyard, and his very special guest was no other than Jesus, a sort of raising