There are approximately a gazillion people who, if asked, would readily identify themselves as Christians. They would tell you, very solemnly and sincerely, that they certainly could be considered “Christian”. However, a high percentage ofthem have a very nominal faith. Maybe it’s because they never have had the time, the

   It was sometime during Lent, and I was preparing my Easter Morning message to share with my congregation in New Holland, Lancaster County, PA.  My young associate was a newly-ordained pastor who, looking over my shoulder, begged me not to choose “In The Garden” as one of our congregational hymns. 

The occasion for Jesus’s footwashing was most likely the night of what came to be called “The Last Supper.” As the followers of Jesus gathered in the Upper Room to celebrate the Jewish Passover with a seder (a special traditional dinner combining ritual with informality, hilarity with solemnity), no one

     That’s a question that has provoked many answers, actually generating more questions.  Sometimes you will hear people say, “He came to show us God’s love. He came to be an example for us.”  Of course, that’s true.  But there is a final, all- encompassing answer:  Jesus came to

     I was reflecting on the old expression, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”  To a certain degree I think I understand that.  It is tweaking our imagination to realize that we have our whole life still ahead of us and can make it what

I have always been intrigued by manger scenes, ever since my childhood.  I like to imagine what each participant was thinking, and wonder if the song of the angels was still humming and vibrating in the night sky.  Where did the concept of re-producing a manger scene originate?  Tradition says