Luke 24.1-12 (It’s empty!) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Easter C, April 21, 2019 Tom James One of my pet peeves is opening a pantry door in the kitchen, reaching for that box of my favorite snacks, and finding that the box is empty. Why would someone leave an empty box in the pantry?! It’s one […]
“WWJR (What would Jesus ride)?” (Luke 19.28-40) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Palm Sunday C/March 20, 2016 Tom James Imagine the scene in any great American city. You have city residents, the poor and the wealthy and the many in between. You have city officials, and police officers, and first responders. Perhaps, in an unlikely confluence […]
Extravagant care (John 12.1-8) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church/Lent 5C (April 7, 2019) Tom James What’s the most important thing about human beings? What is it that makes us human? Twentieth-century philosopher Martin Heidegger said that perhaps the most important thing about us is that we care. “Caring” is more than what we do for other […]
Lost (Luke 15) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Lent 4C (March 31, 2019) Tom James What is it like to be lost? Coins don’t have any feelings, and so they’re not bothered by it, but I’m guessing sheep are. Animals that are accustomed to being in flocks like to be in flocks. There’s security in being […]
The faithfulness of “why?” (Isaiah 55.1-9) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Lent 3C (March 24, 2018) Tom James My dad was in the grocery business, and so was his dad. One of the many things I learned from my father that has shaped my life as a consumer of groceries is a little trick that grocery […]
City of Peace (Luke 13.31-35) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church/Lent 2 (February 21, 2016) Tom James The most important word in the Christian faith, says one prominent theologian, is “with.”[1]You’d think it’d be a longer word or a more impressive one! But the most astounding claim Christians make is that God is with us. In Jesus […]
The Weakness of Power (Luke 4.1-13) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Lent 1C, Kirkin’ the Tartans (March 10, 2019) Tom James Back in the 1980s, there was an anti-drug campaign that used the line, “Just say no.” Some of you may remember the ads. For people in my generation who were deluged with this message, it […]
The mountaintop and the valley (Luke 9.28-43) Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Transfiguration Sunday C (March 3, 2019) Tom James Have you ever been to the mountaintop? I’m not much of a hiker, but when I was a kid, I did a little mountain climbing. Now, this was in North Carolina, and my wife Michelle says […]
Many of us remember the Beatles song, “All You Need is Love.” Originally released in 1967, it had all the optimism of the mid-1960s, before the calamities that occurred, at least in our country, in 1968. Here are some of the words (I won’t sing them!): There’s nothing you can do that can’t be doneNothing […]
There is a popular TV show (actually, a Netflix original that’s only available on the streaming service) that talks about a place called “the upside down” (the show is called “Stranger Things,” in case you are wondering). Well, the upside down isn’t actually a place so much as a hidden dimension that is always present […]
