Daffodils Defeat Darkness

Around here, people regularly recommend that heading over to the Filoli Gardens in Springtime—In the meadow there, there are literally millions of daffodils, all yellow and white—and a path that allows you to walk through them. The trees are in bloom with pink blossoms. Sunshine, birds, bees and gentle breezes. It is like the celebration…

This is the Night

Alleluia! Tonight more than any night we know some deep truths. Life is stronger than death. Light is stronger than darkness. Love is stronger than hate. The hard part is that the world often has a warped view of love. We make it about words that aren’t followed with actions. We make it about how…

Roller Coaster People: Come to the Carousel

Palm Sunday has got to be my absolutely least favorite day in Holy Week. We start with a parade, like a circus, with people waving palms. We get miracles like Jesus being placed on the back of an unbroken colt and he was not bucked off. People are waving palms leaves and yelling, Hosanna, Hosanna…

Be the Hen in the Fox House

  Recently, I’ve spent some time binge watching some of my television shows that I got behind on in recent weeks. I know that it’s Lent, and I should probably have considered giving up the time I spend watching television to do something more useful. However, I confess to you, my brothers and sisters, that…

Not the End of the Story

In the more than twenty years that I’ve been in the pulpit, my mom never heard one of my sermons. She said, half jokingly, that she didn’t need her kid preaching at her. Today, though, I want to share the sermon that she told with her life… to share with you the message of hope,…

Come to God with Open Hands

When I was about 21 years old, I travelled to a different country on my own for the first time. I landed at the Heathrow Airport in London and hailed one of the square black cabs. The driver was an older man who had been driving a cab for many years.  He asked me a…

God Helps Us Grow

Last week, my family drove to Southern California down Highway 5.  It’s a long drive, about seven hours. So I spent a lot of time looking out the window.  A lot of that land is agricultural land… and we saw farms that grew almonds, avocados, kiwis, olives, and all sorts of things. Several times, I…