There is so much that is taken for granted by us. We do so, on a regular basis. Sometimes we take our families for granted. It is easy for spouses to feel neglected, especially during the child rearing stages. Children often times take for granted the love, support and protection of their parents. Parents sometimes […]
Sermons by PJ Mortenson
831 – 840 of 844 items
“Fuel for the Journey!”
Today, bread gets a bad rap. It wasn’t always this way. For centuries and centuries and centuries – bread sustained humanity. If you want to blame something…blame the carbohydrates’ it is all their fault. Bread has too many carbs for our sedentary lifestyles today. But that too, was not always the case. We walked more […]
It was supposed to be another feeding, or “so they thought.” That is (at least) what they all “wanted.” That’s why everybody showed up in today’s gospel. They got into boats, they raced after him. They chased after him to – wherever it was – that he himself – was going to go. They followed […]
Background information is crucial. You cannot just pull scripture willy-nilly out of its original context – and expect to find understanding and meaning. One more time, context is so crucial! John the evangelist is writing at the end of his life… (Some scholars believe this to be written 60-70 years after Jesus’ execution and resurrection.) […]
Newtonian laws of physics are not flexible. Atoms and molecules do not just “shape-shift” willy-nilly. And yet we know and believe that the wondrous, the marvelous, the unbelievable, the miraculous still occurs every day. Surprises happen, things that should not occur – do occur. Miracles do abound…still. We say that with our God, all things […]
I am no mathematician. That is a given. Checkbook – never look at it, just write those babies out – and know that Yahweh provides. I could not balance it, if I tried. It’s called faith, some call it stupidity! Algebra was ok. Geometry was fine. But Calculus, not so much. Multiplication is at the […]
Tonight we are talking about James the Great…or James the Greater… This James has been called “the greater”, the “elder,” and sometimes even the “major.” In the Greek his name is pronounced I’akwbos. These designations were – because there were two men, both named James in Jesus’ group of disciples…so they differentiated between the two. […]
The Church for whatever reason or reasons has been wrong about Mary Magdalene…for like, forever. She is not who we thought she was… It is sometimes held that Mary Magdalene was the woman that Luke tells us about who washed Jesus’ feet and then dried them with her hair…all of this was – despite her […]
I like Mark for the “unspoken contrasts.” The dinner party/slash/birthday bash, was a typical soiree of the rich and the famous and the powerful. You and I would not be present, nor would we ever in our wildest dreams be invited. Antipas is hosting the nobles, the chief Army Officers, and all the Galilean big-shots—the […]
This passage has Jerry Springer written all over it – and rightfully so. But before there was the Jerry Springer Show, there were the scriptures. This happens to be “just one of many” such cases and many such texts! If I have this right, (and I think I do) – Herod was initially married to […]