Hagar and Ishamael run from Abram and Sarai's house. Rachel Held Evans teaches us to not forget their story as we search for the magic of the Bible.
As we welcome new members into Ankeny UCC, we look to Paul's outreach to followers of John the Baptist and understand how the diversity of our faith journeys changes us…
Sometimes, the stories are just a little bit funny, and we have to lean into the reality that we present our whole lives to God and one another.
Joseph's brothers convince themselves that the world will go back to the way it was before him if only they can eliminate him. But the world changes in unexpected ways.
Nearly everything in the Bible comes with a context. Pulling a sentence free of that context and applying it to any situation in life evades the truth of scripture. Meanwhile,…
One thing we sometimes do in Christianity is forget that the Torah contains a lot of thinking about what it means to love God and love neighbor. If Jesus comes…
By reading the Bible only in snippets, we can tell different stories. And in churches, we do. Reading the whole thing, and wrestling with it, and discussing it with others,…
John the Baptist's death shows us the lengths to which those in power will go to suppress criticism. The way we tell the story shows how they also often evade…
In the New Testament portion of our lectionary year, we hear the awkward phrasing and cut-down language of Mark, and ask what goes in-between. Reading through the spaces gives us…
Sometimes, the moment when the story changes totally doesn't look like the moment when the story changes. Sometimes, it looks that way in hindsight, and sometimes we convince ourselves that…
We are often tempted to tell stories of our righteousness, of how we have always been on the side of good. Jacob shows the power of a story that marks…
Our life stories have many treasures. Sharing them multiplies them, building our faith and the community around us.
The lineages of Jesus we get in Matthew and Luke go toward understanding who Matthew and Luke thought Jesus was, and what was important about Jesus. Since then, people have…
Sometimes God makes clear God's call. But in the midst of it all, it's hard to see that call's promise coming to fruition--through Abraham's life, it was not clear that…
Sometimes, our focus keeps us from seeing the absurdity of the situation and asking what's going on. When faced with a donkey asking us why we hit it, let's take…
Paul can be challenging sometimes. So challenging that the Jesus movement was a little dubious about his joining them in the first place. One of the biggest parts of living…
Worship outdoors under the shelter. It's a beautiful day. So we're talking about...Job? Never fear! There's hope in how we tell the story.
