St. Paul United Church of Christ

In seminary we were taught to pretty much disregard words like the ones that begin this passage, “The end of all things is near.” “Early Christians,” we were told, “expected the Second Coming of Christ and the end of history to happen very soon. But we know that didn’t [...]

When your computer begins to run a bit slow and you get a pop-up window notifying you of an upgrade and asking if you want to download it now, do you think to yourself, ‘I don’t have time today. I’ll do it later” You put it off . . . and off . . . and off. Eventually your application grinds to a near halt. You now have no choice but to download the [...]

Improvisation is when you don’t have enough information to do anything but just take the next step. Actors say the secret to improvisation is to go only as far as you have to and not a step or second further. No justifications, explanations, exclamations. No ‘ahems’ or throat-clearings. Just one step [...]

In today’s passage, Jeremiah expresses God’s displeasure at the practice of human sacrifice, which at least some in his day were apparently indulging in. He makes it clear that God is categorically against the practice, and further, that any ‘god’ that asks for it is in fact no god at [...]

How do you wash something in blood and have it come out white’ Well, you can if it’s symbolic. It’s not real blood. Or a real lamb. Or even a real robe. And it’s not literally ‘white’ either. The blood, the lamb, the robe, and the color white symbolize other things. Once we’re taught what those other things are, we can think about them. We can think about the ideas of suffering, sacrifice, innocence, and redemption. [...]