Latest Sermon

“The Frankincense Diaries”

Scripture: Isaiah 60: 1-6; Matthew 2: 1-12
Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC
January 6, 2019, Epiphany

And just like the exploitation of my bark because of too much demand, because of greed, because of desperation, the holiness of that day in Bethlehem languishes. You have forgotten how to dream, you have forgotten that you can journey to a place where the truth will change you forever. The truth of God born in you, the truth of God born in resistance to enthroned power, the truth of God born into a world come home to itself. Why has this child been used to divide people, to shame people, to annihilate people, to destroy community, to concentrate wealth? What exploitation has gotten us to our current profanity of purpose as God’s creatures? You and I are not here to exploit or be exploited. We are here because God made us to be in right relationship.

History and Healing in America: Can Governor Northam Help or Hurt?

A few years after my mother was born in 1937 in Fayette, Mississippi, my grandfather, a carpenter, farmer, and contractor planted a live oak sapling in their front yard. He planted it in the center of the yard in front of the house he built for his family to grow along with my mother. Every summer while I was young we’d sit under that grand live oak in lawn chairs, you know the kind that left an imprint on the back of your legs and that you could replace the vinyl strips if they started to wear out. We’d eat...