My family’s pew was on the Gospel side (left facing the altar) at the back.  We sat with the Hodge family.  It wasn’t always the case, but more times than not, that was our arrangement.  When I served my first church (where my father was raised and where my grandmother still attends), my grandmother would sit on the back pew on the Epistle side (right facing the altar).  “Granny, why do you sit in the back?” I asked early on.
“Oh, I don’t know.  It’s habit.  When your daddy was young, …

Tomorrow’s Old Testament reading introduces us to Abram (he’ll be Abraham later).  In a dramatic and typically biblical scenario, God calls Abram to leave his homeland and his family and go to the place God has prepared for him.  Not only that (but wait, there’s more!), God will make Abram a great nation, he will bless his name, and he will be a blessing to others.  Abram’s response?   “Ok.”
Abram didn’t realize he wasn’t in the ‘divine drive-thru’ and that those promises wouldn’t necessarily be ready for him as he drove …

Yesterday in USA Today, the front page statistical snapshot was of our experience of the supernatural.  Over 4,000 adults were surveyed in August of last year and 29% affirmed some connection with the dead.  Lesser numbers believe they’ve seen a ghost and consulted with a medium.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that reason why Halloween and scary stories/movies/etc. resonate with us so consistently is that there is something to all this.  I need to qualify that.  Do I believe that there are spirits of …