Did you stay up late and watch the Perseids meteor shower this week? I took my yoga mat out to my deck and just lay on my back gazing up at the night sky. The first thing I realized is that I should do this more often, even when there’s no meteor shower. To just lie on one’s back taking in the endless stars, the milky way hovering above like a comforting blanket, well, that’s something… And then, when a shooting star bolts through the sky in its fiery trajectory, that’s an added dose of pure...

If you had to put words to it, how would you describe God’s Kingdom? Jesus himself seemed to have trouble describing it as just one thing, so he used many images. In Matthew 13, he describes it as like yeast mixed with flour until it is leavened; or like treasure hidden in a field; or like finding a pearl of great value; or like throwing a net into the sea and catching fish of every kind… We still can’t put a finger on the exact nature of the Kingdom of God, but we get the idea that it...

I write this on the morning before the day of the 54th annual Summer Chicken BBQ. Between now and late Saturday afternoon, 600 tarts will be wrapped. 600 potatoes will be baked. 600 containers of coleslaw and sour cream will be filled and 600 half chickens will be barbecued in the church parking lot. It will require many willing hands and souls to pull this off. We are doing what communities of faith have done for millennia – coming together to live and work in community, because we believe...