Beginning tomorrow, Lent is once again upon us. As in year’s past, I’ll jump ahead to where we currently are in our devotional journey through John’s Gospel – the monumental John 3:16, no less! – to John’s story of the Passion of our Lord. (We’ll return to finish the rest of John after working through the passion story in Lent and resurrection accounts at Easter.) I have long suspected that preachers should treat the Gospels the way parents regard their children – no favorites! But while I’ve managed that with ease with my kids, I confess I haven’t done as well with the Gospels. And, truth be told, John is probably my...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Somewhere along the line – whether in a college English course or seminary preaching class I can’t quite remember – I was taught to craft a tight, clear theme sentence to guide the whole of the essay or sermon. I’ll confess that I don’t do that every week, but I will this time around. And keeping with the brevity of Mark’s Gospel – and, indeed, his somewhat truncated version of the temptation – I’m going to keep it short: the same Spirit that descends upon Jesus at his baptism now drives him into the wilderness. Did you ever notice that, by the way? That immediately after his Baptism Jesus is...

With six hours of travel and another inspiriting site visit, yesterday was too busy to post. Unbelievably bumpy roads, suspension bridges, incredibly gracious hosts, insight into the lives of the people that produce the cocoa beans from which comes the chocolate that so many of us love, and more all filled the day to overflowing. The cooperative we visited consisted of more than 65 small farms (often of about two or three acres each) and growing. It takes 25 farms to come together to form a co-operative, and often many co-operatives are drawn together to form a second-tier, or national co-operative in order to most effectively partner...