John 6:56-69 Dear Partner in Preaching, Aren’t there moments – maybe many! – when you want to say just what “many of his disciples” said: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Once again, it is as easier for me to identify with the crowds who misunderstand and question Jesus than with Jesus himself. Because what Jesus has been saying, and what we have heard these past four weeks, is indeed hard to listen to and hard to understand. That Jesus is the bread of life? That he provides the only food which truly nourishes? That he gives us his own self, even his own flesh and blood, to sustain us on our journey? These are...

It’s been a while – maybe too long! – since I’ve posted anything from Kid President. And Friday seems like a great day to make that up. So here is Kid President’s “Letter to the Future.” As usual, it is incredibly upbeat and orients us to positive action – particularly the simple but profound act of believing in someone…and telling them that! But I’m also intrigued not only by the notion of writing a letter to the future – I probably think too much about the future already! – but also and even more by the idea a) that changing the future doesn’t have to mean...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to imagine a future all that different from the past? We somehow get stuck in patterns of behavior and eventually come to believe that our past performance isn’t simply a predictor of our future behavior but rather its guarantee. And so the older we grow the less open the future seems and more ominous the past looms in our lives. The key to all of this, recent psychological research tells us, is story. Because the past isn’t simply the past, it’s the interpreted past. The past, in short, is the story we’ve told ourselves about the past. Which is why two siblings can...