The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil;
for you are with me. . .
Read MoreWe kick off Lent, the season of reflection on “where we have gone wrong” and repentance, with a little review of the story of Adam & Eve from the Book of Genesis and “how they went wrong” and got themselves kicked out of the Garden of Eden. I say a little review because today’s reading is just a short excerpt of the longer story, which can be found in Chapters 2 & 3 of Genesis.
I’d like to start by drawing your attention to three key facts about this excerpt. First, Adam, and later, after she is created to help him, Eve, are placed in the Garden of Eden “to till it and keep it.” The underlying Hebrew words indicate that when God “placed,” Adam & Eve in the Garden, God intended for them to “rest, settle down, and remain” there, caring and serving it together.
Read MoreThere’s something compelling about this story and about what Jesus says: I will make you fishers of people. Over time, many Christians have taken up this invitation to Peter and Andrew and made it their own, taking it as the essence of their own call or mission in the world today. They are fishers of people, spreading the Christian faith far and wide, in the hope of attracting others to their faith and to their church. And some of these people who take this “fishers of people” approach most seriously are quite successful at collecting whole schools, if not teaming oceans, of fish-people to them.
Read More
