Recent Blog Posts

11/20/2022 – Reign of Christ Today is a big Sunday. It's the start of the World Cup. But it's a big Sunday for another reason as well. On the church calendar this is known as reign of Christ Sunday. What can we learn from both of these exciting and important...

11/13/2022 – Beautifully Odd When Jesus predicted that the temple in Jerusalem would crumble, is seems this was only a metaphor for what ultimately needed to crumble. Not the outside of the temple, but the inside. Jesus was a beautifully odd, strange and alluring...

11/06/2022 – All Saints Day This Sunday we celebrate All Saints Day. What can this day on the Christian calendar and the book of Daniel teach us about how we orient ourselves to time? Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube channel...

10/23/2022 – All Religion is Small Religion When Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple, it is spoken to those "confident of their own righteousness." I used to see this as a story addressing only the arrogant faith of my youth....

10/16/2022 – Wrestling With God A story of two estranged brothers. A story of wrestling and redemption. A story of limping into a new life. Is this CJs favorite movie or a text in the Bible? The answer is both. Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube...

10/09/2022 – Frogs Don't Eat Edamame IHow does Israel – whose defining story is God setting them free from slavery in Egypt – build God’s Temple using slaves, and produce priests and kings who commit injustice and abuse power? Today with help from a children's song,...

10/02/2022 – Unworthy Servants In our lectionary gospel text today, Jesus tells us we should think of ourselves as just unworthy servants when we fulfill our calling. This can feel uncomfortable to modern ears. What can CJ's life as a competitive athlete teach us...

09/25/2022 – Buy the Field With the Babylonian army about to take control over Jerusalem and all of Judah, God tells Jeremiah to buy a field. Why buy a field that is about to be unusable? How might this story be an encouragement for us today in 2022? Our services are...

09/18/2022 – The Parable of the Unjust Steward What can we learn from a shady steward who steals from his master twice ... and gets commended for it? Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube channel (https://ekklesiaraleigh.org/youtube). Join us Sundays...

09/11/2022 – Demoting 'The Greatest of These' A tragic reversal has taken place in our political and religous lives. Where policy/positions used to be flexible and civility/virtue nonnegotiable, we now embrace the opposite. Virtue has been demoted ... and we don't...