Isaiah 63:7-9; Hebrews 2:10-18
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
A few weeks ago, I found myself in line at a discount store looking exactly like the Mom I thought I would never be—the one with too many Christmas presents for her kid. Looking for something entirely different, I had wandered into the children’s section and found a fantastic […]
Last night, my latest issue of Brain, Child arrived.
There’s a great review by Kristin Kovacic of three books about teenagers (by the way, all of these books have longer titles, but I’m too lazy to type them, so click the links to see the subtitles):
The Stardust Lounge, by Deborah Digges
What It Takes to Pull Me […]
Hebrews 11:39-12:3
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
If we at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church needed a new pulpit Bible, we’d take out the catalog of a church supply company and place an order. Within a week, our new Bible would arrive. And that would be that.
But in the mid 1990s, the Benedictine monks of St. John’s College and […]
Esther 1-2
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
During July, those of us working our way through the Year of the Bible together will find ourselves reading Esther. It’s a great story. Many of us know bits and piece, or maybe the Sunday School version of the story. But, many of us also find that it’s one of the […]
John 17:20-26
May 20, 2007 (Confirmation Service)
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
A few weeks ago, I decided to venture into the world of Facebook. Facebook is a social networking website. You type in your profile, and look around to find profiles of other people who you already know. I found my siblings, college and seminary friends, high school […]
Joel 2:12-13; Joshua 24:14-15
February 21, 2007 (Ash Wednesday)
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
My husband Erik and I were raised in hiking families, and when I say hiking, I mean the kind that includes being out of touch with civilization for days at a time. We know what it’s like to loose track of your place on the […]
Luke 21:25-36
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
December 3, 2006
Back in the Sunday school rooms, Marilyn Church and Charlotte Drew are sitting on the floor with a group of completely transfixed 4, 5 and 6 year olds. On each wall of the room, there are low shelves with boxes and baskets. And just about now, Marilyn is […]
Tough Bible passages are par for the course when you’re a preacher. If you’ve read my most recent sermon, you know that it was a bit of a doozy.
Pastor Carl (head pastor at Fox Valley) decided to do a sermon series on the Ten Commandments this fall. By the luck of the draw (analogies to […]
Exodus 20:14; Mark 10:1-12
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
October 8, 2006
A true confession to begin the sermon. (That ought to get your attention in a sermon about adultery!) I spend too much time reading advice columns. If I’m busy, the “Ask Amy” column might be the only thing I read in the Tribune. When our home […]
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
June 25, 2006
Fox Valley Presbyterian Church
At 5:30pm, four weeks into my first year of being a teacher and a minister, Mrs. Bailey caught me on the phone just as I was about to lock my door and leave my classroom and go home to try to recover from another […]