"Jesus said, ask me for what you need, keep my commandments, tend my sheep, go forth and tell the nations—reach out into the corners of the world where there is no hope, cross social boundaries that everyone holds sacred. He says heal on the Sabbath, overturn the money changers in the temple, take water from a despised person, sit down and eat with the outcasts, and shout back to death—tell it “you don’t have the last word in my life.”He says tell people that God is close by—even inside the hearts of those who keep my one simple commandment—to love one another as I have loved you. Yes, it’s time for us to fight fire with fire—to have a revival of Christian love, to let the life that Jesus told us to believe in burn brighter than the death that surrounds us. It’s time for us to fight fire with fire—to speak up where Jesus is used to divide—to tell our stories of redemption, to say what Jesus has done for us."

“Fighting Fire With Fire" Scripture:  Acts 2:1-12; Gospel of John 14: 8-17, 25-27, University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill, NC (Pentecost May 2010).

“Perhaps the most dangerous place any of us could be is where the questions stop, where we don’t even bother to ask, where we don’t feel moved to notice God’s fingerprints all around us. God answers Job over and over again in scripture – in liberation, in compassion, in the Law, and in the community. And in Jesus Christ – who arrived on the scene with a message as old as creation itself – God loves you, God is close by , and God knows who you were made to be. Jesus can answer your questions and mine. Jesus says your soul has God’s fingerprints all over it.”

“Answering Job” Job 38: 1-7; Hebrews 5: 1-10, Davie Street Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, NC (October 2009)

“Jesus gives us a new kind of intimacy with God – this access to God’s crazy dream to have us all together in one place, singing and praising, praying and celebrating. Jesus embodies this kind of love – the kind of love that crosses lines, that sits down at the table with those regarded as unclean. Jesus loves us that way and tells us we can do it, too. We can befriend our enemies, with God’s help. We can welcome the stranger, we can even embrace the stranger in ourselves.”

“With Friends Like These…” Acts 10: 44-48; 1 John 5: 1-6; John 15: 9-17, The Presbyterian Church, Danville, KY (May 2009)

“You can feel called to ascetic practice from Paul’s words; you can also embrace the spiritual renewal that Christ gives us—even in our bodies, our flesh. When all is said and done, our passage today is about newness, transformation—and that it does have to do with the body. We hear these words when we are assured of God’s grace after our prayers of confession: anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.”

“Crazy Talk” Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17, Shallowford Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA (June 2009)

“Life lived in God is life lived for God, with God, and in response to God. Life lived in God is life lived with the assurance of love that knows no time, no space limitation, no kind of statute of limitation. Our Christian identity finds its integrity in God. Fear, therefore, is not our mode of operation. Instead, we trust, we seek, we pray, we hope…”

“Showing Your ID”, Psalm 90; Matthew 22: 34-46, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Durham, NC (October 2008)

“We all aren’t just fools to believe. We live and breathe the promises of Christ each day. We are those who have been changed, transformed by what Jesus gave us—the palpable presence of God, the peace that passes understanding, the Spirit-filled capacity to love even the hardest to love, the audacity to believe that God loves the world enough to heal it. You see the antithesis of fear for Christians is not comfort, it is JOY!”

“Behind Closed Doors” Scripture: Psalm 16; John 20:19-31 FPC Dunn, NC (March 2008)

“We could help give birth to Presbyterian congregations that no longer have just one race represented on their rolls. We could make segregated worship on Sundays a thing of the past. We could mother our church families through arguments and conflict until we can be a family again—a family that welcomes and accepts and embraces being in communities with people who do not all think the same on the hard issues of our day, especially on this issue of homosexuality—we can be the mothers who demand an end to fighting and a beginning to finding a new way to be church together.”

“Running On Empty” Scripture: 1 Kings 17: 8-16; James 1: 22-27; John 5: 1-9 Women’s Connection Conference Montreat, NC (August 2008)

“Take in that sense of truth and vulnerability-that sense of God’s faithfulness in the midst of it all. Let it penetrate you so that you might be who God is calling you to be-someone not afraid to feel the earth move and someone who knows a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”

“Earth Shaking”, Jeremiah 1: 4-10; Hebrews 12: 18-29, First Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, OK (August 2007)