There are a couple of things in my life that I've long been fascinated by. Of course, if you've gotten to know me, you won't be surprised that these are weird, abstract things. One of them is the mystery of consciousness. What is going on in our brain, physically? How does that produce self-awareness, perception, understanding, creativity? Another is the gap between people. Whence language and how do we communicate? What is the nature of all those emotions that happen between people,...

Way back in 2023, we celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the building we worship in today. Those people, our spiritual ancestors and, in many cases, our literal ancestors had faith in our community grounded in Jesus Christ, and because of that faith, had hope that our community would carry their faith into the future. In faith and hope, they began and completed a project to provide a building not only for themselves, but the future generations of families who would worship God here, not...

The beginning, that is, verse 1 chapter 1, of the Gospel of Mark is "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God." All the gospels tell the story of the life, or at least the important part of the life of Jesus. In Mark's case, it is profound that the first verse, where Greek writers would put a title, is "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God," because that means it applies to the whole work. Verse 2 starts telling about John the Baptist and skips any...