Staff Trax

Fifty days ago today was Easter Sunday, the day the church celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus. On that day, Christians all over the world gathered in churches to attend worship, sing songs, give thanks and praise to God for not just the life and death of Jesus, but more importantly for his Resurrection. For the past seven weeks every time we have gathered for worship we have begun our time of…

This Sunday, June 9, is Pentecost Sunday. In the story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21), we are told that all the disciples were together that day, “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with…

Did you catch all that? “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me”…

If you know me, you’re probably not surprised that I am an extreme optimist. I look for the good in people and situations. This can be … ahem … annoying, as I like to “romp through my field of daisies” instead of looking at things in a more realistic light; I leave that up to my auditor husband!

God obviously created us to be different from each other, and I find it so interesting…

John 14:23-29 Common English Bible (CEB)

²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I…

As we prepared for Easter on those final three days of Lent, we read this same Gospel text as part of a longer reading for Maundy Thursday. This story takes place on the night before Jesus was killed. Jesus was having a meal with his disciples and as part of that meal he had washed their feet and he had just predicted a betrayal by one of his disciples. Before he went on to say any more, he said…

This is a special week in the long history of Salem. On Wednesday, May 15, Narthex purchased our sanctuary and Luther Hall. As part of that sale, Salem is now debt free, is in the process of developing a $500,000 mission endowment, and is focusing on developing new outreach ministry offerings that will help us be the church God is calling us to be. We may not own the buildings any longer, but…

Did you ever ask a question to which you already knew the answer? I know I used to do it as a kid all the time, especially when my folks had told me I couldn’t do something or get something. The question that I would ask after they would say ‘No,” was "Why can’t I…?". And oftentimes I asked it so much that my parents would get mad, and then I knew I was done asking it when my mom would…

The Jews in Jesus’ day had been waiting for their Messiah for a very long time. This Sunday, we will hear them ask Jesus again if He is the Messiah; but when they don’t like his answer, they want to stone Him. He tells them they don’t believe because they are not one of His flock, and they don’t recognize His voice.

“But the voice of truth tells me a different story: the voice…

Follow Me! That is what Jesus says to Peter, and to all of us who proclaim with our lips that we love Jesus. Don’t you just love Peter? If there is one thing we can say about Peter, it is that he was consistent. He consistently bumbled around as he tried to figure out what Jesus expected of him and what God was calling him to do. We first heard about Peter in John’s Gospel in the first chapter.…