Sermon at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church
Pastor Terry Kyllo’s Sermon at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, Kirland, WA.
Read MoreTerms of Compassion – Faces Behind the Fear: Part One
Challenge 2.0 airs on MeTV on Sunday Mornings at 7:30 AM. ‘Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’. So begins the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. But it is difficult to reconcile that promise with reality in this country, this year. In this edition of Challenge 2.0, ‘Terms…
Read MoreReclaiming Christmas
Americans are expected to spend more than 700 billion dollars on Christmas gifts this year. That’s an average of 16 million dollars every minute. The sense of disquiet over the commercialized version of the Christian Holy Day, a season often beginning before Halloween, is not new. The Puritans cancelled Christmas for 22 years in Boston,…
Read MoreWhen Money Speaks with Faith – Part Two
Last week, we explored the growing dissatisfaction with corporate misbehavior. Some within the faith community are increasingly recognizing what legal scholars have long pointed out; that the legal consequences for unethical and even criminal behavior by corporations and corporate leaders are typically far less certain or severe than for the same actions by people. What…
Read MoreWhen Money Speaks with Faith
In the 2010 ‘Citizens United’ case, the Supreme Court ruled that Corporations are ‘people’. But some legal scholars point out that the legal consequences for misbehavior by corporate ‘people’ are typically far less certain or severe than for such misbehavior by flesh and blood people. An increasing number of Americans are confronting such preferential treatment.…
Read MoreThe Gift of Thanksgiving, of Gratefulness
Thanksgiving was formally declared a public holiday by then-President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. This was during the height of the American Civil War-and the polarization, violence and sorrow that marked it. One hundred and fifty five years later-Thanksgiving remains a public holiday. It remains a challenging concept given the division of our times. The actual…
Read MorePolitics at Thanksgiving: Conversations at Family Holiday Gatherings
Understand the Dynamics Increasingly Americans no longer simply vote for a political party, but derive their primary identity from it. For some toward either outside edge facts, complexity, basic decency, and the health of the republic do not matter. All that matters is that our team wins. Tribalism reigns. We lose. There are several anxieties…
Read MoreFrom Rage to Reconciliation, from Tragedy to Transformation – Part Two
They were doing everyday activities we take for granted. Stopping at a gas station. Pausing for prayer. Traveling home. Yet each turned tragic-in some cases, life ending. None were the result of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Each was the result of aggression. Each person was targeted because they seemed…
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