Lord of the Rock

Lord of the Rock

Northern Virginia contains a particular granite known as “Occoquan” Granite.  According to the Geocaching website, between the Piedmont and Coastal plain regions of Virginia, along the Occoquan basin, resides a major outcrop of Occoquan Granite.  This...
Sacrificial Gifts

Sacrificial Gifts

The Gospel of John begins by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), echoing the creation story in Genesis 1. John’s account of the life of Jesus stands apart from the preceding Gospels, and his first...
The Greatest Tweet

The Greatest Tweet

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, and is the first of four accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Matthew is concerned with placing Jesus in the story of God’s saving work, which began in Genesis and continued...
Encountering Jesus

Encountering Jesus

The bishop stepped out of her office in Alexandria and greeted Harley Camden. She was nothing if not perfectly punctual and looked as handsome as ever in a light-blue blouse with clerical collar, black skirt, and black heels. Harley stood, shook her hand, noted that...
Tradition and Jesus

Tradition and Jesus

Pastor Harley Camden was happy to have his boat full of people, especially on such a lovely summer day. He had realized that a large part of his anger over the past year was grounded in loneliness. Yes, he was rightly upset about the way that his wife and daughter had...
Black Jesus

Black Jesus

Riverside Methodist Church in Occoquan had a black Jesus. Pastor Harley Camden noticed it the first time he walked into the small sanctuary and looked up at the stained-glass window at the front of the church. At first, he thought that the glass was simply dirty, but...
Recognizing Jesus

Recognizing Jesus

One of the strangest consequences of this coronavirus pandemic is our inability to gather for worship on Easter Sunday. Thomas Boswell recently wrote, “For now, we’re stripped of many of our customary forms of community, connection, enthusiasm and stress-reducing...