Posts from November 2012

Advent prayer

O God of all seasons and senses, grant me your sense of timing      to submit gracefully           and rejoice quietly                in the return of Advent waiting. In this season of short days and long nights,      of fog and grey and cold, teach me the lessons of waiting:      of the rain joining the mystery           of the hunkered down seeds…

What waits within?

Worship is a time to “wait within”.  We wait within our tradition, community, scripture, prayer, communion and experience for a sign from God.  We wait to feel connection with one another.  We wait to hear the story of Jesus and to find our place in his story.  We wait for the desire to love our neighbor.  Waiting within worship takes practice.   What is most difficult for you about attending worship?  What brings you comfort?

God’s picture.

From the witness of scripture, from the experiences of our lives and within the tradition of the church, God acts in ways that speak to a bigger picture than we hold.    After the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991 many lives were shifted.  Neighbors helped neighbors.  Persons who had never met became friends and formed lasting relationships even if they did not choose to rebuild.  For those who stayed,  the area was rebuilt with more attention to safer and sometimes…

Toward Sunday

  We begin a new worship series this Sunday called WAITing WITHin.  We will spend the next four weeks exploring the themes of Advent as we prepare for the mystery of Christmas.    A note on Advent from A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck & Rueben P Job:  Advent marks the beginning of the church year and lays before us the pathway of faith for the year ahead.  Advent initiates once again remembering, retelling,…

Ending or beginning?

  Apocalypse is a Greek word that means “revelation” and is defined in biblical literature as “an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling.” The correlation between events that are in the future from the point of view of the speaker, but past from the reader’s perspective establishes the validity of the ensuing prophecy or the certainty that all history is under divine control….The apocalyptic predictions in Mark 13…

Reaching in Love

As thousands of people streamed by The Table @ Central yesterday, they were inspired by the music of Sankofa. It was a stunning show of humanity.  We ARE all in this together.  If you stopped by to have your picture taken but did not receive an email from us you may find yourself here.  Thank you to everyone who chose to reach in love by Running to Feed the Hungry in Sacramento, California.

Run To Feed The Hungry

How will you reach in love this Thanksgiving?  Run To Feed The Hungry.  Join us!  Run, Walk, Cheer, Dance… 5265 H Street 8:15 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.

Reach in love.

Some among our community plan to participate in Run To Feed The Hungry.   This annual Thanksgiving run in Sacramento is in support of the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services and the finish line is up the street from the church.  Some of us will run, some will walk, some of us will stay at the church and cheer for 30,000 people as they reach in love for their neighbor.  This year we are taking a free photograph of anyone who…

Toward Sunday

There are many ways to study scripture.  One way is to simple “be in the presence” of a passage and to note what words or phrases stay with you as you read through it.   Word clouds are created to by giving prominence to the frequency of words in a text. This is a Word Cloud of our passage for Sunday.  Read Mark 13.1-8 silently to yourself and jot the words down that you recall.  Read it again out loud to…

Traveling Light

Jesus doesn’t seem concerned about traveling light in the passage from Mark for this week. He orders the disciples to “take nothing for the journey”.  I would have argued. Because I am a working mother pastor, I would have argued.  I would have said “You just don’t like to plan, you just don’t get what is required to travel and clearly you don’t have children.”  Or I might have said “You don’t really want to include me do you?  Because I…

Toward Sunday.

We are studying the Gospel of Mark  and have encouraged folks to read the whole Gospel in one sitting.  If you do this you may notice a tone of urgency about the writing.  Frederick Buechner in his book “Peculiar Treasures” says this about Mark’s gospel: He was a man in a hurry, out of breath, with no time to lose because that’s how the people were he was writing for too.  The authorities were out for their blood, and they…

Remembrance

  Remembrance Words by Andrew Pratt The “crimson poppies” in the opening line recall the red poppies that bloomed all across the worst World War I battlefields in Flanders and that grew in abundance over the graves of fallen soldiers, made famous in the 1915 poem “In Flanders Field” by Canadian physician and Lt. Col. John MacCrae. Once crimson poppies bloomed out in a foreign field, each memory reminds where brutal death was sealed. The crimson petals flutter down, still…
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