Posts from December 2014
A prayer before sleep.
Radiant Morning Star, you are both guidance and mystery, Visit our rest with disturbing dreams, and our journeys with strange companions. Grace us with the hospitality to open our hearts and homes to visitors filled with unfamiliar wisdom bearing profound and unusual gifts. Amen. (from the Revised Common Lectionary Prayerbook)
Toward Sunday
We begin a new four-week series this week called What Keeps You Awake At Night? At the end of the day, when we have finished our work and are ready for rest, often our fear and anxiety get the best of us. Rather than finding rest we find worry. Instead of being able to fall asleep, our minds turn over endless “what ifs.” We will explore passages from the Gospel of Matthew and Mark as we wonder together about how…
Perspective
The story of Jesus being presented for registration by his parents at the temple is depicted by many classical artists. Below are two. The first is by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (now you know why we usually just refer to him as Rembrandt) (dated 1631). The second is by Andrea Mantegna (dated between 1450-1500). Mantegna was noted for the way he shifted the perspective in his work. He gave great, close up details. The figures in his work often have…
To Find the Child
All are welcome to worship with us at 5 & 11 pm on Christmas Eve. Our 5pm worship will be geared toward families of all ages and stages. Our 11 pm worship will include communion. At both we will hear the Christmas story, light candles and sing. To find the child one must see the star. To see the star one must go into the darkness, the pain, the fear, the emptiness, the hidden weeping, the heart’s dark wounds. Only…
Toward Sunday
We look forward to gathering for Candlelight Christmas Eve worship services this week at 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm. All are welcome. While most of the world will finish with Christmas on Thursday, we celebrate Christmas as a season lasting twelve days. We’ll gather for worship on the first Sunday in Christmas on December 28, 2014. This will be our final worship gathering in 2014. Take some time this week to reflect on the last year. For what are you…
Toward Sunday
Outline of Worship Series. November 30, 2014 Mark 13.24-37 December 7, 2014 Mark 1.1-8 December 14, 2014 John 1,6-8, 19-28 December 21, 2014 Luke 1.26-38 We turn this week from John the baptizer in John’s Gospel to Mary in the Gospel of Luke. In 12 verses, Mary is described as favored, perplexed, thoughtful, and afraid. She questions, believes, and submits to her vocation. Given this array of emotions it is not a surprise that Mary is depicted in many ways…
Toward Sunday
We turn this week from John the baptizer in Mark’s Gospel to John the baptizer in John’s Gospel. In this telling of the story of John the baptizer, we’re reminded that John is not the light, but came to testify to the light. John is a witness. Outline of Worship Series. November 30, 2014 Mark 13.24-37 December 7, 2014 Mark 1.1-8 December 14, 2014 John 1,6-8, 19-28 December 21, 2014 Luke 1.26-38 Begin by reading John 1.6-8. Wonder about…
Dark and Light.
It is hard to find any “good news” this week. Followers of Jesus may recognize this phrase “good news” from the beginning of the Gospel of Mark: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ…” (Mark 1.1.). “To help his readers understand their troubled situation, Mark proclaims Jesus. But to understand Jesus, he looks back to the Scriptures of Israel. Indeed, we cannot understand Christian faith adequately without understanding the Jewish roots of that faith. Whatever we think God…
What we need.
“Night is drawing nigh – How long the road is. But, for all the time the journey has already taken, how you have needed every second of it in order to learn what the road passes-by.” Dag Hammarskjold
Toward Sunday
Advent is the time in which the church waits for the mystery of Christmas to be born. This Advent we hope to wait together in the wonder and mystery of the dark even as we seek the light of God’s coming into our world. Outline of Worship Series. November 30, 2014 Mark 13.24-37 December 7, 2014 Mark 1.1-8 December 14, 2014 John 1,6-8, 19-28 December 21, 2014 Luke 1.26-38 We turn this week from Mark 13 to the very first chapter…