Posts from 2013 (Page 3)
All Means All
Central United Methodist Church began in 1850 as just the fourth church to form in Sacramento. The historic congregation had declined and was on the brink of closure in 2009 when a few young families began to imagine how God might be calling us to be church differently. The Table at Central UMC was born as a few folks returned to the roots of our Wesleyan tradition by gathering in small groups, called Kitchen Tables, to watch over one another…
Toward Sunday
This week we wrap up our worship series on the Gospel of Luke. We reflected on the significance of the cross in a worship series called Cross Purposes (March/April of 2011). In preparation for this week’s worship, you might want to listen to some of the messages from our series on Cross Purposes (find and listen to our podcast here). We will highlight these passages in worship: Week 1 November 10: Luke 4.14-9.50 Overview. The Jesus of the Gospel of Luke. Week 2 …
The Jesus in Luke
Frederick Buechner writing about the Gospel of Luke: “…there’s the parable of the Prodigal Son, the account of the whore who washed Jesus’s feet and dried them with her hair, and the scrap of conversation Jesus had with one of the two crooks who was crucified with him. Smelling of pig and cheap gin, the prodigal comes home bleary-eyed and dead broke, but his father’s so glad to see him anyway that he almost falls on his face. Jesus tells…
Toward Sunday
This week we continue our worship series on the Gospel of Luke as we consider the ministry of Jesus. “The Jesus of Luke is an enormously powerful figure…he comes on the scene as a prophet straight out of the Hebrew Bible. At his first appearance in his hometown synagogue he quotes the prophet Isaiah and it’s the passage that talks about freeing those who are oppressed and letting those who are blind see. Jesus is a powerful figure and…
Toward Sunday
This week we begin a new 3 week worship series on the Gospel of Luke. During this series we will give a brief overview of the Gospel of Luke and wonder together about the implications of the Gospel for the times and circumstances in which we live. “Each of the Gospels presents the story of Jesus in a different way, and much of their richness is lost if one tries to harmonize them into one consistent account….The Lukan Jesus is…
How Deep?
Tomorrow morning we gather to make our Deep Commitments to God and one another for the coming year. We make, remember and renew these each year. By completing the Deep Card and setting goals for ourselves in each of the areas, we renew our commitment to God and one another to go deeper in our faith and life together. How do you hope to root your life in Grace in the coming year? Consider setting a specific goal, or…
How Deep do we long to go?
How Deep do we long to go? The waters ahead are not easy to navigate. Even Jesus spent time trying to stay in love with God through this struggle. Read for yourself. And then consider the words of the Poet below. How Deep? Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you…
Receiving
“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” ~Mark 10.22 The one thing you lack is whatever you need to let go of. Once you have unclenched your fists from your money there is your health and your family, your faith, your assurance, your feeling good. The Beloved waits for you, while you are encumbered with whatever you’d rather have than…
Toward Sunday
We conclude our five-week worship series this Sunday with a celebration of our Deep Commitments and our Kitchen Table Leader training will follow that at 12:30! Since a few of our KT’s meet on Halloween this week, please make an intentional effort to contact your people regarding their Deep Commitment cards between now and Sunday morning. This worship series has invited reflection on the significance of our Baptismal identities. The United Methodist Book of Worship states, “Baptism is an act that looks back…
The home. The belonging. The name.
How to speak of this? There is light, resting on you, wrapping everything, creating height, slipping down and up each wall even cupping undersides in soft white hands. The bird, whose language no one understands, how does it choose just where it flies, it sings, it lands? There is heat, murmured, a glue that holds you to everything, makes you all one word. And silence, yes, bestowed, not left: tendered, its weft woven with the warp of tiny threads, little…
Being handled.
“Sacraments not only hallow the stuff of the world; they also hallow our handling of that stuff. They give us something to look at, something to taste and smell, something to feel upon our skin and experience for ourselves. They give us something to do with our hands and with our bodies as well-walking up to receive communion, bending over the baptismal font, kneeling so that hands may be laid upon our heads. We may spend our whole lives learning…
Sacraments
“…the sacraments of the church embody a broad Christian understanding of life on earth: chiefly, that the most ordinary things in the world are signs of grace. The God who created them and called them good keeps on doing so. Through the sacraments, we are invited to understand that all the things of this world are good enough to bear the presence of God and to deepen the relationship between heaven and earth. To glimpse the holiness of ordinary bread…