Posts by tablemanna (Page 12)
Wondering
What images of heaven did you encounter as a child? How was heaven talked about when you were a child? What spoken and unspoken messages did you receive about heaven as a child?
Heaven
We will consider these two definitions of heaven in our worship over the coming weeks: (1) heaven [is] exclusively…the place one goes to when one dies… and (2) heaven is the origin of a reality that is coming towards us at present. Your life is an open doorway where God enters the world. What you say and do, what you notice, what you hold and set down, each is a portal. The passage is best left open, not filled. Fully…
Toward Sunday
We begin a new four-week worship series this Sunday called The Difference Heaven Makes. It will be rooted in the biblical texts below and the work of two important theologians: Christopher Morse (The Difference Heaven Makes) and Jurgen Moltmann (Sun of Righteousness, ARISE! and In the End-The Beginning) Outline of Series September 8: Hearing of Heaven Today (Isaiah 60.1-9) September 15: The Theology of Heaven (I Corinthians 7.29-31) September 22: The Reality of Heaven (Luke 24.1-8) September 29: The Ethics and…
Call It Work
It may surprise you to learn about how Goodwill Industries began. Labor. Hospitality. Work. “Work as a way for people to lift themselves from poverty.” How might your work include reaching in love to the least and the vulnerable today?
Mustard Seed School
Laboring in love so that others may survive and thrive under difficult circumstances is part of following Jesus. Loving our neighbor requires us to care for the least among us. We have been reaching in love by collecting backpacks for Mustard Seed School. If you would like to learn more about the school click the logo above. If you would like to contribute please click here.
Thistle Farms
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/64927155] Thistle Farms is a social enterprise of women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction, and life on the streets. By hand the women create natural body care products. At Thistle Farms the belief is that love is stronger than all the forces that drive women to the streets. Learn more about Thistle Farms . How might your choices this week reflect your commitment to follow Jesus? How might the purchase of products produced by labors of love…
Toward Sunday
This week our worship will be grounded in portions of Hebrews 13. We will lift up the ancient tradition of “loving the stranger” (we call this “Hospitality”), as we wonder about the questions below: What practices and attitudes are at the heart of Christian discipleship? How does your work (paid or volunteer) come out of your understanding of following the teachings of Jesus? In what way might your Kitchen Table hold you accountable for self-examination in this area? For those…
Vacation Prayer
Vacation Prayer by Steve Garness-Holmes God of Sabbath, Master of infinite playfulness, bless those who are on vacation. Protect them from the worries of home. Guide them, that they may become lost in a new place, with no way but to wander. Shepherd them to still places. Watch over them, that they may not stumble into work or obligation. Grant them wonder, delight, renewal and release. May their fireworks be grand, their campfires lovely, their beaches uncrowded, their traffic at…
Regarding Vacation
“people ask, “What did you do?” ……the best part was that for a few days we sat around with two of the boys at a lake cabin and did nothing. No hiking, jet-skiing, shopping, sightseeing, or even watching TV—that would have been too much work. Just sleeping, sitting around, reading books, napping, playing games, and being with each other. Sort of like Sabbath. That’s what vacation is: vacancy, empty time. Time in which you’re not doing, just being. This is…
The world goes on.
Vacation by Steve Garness-Holmes I went on vacation for a week. The world went on without me; Another bore it carefully, whose world it is, not mine. I was purely who I am, proving nothing. earning nothing. I was present for no end but to be present. It was lovely. This is the gift of Sabbath. May it come to you again and again, like breathing, like a heartbeat, a Word from God.
Vacation?
[wpvideo 2dVWmfoZ] The Vacation By Wendell Berry Once there was a man who filmed his vacation. He went flying down the river in his boat with his video camera to his eye, making a moving picture of the moving river upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly toward the end of his vacation. He showed his vacation to his camera, which pictured it, preserving it forever: the river, the trees, the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat …
Toward Sunday
Worship this coming Sunday will invite us to consider what we might learn from vacationing as we seek to root our lives in Grace and grow in faith. We will reflect on the relationship of vacation to Sabbath. Our Scripture this week is Psalm 71.1-6. Vacationing can provide refuge from the stresses of everyday life. Vacations can deliver us from routine and renew us with new life. Followers of Jesus know that such refuge and deliverance comes from…