Posts by tablemanna (Page 36)

We move this Sunday to Pentecost and celebrate the Holy Spirit moving among God’s people.  You can read about this event here:  Acts 2:1-21.  Pentecost literally means “50th-day” and was used by the diaspora Jews for a day-long harvest festival more commonly know as the “Feast of Week” or Shavuot.  It was scheduled for the 50days following Passover.  Pentecost was one of three pilgrimage feasts when the entire household of Israel gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the goodness of God…

We will conclude our worship series, Farm to Table, this Sunday in worship.  We’ll focus on reaching in love and invite reflection on how our food choices might help us to love better love our neighbors and ourselves. Here is a link to the new HBO Documentary The Weight of the Nation which we’ll be referencing in worship on Sunday.

In John 15.12-17 we read “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” How might we celebrate the fruit of your labors?  What challenge and inspiration has this series “Farm to Table” provided for you?  We are sharing in the Sacrament of communion each week in this series. Jesus called his friends to gather…

Wendell Berry wrote a piece called Damage/Healing following his experience of  an improvement on a section of his farm.  He had a great vision of how something could be  better –  instead he did great harm, scarring his land for years to come.  Because he had only intended his action for Good, the Harm (referred to here as “such troubles) he caused was quite startling. He writes about it and in his writing you can witness the evolution of his…

If you have ever spent much time at The Table or listened to our podcast you will know that we are fans of hip hop artist and theologian David Scherer.  His stage name is AGAPE.  Agape is the word for love in the Greek language.   Some of us wear shirts and hats that have the word emblazoned across the front. “Agape” is defined as “the love God has for humanity”.    “To love is to be for another and…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ALmQZ_NiA] These lyrics were composed by Henry F. Lyte in 1847 and put to music by W.H. Monk in 1861.  The hymn was written in the last year of Lyte’s life.  It is believed that it was written as a prayer.  This version is very easy to hear, but if you take time to listen to all the words you may no longer believe it is an easy song. Writing on John 15, and the persistent, enduring love of God,…

When you read this passage from John what words pop up for you?  What do you hear from God in those words?  How might abiding in God change your choices?  Shift your priorities?  Support your life?  Undergird your relationships?

We continue our worship series called Farm to Table this Sunday with emphasis on growing in faith.  We hope these three weeks will provide a framework for celebrating how far we’ve come and discerning God’s unfolding call for our community’s future.  Worship will be rooted in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and the poetry of Wendell Berry.  Wendell Berry is a Kentucky poet and farmer. Think of a time when have you been transformed by a meal.  Read John…

We’ll be learning and singing Carrie Newcomer’s Leaves Don’t Drop  in our upcoming worship series called Farm to Table. Here’s a live recording of Carrie Newcomer performing with Gary Walters…

We begin a new worship series this Sunday called Farm to Table.  We hope these three weeks will provide a framework for celebrating how far we’ve come and discerning God’s unfolding call for our community’s future.  Worship will be rooted in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and the poetry of Wendell Berry.  Wendell Berry is a Kentucky poet and farmer.  He gave the Jefferson Lecture earlier this month for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Here is a link…

“Today may I find the grace to let go of resentments of others and self-condemnation over past mistakes. Today may I not try to change, or improve, anybody but myself. Today may I act toward others as though this will be my last day on earth. Today may I be unafraid. May I enjoy what is beautiful, and may I believe that as I give to the world, the world will give to me.   Full of faith, full of…

We conclude our worship series, Faith & $, this Sunday with focus on Give. The series is rooted in Acts 4:32-35 and in a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley.  Wesley writes, having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can. We continue to live into the question of how Christ’s resurrection motivated such a unified, generous community in Acts.   And, conversely, how did the practice of sharing communal…