Blog (Page 8)
On Care For Our Common Home
Pope Francis released an encyclical earlier this summer calling for the care of Earth. Here is a link to the letter by Pope Francis entitled Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home. The title comes from the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi. As we continue our worship series on Earth-Honoring Faith, we encourage you to take some time to read this important document.
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
The Summer Day Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps…
Toward Sunday
We will turn this week from Consumption to Climate and reflect upon how our faith might shape the ways we consume. The outline for this worship series began to develop earlier this summer when we attended a conference called Seizing An Alternative. We hope this worship series will encourage us to consider how our faith tradition calls us to honor the earth. The earth is in a time of peril and we believe our Christian tradition can both teach and…
Toward Sunday
We continue our four-week worship series called Earth-Honoring Faith. The outline for this worship series began to develop earlier this summer when Matt and I attended a conference called Seizing An Alternative. We hope this worship series will encourage us to consider how our faith tradition calls us to honor the earth. The earth is in a time of peril and we believe our Christian tradition can both teach and encourage us to respond more faithfully in our daily…
Toward Sunday
We continue our four-week worship series called Earth-Honoring Faith. The outline for this worship series began to develop earlier this summer when we attended a conference called Seizing An Alternative. We hope this worship series will encourage us to consider how our faith tradition calls us to honor the earth. The earth is in a time of peril and we believe our Christian tradition can both teach and encourage us to respond more faithfully in our daily lives. Outline for Earth-Honoring Faith ▪August 16:…
Caring
“Song is more than lament and consolation; it is inspiration. Song bears the human spirit at its most expressive and expansive. This time, however, the song we sing must learn humbly and deeply from the changing Earth we inhabit. Its melodies and harmonies must be Earth-oriented in ways matched to our sober responsibility for a contracting planet in jeopardy at human hands. We are not onlookers or audience this time, guilty or innocent bystanders. We are, like jazz singers and…
Toward Sunday
We transition this week from our worship series called On Ramp to a four-week worship series called Earth-Honoring Faith. The outline for this worship series began to develop earlier this summer when Matt and I attended a conference called Seizing An Alternative. We hope this worship series will encourage us to consider how our faith tradition calls us to honor the earth. The earth is in a time of peril and we believe our Christian tradition can both teach and…
Salvation
“Who knows how the awareness of God’s love first hits people. We all have our own tales to tell, including those of us who wouldn’t believe in God if you paid us. Some moment happens in your life that you say Yes to right up to the roots of your hair, that makes it worth having been born just to have happen. Laughing with somebody till the tears run down your cheeks. Waking up to the first snow. Being in…
Toward Sunday
We are in the final week of On Ramp; our five-week worship series imaginatively exploring central topics in Christian faith. We turn from Jesus to Salvation this week in worship. We are drawing upon and adapting some of the framework of a series called Animate (Faith) by SparkHouse Publications as we prepare this worship series for our particular context. Outline for On Ramp ▪July 12: Religion (Mark 6.14-29) ▪July 19: Bible (Acts 17.10-12) ▪July 26: God (1 Timothy 6.16, John 1.18, Matthew 6.9, Revelation 4.1-11, Luke 13.34) ▪August 2: Jesus (John 6.24-35) ▪August 9:…
Parable about Christology
Here is a parable about Christology by Catherine Keller from her book On the Mystery, Discerning Divinity in Process. A man died. The people who knew him gathered to share memories. Finally a portrait was commissioned. But as generations passed the painting did not seem fine enough. The heirs of the portrait, who had become wealthy, created a new golden frame, immense, carved with motifs from the portrait and encrusted with jewels. People began to feel that the old portrait…
Who is Jesus for you?
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed,…
Jesus
Understanding who Jesus is to you is important as you grow in faith. A first step might be to realize that the word “Jesus” has two referents: the before-Easter Jesus and the after-Easter Jesus. The first is often called the “historical Jesus” and refers to the man who walked the earth. The second is often called the “Christ” or the “Jesus of faith” and refers to what Jesus became after the resurrection event. Both are important. They are significantly different. What…