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Like our creator.
An act cannot be creative if it is not born of freedom. In creative action, our desire is not to “solve” or “succeed” or “survive” but to give birth to something new; we want, for a while, to be less creaturely and more like the creator. – Parker Palmer
Toward Sunday
This week we continue our worship series called Artisans at The Table based on the book The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art by Erwin McManus. We hope this worship series will help us claim our creative essence and celebrate our lives as works of art. Outline of Artisans at The Table September 7 Soul based on Genesis 2.7 & Exodus 2.1-15 September 14 Voice based on Genesis 3:1-11a September 21 Image & Craft…
Moses
Moses was born into difficult times. He survived because “God snatched victory from the jaws of unlikelihood”. He was snatched from the jaws of death because some brave Egyptian midwives defied Pharaoh and “got creative” with their story telling about the newborn. After hiding him out for some months it was his mother’s turn to be creative. She weaves a basket and floats him down the river to his new life being raised in the palace of the Pharaoh. His…
Toward Sunday
We begin a new four-week worship series this week called Artisans at The Table based on the book The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art by Erwin McManus. We hope this worship series will help us claim our creative essence and celebrate our lives as works of art. Outline of Artisans at The Table September 7 Soul based on Genesis 2.7 & Exodus 2.1-15 September 14 Voice based on Genesis 3.1-11b September 21 Image & Craft based on Matthew 3.13-17 September 28 Masterpiece: …
Domination
“In its community form, Sabbath is not only about rest but also about resistance. Each time it appears in Torah, the commandment limits the exploitation of others as well as the exhaustion of the self. When you stop working, so do your children, your animals and your employees, even if they do not believe in your God. You believe in your God, so they get the day off. By interrupting our economically sanctioned social order every week, Sabbath suspends our…
Toward Sunday
We conclude our three-week worship series this week on Summer Sabbath. We hope this worship series will help us to reclaim the significance of Sabbath. Our worship series is based on a book called Sabbath as Resistance: Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW by Walter Brueggemann who is a professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. Outline of Sabbath as Resistance August 17 Genesis 2.1-3 August 24 Exodus 20.1-8 August 31 Matthew 11.28-30 Take time to reflect upon what makes you weary. What heavy burdens are…
Ceasing from work
Read Exodus 20.1-8 . As we continue our series on Sabbath as Resistance, take time today to reflect upon these questions based on Receiving The Day by Dorothy Bass: How might ceasing from work one day a week reshape your work and attitudes on the other six? What is the advantage of a pattern of Sabbath time, as opposed to snatching odd moments or hours of Sabbath time? In what ways can members of a worshiping community help one another…
Toward Sunday
We continue our three-week worship series this week on Summer Sabbath. We hope this worship series will help us to reclaim the significance of Sabbath. Each week will focus upon a particular expression of Sabbath from scripture. Our worship series is based on a book called Sabbath as Resistance: Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW by Walter Brueggemann who is a professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. Outline of Sabbath as Resistance August 17 Genesis…
Money and rest
“Where there is money to be made, there is no rest for the land, nor for those who live in it.” ~Barbara Brown Taylor
Rough ride
“In his book Jewish Renewal, Rabbi Michael Lerner says that anyone engaging the practice of Shabbat can expect a rough ride for a couple of years at least. This is because Sabbath involves pleasure, rest, freedom and slowness, none of which comes naturally to North Americans. Most of us are so sold on speed, so invested in productivity, so convinced that multitasking is the way of life that stopping for one whole day can feel at first like a kind…