Uncategorized (Page 47)

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/28486389] Music stirs and touches the deepest longing of the human spirit.  The hymns and songs of the Advent season can awaken our longings and touch our souls at any age.  Our deep longings do not live in the smell of Christmas trees or the curiosity of what is inside the wrapped boxes.  Our deep longings live in the hope of being released from resentments, being loved in relationship, feeling touched by God.  This season we are closing worship…

Three Parts to The Season by Susan Palo Cherwien There are three parts to this season: the waiting and the waiting and the waiting. Waiting for the Christ child to come, to be sure, who we know already came. Waiting for the burning coming of the Christ in our hearts, for the I-am-with-you-always. Waiting for the great coming of the reign of God when each table is a banquet and bread lines are no more. There are three comings to…

We move into week 3 of Advent as we WAIT WITHin the words of Isaiah 12.2-6.  In her blog post on this passage, Audrey West, Assoc. Professor of NT at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago writes:  “Foreign invaders, political instability, and crises of one kind or another formed the context of Isaiah’s proclamation. The people to whom he was sent and those for whom this book was originally composed lived in a world that was unpredictable and out of…

The unspeakable and prodigious fire hidden in the essence of things, as in the bush, is the fire of divine love and the dazzling brilliance of God’s beauty inside everything. –St Maximus the Confessor

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about fire and living into the question of whether or not fire is a beginning or ending.  One way of reflecting on our text from Malachi for Sunday is to think of fire as the end of times for folks who have not chosen to repent and believe in God.  Another way might be to consider it the beginning of a whole new way of being for ourselves and our community.…

What birth pangs are you experiencing as you wait within Advent for the coming of the Christ child? Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes, And the heart consumes itself, if it would live, Where little children age before their time, And life wears down the edges of the mind, Where the old man sits with mind grown cold While bones and sinew, blood and cell, go slowly down to death, Where fear companions each day’s life, And Perfect Love…

Worship this Sunday will be rooted in Malachi 3.1-4  From this witness of Scripture we are reminded that the people of God have long since been waiting.  God’s promised future is always already not yet.  We, as the people of God in this day, are called to take our place in this season of waiting within. Lori Conrell writes in her blog, “It’s hardly the “deck-the-halls” kind of message that we expect to hear at “the most wonderful time of…

O God of all seasons and senses, grant me your sense of timing      to submit gracefully           and rejoice quietly                in the return of Advent waiting. In this season of short days and long nights,      of fog and grey and cold, teach me the lessons of waiting:      of the rain joining the mystery           of the hunkered down seeds…

Worship is a time to “wait within”.  We wait within our tradition, community, scripture, prayer, communion and experience for a sign from God.  We wait to feel connection with one another.  We wait to hear the story of Jesus and to find our place in his story.  We wait for the desire to love our neighbor.  Waiting within worship takes practice.   What is most difficult for you about attending worship?  What brings you comfort?

From the witness of scripture, from the experiences of our lives and within the tradition of the church, God acts in ways that speak to a bigger picture than we hold.    After the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991 many lives were shifted.  Neighbors helped neighbors.  Persons who had never met became friends and formed lasting relationships even if they did not choose to rebuild.  For those who stayed,  the area was rebuilt with more attention to safer and sometimes…

  We begin a new worship series this Sunday called WAITing WITHin.  We will spend the next four weeks exploring the themes of Advent as we prepare for the mystery of Christmas.    A note on Advent from A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck & Rueben P Job:  Advent marks the beginning of the church year and lays before us the pathway of faith for the year ahead.  Advent initiates once again remembering, retelling,…

  Apocalypse is a Greek word that means “revelation” and is defined in biblical literature as “an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling.” The correlation between events that are in the future from the point of view of the speaker, but past from the reader’s perspective establishes the validity of the ensuing prophecy or the certainty that all history is under divine control….The apocalyptic predictions in Mark 13…