When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.” The house of Israel called it manna…
Toward Sunday
We continue our five-week worship series this Sunday called How Deep? This worship series invites reflection on the significance of our Baptismal identities. The United Methodist Book of Worship states, “Baptism is an act that looks back with gratitude on what God’s grace has already accomplished, it is here and now an act of God’s grace, and it looks forward to what God’s grace will accomplish in the future….Baptism anticipates a lifetime of…deeper experiences of God, acts of Christian commitment,…
Flooding
Along the brimming river sandbags lie in mute protection, inert, dense, impassable. For cities on rivers this is good. But how are our hearts sandbagged against the deep opaque flood that threatens us each moment, the murky, relentless waters of resurrection, the eroding force of humility and failure, the depths of wonder, the force of the unfathomable, and all that we cannot control? A world presses against your thin levees, waits to inundate you, swamp you, cover you, in the…
Growing in Faith
“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Mark 10.22 The one thing you lack is whatever you need to let go of. Once you have unclenched your fists from your money there is your health and your family, your faith, your assurance, your feeling good. The Beloved waits for you, while you are encumbered with whatever you’d rather have than…
Sanctification
In “Beauty and the Beast,” it is only when the Beast discovers that Beauty really loves him in all his ugliness that he himself becomes beautiful. In the experience of Saint Paul, it is only when we discover that God really loves us in all our unloveliness that we ourselves start to become godlike. Paul’s word for this gradual transformation of a sow’s ear into a silk purse is sanctification, and he sees it as the second stage in the…
Toward Sunday
We continue our five-week worship series this Sunday called How Deep? This worship series will invite reflection on the significance of our Baptismal identities. The United Methodist Book of Worship states, “Baptism is an act that looks back with gratitude on what God’s grace has already accomplished, it is here and now an act of God’s grace, and it looks forward to what God’s grace will accomplish in the future….Baptism anticipates a lifetime of…deeper experiences of God, acts of…
Faith
Last night in our Kitchen Table we shared memories of persons who have exemplified faith. It reminded me of this old poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote this one month before he was executed. Clearly there are differences in our self understanding and the face that the world sees. Who knows what was really going on within the heart of people we know as “deeply faithful”? As we move into our next worship series we will ask the…
How Deep?
The Sanctuary, Social Hall and our entire campus are fruits of the extravagant generosity of those who have gone before us. They lived with sincere faith. We are called to “Guard the good treasure entrusted to [us], with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” Our extravagant generosity will share this treasure with the generations to come. What difference does extravagant generosity make? Think of a time in which you witnessed extravagant generosity or were the recipient…
Toward Sunday
We begin a five-week worship series this Sunday called How Deep? This worship series will invite reflection on the significance of our Baptismal identities. The United Methodist Book of Worship states, “Baptism is an act that looks back with gratitude on what God’s grace has already accomplished, it is here and now an act of God’s grace, and it looks forward to what God’s grace will accomplish in the future….Baptism anticipates a lifetime of…deeper experiences of God, acts of Christian…
Hope of Heaven
How silly: we stand on the porch of heaven a little uneasy, though eager, too, the heartfelt invitation in our hands, briefly admiring the pearly gates— amazing, really, the pearl, the craft, the lucent colors purling up the columns, the welcome warmth wafting from within— but then we turn to the hope at hand… and so— how silly, and how sad: we stand and fumble for the keys, and rummage anxiously, and dig around forever, searching, failing, grasping more, our…
Lord’s Supper
When we think of the Lord’s supper, our focus moves from the visible to to the invisible, and we realize that from the communion table we view life differently What happens at the table profoundly shapes who we are as followers of Jesus. We are set free. The “Basileia”, God’s Kingdom come on earth, is made known as we break bread together.
Toward Sunday
We conclude our four-week worship series this Sunday called The Difference Heaven Makes with emphasis on the ethics and hope of heaven. Our worship series has been 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:…
Toward Sunday
We continue our four-week worship series this Sunday called The Difference Heaven Makes with emphasis on the reality of heaven. Our worship series is 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…