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…
Holy Communion
“It is make-believe. You make believe that the one who breaks the bread and blesses the wine is not the plump parson who smells of Williams’ Aqua Velva but Jesus of Nazareth. You make believe that the tasteless wafer and cheap port are his flesh and blood. You make believe that by swallowing them you are swallowing his life into your life and that there is nothing in earth or heaven more important for you to do than this. It…
Until the cows turn their heads.
Witness of the Word, simply described, is “telling what you know to be true about Jesus and God.” Fred B. Craddock is one of the great preachers of our time. Here is a description of him: “He is a diminutive, bespectacled man whose voice is so soft that he once compared it to ‘wind whistling through a splinter on the post.’ ” (Learn more about Fred Craddock in this CNN piece.) When Fred went to college he was not given…
Prayer
The language of prayer provides a strategy for intimacy with God. Our prayers may include poetry, movement, prose, argument, doubt, discovery, silence. “Once I was lost but now….” may be your prayer. Our prayer song at The Table right now includes these lyrics: “Will you call me child, when I tell you lies, cause all I know is how to cry.” (from Brokenness Aside by All Sons & Daughters). Your prayer may be danced. Did you know that Hula imparts…
Toward Sunday
Our worship this Sunday will be rooted in Ephesian 2.8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” In a conversation with his mentor Peter Bohler, John Wesley in a time of doubt asked “How can you preach to others if you don’t have faith yourself?” Bohler answered “Preach faith til you have it;…
Grace sufficient
“When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.” dross |drôs, dräs|nounsomething regarded as worthless; rubbish: there are bargains if you have the patience to sift through the dross.• foreign matter, dregs, or mineral waste, in particular scum formed on the surface of molten metal. This is a verse from the old hymn “How Firm A Foundation”. How could…
Face down on the floor
“The Jesus who ‘died for our sins’ has simply got to go. . . . Christianity must move beyond a rescuing Jesus.” Part of me wants to purr like a kitten in relieved agreement. Yes, let’s sweep away the cobwebs clinging to Jesus the rescuer. But then I realize that I am face down on a linoleum floor somewhere in my life, powerless, praying like mad, “You’ve done it for others, God. I am begging you, do it for me.”…
This is Grace.
Sometimes we follow our passion and we come to a dead end. We think, “I guess I was wrong about being a: singer, songwriter, preacher, contractor, artist, professor, mother, pilot, fill in your own life here.” But then there is a shift. That is Grace. This is a story about musicians David Leonard & Leslie Jordan and how they came to be “All Sons & Daughters”. I don’t think they expected to come together in the way that they have.…
Swimming
©Bob Sherman Photography: www.BobShermanPhotography.com What is Grace? Bishop Ambrose from the 3rd century attempted to answer this for his people (we are not joking when we say human beings have been pursuing this question for a very long time). Bishop Ambrose wrote a sermon based on a verse from Genesis. “Let the waters produce living things, and living things were born.” (Gen 1.20). Ambrose preached to his people “Be like those fish! Imitate them!” Maybe Ambrose knew that the people would…
Grace runs deep.
Grace is not irresistible. Grace is amazing. Grace calls us, Grace does not compel us. Grace lures us. “We have this one chance to live this one life of ours, to make our difference: the stakes are high but the Grace runs deep.” (from On The Mystery by Catherine Keller p. 149) What lures you in?
Toward Sunday
This week our worship will be rooted in Ephesians 2.1-7. Here is a paraphrase of this passage written by the Rev. Steve Garness Holmes written in 2012. Once you were drowning in a chaos of fear and desire that sucked all the life out of you, tyrannized by voices outside of you, enslaved by the prince of power, indebted to The Corporation, obediently oblivious. All of us have been there, children of anxiety, shards of ourselves, desperate for our own lives.…
Grace
If someone were to stop you on the street and ask you to tell them about Grace, what would you say?
Alone or together?
As we consider Ephesians 2.19-22 this week ask yourself these questions: When have you tried going it alone in your Christian walk? How did this impact your faith? Why might Christians who go it alone be more likely to compromise their faith than those who are together as “members of the household of God” in accountability groups such as our Kitchen Tables?