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
In John 15.12-17 we read “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” How might we celebrate the fruit of your labors? What challenge and inspiration has this series “Farm to Table” provided for you? We are sharing in the Sacrament of communion each week in this series. Jesus called his friends to gather…
Doing good, causing harm, abiding.
Wendell Berry wrote a piece called Damage/Healing following his experience of an improvement on a section of his farm. He had a great vision of how something could be better – instead he did great harm, scarring his land for years to come. Because he had only intended his action for Good, the Harm (referred to here as “such troubles) he caused was quite startling. He writes about it and in his writing you can witness the evolution of his…
AGAPE
If you have ever spent much time at The Table or listened to our podcast you will know that we are fans of hip hop artist and theologian David Scherer. His stage name is AGAPE. Agape is the word for love in the Greek language. Some of us wear shirts and hats that have the word emblazoned across the front. “Agape” is defined as “the love God has for humanity”. “To love is to be for another and…
An old hymn may be just the thing to hear today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ALmQZ_NiA] These lyrics were composed by Henry F. Lyte in 1847 and put to music by W.H. Monk in 1861. The hymn was written in the last year of Lyte’s life. It is believed that it was written as a prayer. This version is very easy to hear, but if you take time to listen to all the words you may no longer believe it is an easy song. Writing on John 15, and the persistent, enduring love of God,…
John 15:7-11
When you read this passage from John what words pop up for you? What do you hear from God in those words? How might abiding in God change your choices? Shift your priorities? Support your life? Undergird your relationships?
Toward Sunday
We continue our worship series called Farm to Table this Sunday with emphasis on growing in faith. We hope these three weeks will provide a framework for celebrating how far we’ve come and discerning God’s unfolding call for our community’s future. Worship will be rooted in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and the poetry of Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry is a Kentucky poet and farmer. Think of a time when have you been transformed by a meal. Read John…
Leaves Don’t Drop
We’ll be learning and singing Carrie Newcomer’s Leaves Don’t Drop in our upcoming worship series called Farm to Table. Here’s a live recording of Carrie Newcomer performing with Gary Walters…
Toward Sunday
We begin a new worship series this Sunday called Farm to Table. We hope these three weeks will provide a framework for celebrating how far we’ve come and discerning God’s unfolding call for our community’s future. Worship will be rooted in the Gospel of John chapter 15 and the poetry of Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry is a Kentucky poet and farmer. He gave the Jefferson Lecture earlier this month for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Here is a link…
Prayer.
“Today may I find the grace to let go of resentments of others and self-condemnation over past mistakes. Today may I not try to change, or improve, anybody but myself. Today may I act toward others as though this will be my last day on earth. Today may I be unafraid. May I enjoy what is beautiful, and may I believe that as I give to the world, the world will give to me. Full of faith, full of…
Toward Sunday.
We conclude our worship series, Faith & $, this Sunday with focus on Give. The series is rooted in Acts 4:32-35 and in a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley. Wesley writes, having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can. We continue to live into the question of how Christ’s resurrection motivated such a unified, generous community in Acts. And, conversely, how did the practice of sharing communal…
More than words?
Above is a “word cloud” created from John Wesley’s sermon “The Use of Money”. The size of the word is related to the number of times it occurs in the document. Take time to stare at this word cloud. Notice the 2 largest words. Why do you suppose “God” and “May” would be the words that occur most often in a sermon about money? If you were to create a “word cloud” of your bank statement which included 12 months…
Toward Sunday.
For the early church depicted in the book of Acts, the resurrection of Christ is less a creedal article of individual faith and hope than a creative force of community formation and fellowship. This week we again hear Acts 4.32.-35 along with this phrase from a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley: “having, first, gained all you can, and secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.” We’ll ask: How did Christ’s resurrection motivate such…