'Hope in Dying' Tagged Posts
Good Friday
We will gather in the sanctuary at 6:00 pm for a somber remembering of Good Friday. All are welcome. After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.”…
Toward Sunday
Thank you for your willingness to share in so many ways as we’ve journeyed together this Lenten season through Hope in Dying. We will have several opportunities to gather as we move through Holy Week in the coming days. Think of your neighbors and friends and colleagues who do not have a church home. Many of these folks will look for a church this Easter and we hope you’ll invite them to join us at The Table. HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE April 2…
Who causes your suffering?
“Rather than confront the suffering that is part of our lives, some of us decide to search for an enemy – someone who has done this to us and who must be stopped.” (from God in Pain by Barbara Brown Taylor p122) A simple way to imagine this is when we think “If (fill in the name) had not died then my life would be so much better.” Regarding those who are still living – If you are in an unhappy…
Toward Sunday
We move into the final week of our Lenten series, Hope in Dying, by turning from reflection on the significance of Jesus’ death to holding questions about how we watch over others in love as they die. Please note the dates and times below for our Holy Week worship on Maundy Thursday & Good Friday. We would love help preparing and cleaning up our simple meal of soup, bread and salad for Thursday evening, April 2. If you are available…
Searching scripture
“The Bible is a multi-voiced document, it is flawed in its grasp of ultimate things, but within it – as in our own flawed lives – we glimpse a mystery that holds us, always.” ~Rita Nakashima Brock & Rebecca Ann Parker (Proverbs of Ashes p 11) As we continue our series on Hope in Dying and turn to scripture each week may we be mindful of the many ways the mystery of God continues to unfold in and around us –…
Toward Sunday
We continue this week in our Lenten worship series, Hope in Dying, by turning from reflection on the significance of Jesus’ death to wondering about the way Jesus imagined his own death in John 12.20-36 and the ways in which we imagine our own. Fred Craddock, in Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death, writes, If we as the church are to carry out our ministry to the dying and if we ourselves are to die well, we need solid support…
The Cross
I have been grateful this week for our empty cross in the sanctuary. My life would be different if our cross had a sculpture of Jesus hanging in front of it every day and I’m not at all certain that I would continue to face it. Theories of Atonement are grounded in our human effort to understand the death of Jesus and in some way to face him as he hangs upon the cross. The theory of Substitutionary Atonement in which we say…
Substitutionary?
There are multiple schools of thought on Atonement. Substitutionary atonement, in which Christ takes the penalty instead of us is thought to secure our innocence before God. John Calvin, in his “Institutes ” (2.16.5) summarizes this classical understanding of Atonement: This is our acquittal: the guilt that held us liable for punishment has been transferred to the head of the Son of God. We must, above all, remember this substitution, lest we tremble and remain anxious throughout life — as if…
Toward Sunday
We continue this week in our Lenten worship series, Hope in Dying, by turning from reflection on our own experiences of grief to John 3.14-21 and considering the significance of Jesus’ death. Fred Craddock, in Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death, writes, If we as the church are to carry out our ministry to the dying and if we ourselves are to die well, we need solid support and rich resources because this ministry…
Art Crash
Death is often unrecognizable. Dying occurs all around us. We might be shopping at the market and standing next to someone who is a hospice patient. Those of us in grief are expected to move forward from it sooner than we are able. There is also “disenfranchised loss” which happens when children go to kindergarten, friends move away, parents downsize family homes for retirement, infertility and miscarriage. All of these losses cause grief but are mostly hidden or not recognized as…
Toward Sunday
We continue this week in our Lenten worship series, Hope in Dying, by turning to John 11.28-36. In this story we witness the grief of Mary, Martha and Jesus as they mourn the death of Lazarus. We hope to reflect upon both Jesus’ experience with grief and our own as we gather this Sunday in worship. Fred Craddock, in Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death, writes, If we as the church are to carry out our ministry to the…
Fear and love
Those who would save their life will lose it. Those who will lose their life for my sake and for the gospel will save it. —Mark 8.35 If you fear your life is your flesh you will die. If you trust your life is love you will be given life. Life small enough to cling to is vanishingly small. Life given away in love is infinite. To be truly alive is to love. All else is death. Why even…
- 1
- 2