Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Benediction: Mirroring The Love Of God In Our Relationships (based on 2 Peter 1:5-7)
Therefore, we should make sure that our relationships are shaped by goodness, empathy, patience, wisdom, and love. If we do so, we can be a partner in God's work to bring out the best in everyone and everything.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Benediction: Living As Reflections Of God, Who Is Love (based on 1 Peter 3:15)
So as we go about our everyday lives, may we strive to be accurate reflections of God; whose nature and essence is loving relationship and community.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Benediction: God Is Love Which Helps Goodness and Grace Come To Life (based on 1 John 4:16-19)
May the fact that God's love is bottomless and limitless give us the confidence to tap into that love anywhere and everywhere. May God's love completely drown out any fearful narratives so that we can work to bring out the best in everyone and everything.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Benediction: Freedom From Patterns Of Seeking Revenge and Getting Pay Back (based on 1 Peter 3:9-10)
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Benediction: Reflecting God's Light (based on Matthew 5:14-16)
When we live out God's love, we can radiate it all around us and thereby show an example of the goodness in which God created the world.
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Benediction: Following God's Way (based on Psalm 25:4-5)
When we follow God's ways, our lives will be aligned with how God has designed us to live; to be light and life to each other as we undertake God's work of renewing and restoring this world which God created, calls "good," and dwells within.
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Why Should We Christians Keep Gathering As The Church? - Martha Tatarnic in The Christian Century
We Christians gather together because the church bears witness to the truth of who we really are. Whether or not an individual participates in a faith community, the inescapable truth for every creature on this planet is that we are connected.
I might wish that I could pick and choose which parts of the universe and which of God’s creatures share in that connection, but God is a pretty good door crasher when it comes to the gates of my heart.
As COVID made clear, we are radically infected by one another’s oxygen and water vapor and germs and skin molecules. At the same time, our souls actually can’t know and love God without one another.
The gathered church bears witness—for us and for the world—to the inescapable truth of how our lives are finally and forever bound together.
The full article is available here
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Benediction: God's Tenacious Love And Inexhaustible Mercy (based on Lamentations 3:22-24)
May this reminder be our source of hope as we strive to tap into that love, mercy, and compassion of God which can be found anywhere and everywhere.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Benediction: Let's Stay On Track With God's Kingdom Work (based on Matthew 6:10)
May we be strong in faith and hope when other narratives attempt to derail us; ones that tell us to win at all costs, to see our fellow beings as competitors to be bested, or to value others solely based on what benefit we can derive from them.
May God keep us on track and dedicated to helping to bring out the best in everyone and everything.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Pilate's Military Entry To Passover Jerusalem: The Other Palm Sunday Procession - Father George Corrigan
Each year at Passover, Pontius Pilate, Governor and representative of the Roman emperor, came to Jerusalem from his coastal residence in the west. He entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. From the east, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey.
Two processions: Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the violent military power of empire and Roman imperial theology, worshiping the emperor as god. Pilate’s procession embodied the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus’ procession embodied an alternative vision; the Kingdom of God.
Which procession will each one of us choose?
It is easy to just wave a palm branch at church, sing a few rounds of “Hosanna,” and go home. The actual praise and worship Jesus invites me to enact on Palm Sunday is far riskier.
The full article is available here
Friday, March 8, 2024
Benediction: Like Jesus, May Abundant Life And Grace Flow Out From Us (based on John 10:10)
Monday, February 26, 2024
Biblical Understanding Of "Satan" Differs From Miltonian Understanding Of Western Christianity
If you ask just about any Christian what the word “Satan” is, they will tell you that it is the name of The Devil. Those who are fans of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” will say that Satan is the name of Lucifer after he fell from heaven. Ironically, this understanding has a somewhat shaky foundation in Scripture.
Satan is often used as a proper name in Western Christianity today, but it is actually a descriptor or a title. In the ancient Hebrew versions of the Old Testament, there are repeated appearances of figures called satan or sometimes ha satan. These words mean, respectively, “an adversary” and “the adversary.” The figures do not always act like the Devil that Christians envision. The various figures alternately test, torment, and spare various righteous people.
Depending on how satan acts in each story, modern translations refer to the character in a variety of ways. The Hebrew ha satan is translated as “the Enemy,” “Satan” and, in one notable case in Numbers, "an angel of the Lord." The word satan is also used to describe human enemies of the tribes of Israel such as Hadad the Edomite.
The use of the word “satan” gets a bit more complicated in the New Testament due to how many different languages the ancient texts were written in. Sometimes “satan” is used as a proper name, but other times the tradition of the Old Testament continues, and the word is used more as a descriptor than a name.
The full article is available here
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Benediction: Seeking God's Everyday Guidance For A Wider Perspective (based on Proverbs 3:5-6)
Let's continually be on the lookout for the guidance which God provides in so many different ways in our everyday lives. This guidance can help us to have a wider perspective than just our own. It can provide us with insight which we might otherwise miss out on due to our blindspots.
When the way in which we lead our lives is aligned with how God has designed us to live, we are better able to bring out the best in everyone and everything.
Benediction: God's Promises Are Trustworthy And Can Be Our Refuge (based on Psalm 62:5-8)
In gratitude for that provision, may we be people through whom God's love and goodness pours out in abundance in our everyday lives.
Monday, December 25, 2023
The Earthiness Of The Story Of Christmas Is Why It Still Resonates With Me - Jeff Wiersma
Perhaps my favorite thing about the story of Christmas is that it is so relatable to real life. After all, the story doesn’t take place in luxurious palaces or a golden crib, and the characters in it aren’t the "who’s who" of society nor those living in comfort and privilege.
Rather, the story involves everyday people living ordinary lives; who - in the midst of them - are receptive to the part which they can play in helping the extraordinary love of God to enter into our world.
This earthiness and grittiness of the story of Christmas is why it still continues to resonate with me, because the reality is that everyday life can sometimes - or oftentimes - be really difficult for a lot of us.
And despite everything - despite how life can be really difficult sometimes, despite how the world can feel really heavy, despite the disappointments which I’ve had over the years which can cause me to tend toward cynicism, in spite of those times when things can feel hopeless, and despite how consumerism and religious pop culture has sentimentalized, domesticated, and commodified the holiday - I can’t be untouched or unaffected by the simple beauty and hope of the story of Christmas.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Advent Benediction: Good News Of Great Joy To All People (based on Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 4:16)
Like Jesus' mother Mary, may we rejoice in the fact that the gift of God's love and grace is available to everyone; even those who society sees as having low status and those who are marginalized by the forces of greed and power.
The angels rejoiced in the same message when they proclaimed to the shepherds that Christ’s birth was “good news of great joy for all people.”
Like Mary, may we be mindful of this extraordinary source of hope. May it sustain us when life brings unexpected or difficult things across our paths, and may it light the way forward.
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Friday, October 13, 2023
The Hermeneutics of Christian Zionism Critiqued - Stephen Sizer
Christian Zionism encourages the continued military and economic funding of Israel by the United States, identifies with right-wing Israelis who resist negotiating land for peace, reinforces Israel's apartheid policies, and sanctifies the illegal settlement and absorption of the Occupied Territories into the State of Israel.
The most basic hermeneutical error which Christian Zionists consistently repeat is thinking that the Old Covenant before Jesus applies to the current nation state of Israel.
Due to their incorrect interpretation of scripture, Christian Zionists incorrectly set the current nation state of Israel and the Jewish people apart from and above other peoples in the Middle East and all of humanity, when in reality all peoples are fully and coequally human and loved in the the eyes of God.
The reality is that Biblical prophecy is invariably conditional rather than fatalistic. The Christian Zionist's particular reading of both history and contemporary events - determined by the dubious exegesis of highly selective biblical texts as well as their theological presuppositions - is therefore fatalistic.
The full piece is available here
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Benediction: We Each Have Our Own Role To Play In God's Redemption Plan (based on Ephesians 4:10-13)
Each of us, in our everyday lives and in our own unique ways, have a part to play in God's redemption plan. So let's make sure to be on the lookout for real life opportunities to bring out the best in everyone and everything.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Benediction: Living Into Our Need For Community Like Jesus Did (based on Genesis 1:26 and John 14:7)
We are hardwired for meaningful connection with each other, which we can develop by living together in the hope and truth of the bottomless love of God. This is what Jesus modeled during his time on earth.
So in our everyday lives, may God's Spirit move us towards ever deeper and richer relationships and community. Within them, may we experience the grace, peace, and joy that is found in walking life's road with fellow travelers.
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Benediction: Loving Each Other In Community (based on Romans 12:10-13)
Jesus served others enthusiastically, prioritized and welcomed people who society had marginalized, and was patient with those who were struggling.
Jesus gave his time and energy in humble service without any ulterior motive of trying to get something in return. Jesus saw relationship and community as transformational, not transactional.
This is the example that we all can follow in our everyday lives as the hope of God's indwelling and all-surrounding Spirit sustains us.
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Benediction: The Good Shepherd's Abundant Life (based on John 10:10)
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Benediction: Not Growing Weary In Doing Good (based on Galatians 6:9-10)
May we not grow weary of pouring out hope and peace as we seek to nurture The Spirit’s seeds of life and love.