“The way most people talk about darkness, you would think that it came from a whole different deity, but no. To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up. To want a life with half of these things in it…
This week we begin a new worship series, Learning to Move in the Dark. The series is based on, and utilizes the writings of, Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, “Learning to Walk in the Dark.” Spiritually, Light and Darkness appear at the very beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures in Genesis, both as wondrous parts of God’s…
“The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was.” ~Matthew 2:9 In the Christian calendar, early January brings not only the new year, it also brings a celebration of the Epiphany. This special day commemorates the scene we often see in Christmas…
The Holy Spirit plays an important role in the early life of Jesus. Our scripture for Sunday is the story of Jesus’ official Naming Day, a Jewish blessing ceremony on his eighth day. The way the Holy Spirit works on this special day is of great importance: “Now there lived in Jerusalem one named Simeon.…
“Somehow I have to trust that God is at work in me and that the way I am being moved to new inner and outer places is part of a larger movement. . .” ~ Henri Nouwen The story of Mary is a story of willingness and trust. Scripture describes her as being “much…
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” ~Psalm 78:19 The scriptures for Sunday are evocative. And they are fitting for this very different Advent season. Isaiah 43:20-21 evokes hope in our God who “provides water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” In John 1:23, beyond the mysterious voices of wildlife, there is…
“God wills comfort and consolation to those in the very depths of despair and depends upon human as well as divine agency to bring that message from God’s royal realm.” ~Richard F. Ward Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But if we are wise, we know that there’s tomorrow.…
“We are alive in God’s wildness. This Divine wildness is beautiful, strange, and not at all controlled by us. There are places in the Divine plan that we do not know…The activity in these spaces brings life and death, spiritual warfare, and new creation. Occasionally, we feel the movements, we glimpse the shapes, we perceive…
Guest Reflection “Stay Woke” is a reminder of the necessity to remain vigilant regarding the activities and events going on around us during times of conflict and strife. This phrase is typically used to speak to those times when the media tends to filter what is real, what is not real and what has been…
“The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is not to risk anything, not to care deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest deeply, to give your heart away and in the process to risk everything. The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously and prudently.”…
