Relating, Creating, Transforming
If you haven’t seen the Netflix original show Stranger Things, I highly recommend it. I won’t give a full synopsis here, but even if you are not familiar with it, I think what follows will still be relevant and hopefully meaningful. Let’s talk about friendship. In Stranger Things, friendship takes center stage. It is set […]
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Isaiah 64:4-6; 8, 9b Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Go. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against […]
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Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 The most common type of wisdom in society is what we call conventional wisdom. This is the mainstream, what “everybody knows.” It is society’s understanding about what is real and how people should live. Conventional wisdom includes ideas that are so accepted they are not questioned. These ideas tell us now […]
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Matthew 5:1-10 Hey, how ya feelin’ today? Blessed? Are ya feelin’ blessed today? If you were to answer “yes” to that question, what does that mean, to be blessed? Let’s ask our friend the dictionary. First off, if this word is used as a verb, it is pronounced blest, with one syllable, i.e. “Before […]
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Matthew 22:34-46 What rituals do you have when you wake up each day? What rituals do you have when you go to bed? It is not hyperbole to say that whatever “waking up” habits and “pre-sleep” habits we practice affect our days and how they are lived and experienced. I’m certainly not a morning person […]
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John 8:12 [NRSV] Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. I John 1:5-7a This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there […]
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Philippians 4:5-8 Emotional health is hard to come by in a world that seems to discourage trust in a healthy way, especially among many of in our communities who have a history of being marginalized. How can we seek a path out of the destructive patterns that recreate abusive relationships? How can we work towards […]
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Isaiah 5:1-7 Matthew 13:42,43 Once again, let’s talk about trust. In my last post we looked at how authority and trust go together, i.e. we give authority to the things and people we trust. And we focused on the idea that trust is not something we should blindly give; rather, that trust needs to be […]
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Matthew 21:23-32 When I was in middle school I went to summer camp once. I remember bits and pieces of my experience there, and one thing I remember distinctly is a certain “game” the camp counselors had us play called a trust fall. Now I’m sure a lot of you have at least heard of […]
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Matthew 20:1-16 What are your initial thoughts to this story—the idea that an employer sends out workers at different times all day long, but then pays everyone, regardless of how long they worked, the same wage? Do you find yourself in the shoes of those who worked all day, who aren’t happy with the employer’s […]
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