Erica Lea-Simka serves as pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church. This post was originally published December 11, 2014. – – – – – – I lived my entire life in Texas. Now I live in Washington, D.C. where they have these magical machines called snow plows that clear off the road so cars can drive, people…
About eleven years ago, world famous violinist Joshua Bell put on blue jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap and took his Stradivarius to a D.C. Metro station. As any good busker does, he threw some seed money in the case and started playing. Over a thousand people streamed by as he played for 45…
By Jeremy Garber What we think matters – sometimes even more than we think. Recently I’ve been reading an intriguing book about my favorite philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, that mentions Renaissance theologians like Nicholas of Cusa and Pico della Mirandola. In a nutshell, these philosophers say that every being in creation is a unique revelation of…
The four offertory prayers below are written for the four Sundays of Advent to coordinate with the Advent candle themes. Holy One, this Advent season we wait in hope. And we give in hope. Hope for your coming reign; Hope because of your presence with us even now. Receive these generous offerings, And use…
–By Ben Wideman (originally published December 2, 2014) We all long for restoration. We live in a culture that is consumed with fear that we aren’t good enough. Our fears make us worry about finding the right job, and keeping that job when we find it. We have fears about health and security, about finances…
–By Amy Yoder McGloughlin (originally published December 1, 2014) O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble…
Mark 13:24-37; Isaiah 64:1-9 Preparing for the first Sunday of Advent one year, I asked a colleague, Samuel Voth Schrag, what he was thinking about for his upcoming sermon “Oh,” he said, “I’m going to talk about Dues ex machina.” In case you’ve forgotten your English classes, duex ex machina is a literary device: It…
I’ve been tempted to cancel Lent before, but never Advent. I’m a true Advent-lover. At church we sing Advent hymns—no Christmas carols until Christmas Eve. At home we do Advent candles and a calendar. Even my 13-year-old daughter takes Advent seriously; she has put away the baby Jesuses from our nativity sets and says she’ll…
(Matthew 25: 14-30) It is convenient that the unit of money used in this parable gets transliterated as “talent.” So we don’t have to talk about money; we can just talk about our talents and how we should use them and not bury them—because surely we all want to enter into the joy of our…
Reflections on the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Maidens Matthew 25: 1-13 Someone once told me there are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world in to two kinds of people, and those who do not. Rich and poor; men and women; Republicans and Democrats, believers and non-believers, liberal…
Spacious Faith 