This is a guest post from Jill Clingan, one of my co-editors with Practicing Families. I have never really liked these verses from Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher…
A recent statement approved by the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA affirms, among other things, “an expectation that all EB members and national staff will adhere to the ‘standards, values and beliefs’ articulated in the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective,Mennonite Church USA’s Membership Guidelines and the two resolutions [‘Forbearance in the Midst of…
“Turn these stones to bread.” “Worship me to gain power over the kingdoms of this world.” “Fall from the pinnacle so we can all watch the angels swoop in and rescue you.” These are the temptations the devil throws out to Jesus in the wilderness. They are temptations about power: to control the natural…
I once baffled the others in my youth group by managing to get lost on a nature trail. The thing is, the trail was really hard to see and there were also deer paths and it was the middle of a Kansas prairie. If you’ve ever been in the middle of a prairie you know…
A call to worship based on Psalm 91: Even as we enter the wilderness of Lent, We rest in the shelter of the Most High; We abide in the shadow of the Almighty; We find refuge under the wings of our Holy Parent. We trust that the angels of God the words of God the…
Originally posted on NTStudies:
In Herman Melville’s book Moby-Dick, the narrator, Ishmael, watched with interest the religious obligation of “Fasting and Humiliation” of his whaling companion Queequeg. While many might have viewed Queequeg’s rituals as strange and even comical, Ishmael did not. He observed in them something universal and says, “Heaven have mercy on us…
(Transfiguration: Luke 9:28-36) The second Moses and Elijah show up on that mountain, the entire Jewish tradition of the Exodus and the prophets is brought to bear on this story—and on Jesus’ life and ministry. To understand the story of the Transfiguration, we have to understand the narratives of all three men:
Here is a poem/call to worship for Transfiguration Sunday: The mountain top the shining face the glowing clothes the voice of God speaking from the cloud the commandments etched in stone Sometimes God shows up in ways we cannot deny in a place we can go a light we can see a voice we can…
“So, Joanna, what do you do?” My comfort level with this question depends on the context. In this case, I was at a neighborhood get-together with several new neighbors I didn’t know very well. The 79-year-old man asking the question is active in a local conservative independent evangelical church. The 60ish-year-old man also listening in…
Kansas Senator Mitch Holmes recently imposed guidelines for people who appear before the Senate Ethics Committee. There are some reasonable things in there, like requesting that cell phones and pagers (for those still living in the 1980s) be silenced in the committee room.
Spacious Faith 