I wrote this call to worship to accompany our gathering hymn for the month, “Open my Ears, Open my Eyes” (for you Mennonites, that’s Sing the Story #5.) We are still in our Elijah/Elisha sermon series. Whispering God, the noise of the world is loud. Open our ears to your still, small, voice. God of…
[This reflection is excerpted from an earlier sermon.] 1 Samuel 1:4-18 We have before us in the text this morning a very odd scene. There is a woman, probably in her thirties. She comes to the shrine at Shiloh—the most holy of Jewish worship sites in these pre-temple days; the place where the sacred Ark…
I attended my denominational region’s annual conference last weekend. (Don’t be jealous.) And it was remarkable in many ways. On Friday night, we had worship during one of the World Series games, and I only saw one person with an earbud–listening to the game while singing hymns. Even more notably, delegates voted to institute a…
Mark 12:38-44 Let me summarize the common message drawn from the story of the widow’s mite: “Friends, this poor widow gave everything she had to the temple treasury, so pull out your checkbooks and give a lot of money to this church.” But let’s not go there. Let’s back up and consider the context. First…
The Lectionary readings for All Saints Day and All Souls day include lovely words and images of God’s care for us and the Divine promise of eternal life: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” “God will swallow up death forever.” “Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be…
In the darkest valley, at the banquet table; in the hard work of life, at the moments of ease; in our day-to-day reality, at times set aside– like this time, now– for worship, for listening, for paying attention; with every step we take: goodness and mercy follow us; our cups overflow.
Friends, I’ve re-started my blog on Huffington Post. That space will host a (hopefully) regular humor column, while I will continue to post worship pieces, biblical reflections, theological ponderings, and denominational rants here at Spacious Faith. Thanks for reading!
We are looking at the Elijah and Elisha stories in worship right now. Here are a couple of worship pieces for this week: Call to Worship Leader: We have come to listen to the biblical stories. All: We have come to consider our own stories. Side 1: Have you seen blazing chariots? Side 2: Have…
Even now, two thousand years later, you can almost hear the man’s sigh of relief when Jesus reminds him of the basic commandments. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got all of that covered,” says the man. (“I’ve got eternal life in the bag,” he thinks.) And you can almost see the look of concern slowly settle on…
1 Kings 17:17-24 This is the first resurrection story in the Bible. Amidst all the miracles of the Hebrew scriptures–creation and the flood and the plagues and the red sea parting and the water in the wilderness—here in 1 Kings 17 is the first time we ever read of God making someone who is dead…
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