If you look at the photo of my “Praying Women” notebook from yesterday’s post, you will see a ripped part of a page tinted purple. I’ve got a detail here that you may or may not be able to read. It’s part of a dictionary page that contains the word “prayer.” Cute, right? The poet…
My second entry on this blog was about my practice of using a prayer notebook. My first notebook was decorated with a post-it note on which I scrawled the word “Prayer.” That notebook is now full, and I’m moving on to a more artsy notebook for 2011. My first idea was to use the images…
My sermon on the Slaughter of the Innocents is posted here. Much thanks to my seminary profs David May and Mike Graves for the insights provided in their book Preaching Matthew: Interpretation and Proclamation.
God of new life, God of life made new, We begin this new year as we ended the last– embraced by your spirit of love your presence of peace your gentle power. We leave behind the old year in the knowledge that Whatever we have done in the service of selfish desire; Whenever we have…
In a newspaper column printed on New Year’s day, 1863, Mark Twain wrote: “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. To-day, we are a…
It is a story most of us know well. The woman and man traveling to his hometown for a census. The baby born, wrapped in cloths, and laid in a manger. Casual observers would know nothing about the angel who visited Mary or the agony Joseph had gone through when he learned his fiancée was…
(To be sung to the tune of . . . Oh, you can figure it out.) I’m dreaming of a Mennonite Christmas, the kind that all the righteous know, where gifts are handmade or maybe fair trade, and wrapped with last year’s bags and bows. I’m dreaming of a Mennonite Christmas, with every Christmas card…
I was a senior in high school when the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was instituted. We were studying satire in English, and our assignment was to create an example. So I made an application for military service. It showed a picture of an attractive man without a shirt on and read, “I would like…
Here is a link to my sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent. The focus scripture is Matthew 3:1-12. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”
The first Sunday of Advent this year, our worship service at Peace Mennonite focused on the issue of time–particularly the distinction between Chronos and Kairos. During December, Chronos, or chronological time, is emphasized in many ways. The secular world tells us how many shopping days we have until Christmas. At home, many of us use…
Spacious Faith 