There’s a little Facebook game going around right now where you add “with a Chainsaw” to the title of whatever book you are reading. I joined in the fun and posted: There’s a Woman in the Pulpit with a Chainsaw. (Not to brag, but that comment got the most likes in a very long thread.)…
The chapel sermon on our final night of Jr. High camp was always the same: a passionate re-telling of Jesus’ violent death on the cross, with the assurance that, “Every time you sin, you pound the nails deeper and deeper into Jesus’ flesh.” And there we sat, dozens of awkward barely-teenagers, with tears streaming down…
Good Friday, April 3, 2015 Peace Mennonite Church Welcome and Introduction Hymn: Abide with me Call to Worship We are Jesus’ disciples, following him even as he moves toward the cross. Even as he wraps a towel around his waist. Even as he kneels to wash the filth from the feet of his friends. We…
Imagine the scene of a family meal. Perhaps Thanksgiving or Christmas. There’s a big table with all the leaves put in, and Aunt Betty’s tablecloth doesn’t quite reach the ends. Chairs are crowded around the table—six nice wooden ones, a few wobbly chairs brought up from the basement, a couple of metal folding chairs, and,…
Here is a Call to Worship for Easter morning, based on Isaiah 25:6-10: God has destroyed the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. Let us rejoice and be glad in God’s salvation. God has wiped away our tears and removed our disgrace. Let us rejoice and be glad…
Originally posted on Spacious Faith:
Holy Week tends to be pretty hard on pastors–or at least on me. There is, of course, the practical aspect of organizing and leading extra worship services. (Between today and next Sunday there are seven worship services in which I have a significant part.) More worship services means more sermons…
[This is an excerpt from my sermon for March 22, 2015. You can read the full sermon text here.] I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. “I have calmed and quieted my soul.” This calm, this stillness,…
I think it is natural to imagine that our holy spaces will be quiet, private. Places where we can be still and alone. Or maybe with a few intimate friends. Yet if we define a holy space as a space inhabited by God, then the Gospels affirm crowded places as distinctly holy. Jesus was often…
Creative Prayer Experience based on John 12:20-33 Create a drawing or collage of a growing plant–possibly a wheat stalk. Show the “dead” seed within the earth and the living plant above. If you would like, you can add words to your collage. Within the earth, write words that represent “deaths” you have experienced–deep disappointments, things…
Our scripture readings this Sunday are Luke 13:34-35 and Psalm 131. Here is the call to worship I wrote: Our Creator longs to gather us under her wings. We long to rest near the Divine heartbeat. In this sacred space of worship, God’s longing and our longing meet. Like sheltered chicks, Like weaned children, We…
Spacious Faith 