It started a few months ago with the infamous line from my 7th grade daughter: “Mom, everyone else at school . . .”. In this particular instance, she was informing me that everyone else had a cell phone. “Laura doesn’t,” I said. “Yes she does. She got one last week.” “Well . . . your…
Writing words for liturgy is one of the joys of my life. I often write (or heavily adapt) calls to worship, prayers, even the occasional hymn, for the Sunday morning worship services at Peace Mennonite. It’s partly that I love to write them, and partly that I’m pretty picky and often can’t find the perfect…
Yesterday was a snow day, and a couple of the church kids came over to play. During a conversation with the six-year-old, he told me about one of his parents’ friends who was “really old–probably fifty.” So I said, “My birthday is tomorrow. How old do you think I will be?” He tilted his head…
I know. I know. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). But I have to be honest. I’ve had my doubts about Paul. “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands” (Ephesians 5:22). “Women should remain silent in the churches” (1 Corinthians 14:34). “I do not…
I want to express my appreciation to the Southern Poverty Law Center for adding the Family Research Council and American Family Association to their list of hate groups to monitor. Whether or not one agrees with an individual’s choice of sexual partner, there is no excuse for spreading malicious misinformation about an entire group of…
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…
Spacious Faith 