Please see the previous post for an introduction to this prayer series. Suggested Spiritual Practice: Visual Lectio Divina You can find a description and example of this practice here. Music Links: All will be well (contemporary song) The 23rd Psalm (Bobby McFerrin) Call to Worship: Christ, you long to gather me under your wings. I…
Each week during Lent, I will post Lenten prayers. There are some suggested spiritual practices and music links for the week. Beginning with the call to worship, there is a daily prayer liturgy that you can follow on your own or with a group. The basic outline and prayers are the same throughout the week,…
It has been a long Epiphany season, but Lent is, finally, right around the corner. I asked my mom—also a pastor—if I could have some of her ashes this year and she just dropped off this tub of burnt palm leaves. So even if I live to be 100 and never retire, I am set…
Matthew 26:6-13 Lent is the time in the church year when we move toward the cross and, ultimately, to Easter. Lent is 40 days (not counting Sundays) of preparation for the holy celebration. Days to, perhaps, give up something in your life that is getting in the way of your relationship with God. Days to,…
This week I saw a vision of bones. Well, more of an image than a vision. One might call it a photograph. There was a long table with colorful cloths folded and placed along both sides. On each folded cloth was a human skull. These were skulls of Native Americans. Bones that had been collected…
This call to worship is based on Psalm 130: In the wilderness we cry out to our God. In the wilderness our souls wait. In the wilderness we hope in God’s word. In the wilderness we know God’s steadfast love. And so, in the wilderness we worship together.
This call to worship is based on Psalm 78:12-20, which echoes the week’s lectionary reading from Exodus (17:1-7) Can God spread a table in the wilderness? In the sight of our ancestors, God worked marvels. Can God spread a table in the wilderness? In the land of Egypt God divided the sea and let them…
I am re-posting these reflections on John 12:1-11 in honor of my father, David Harader, who died three years ago today. This piece is a distillation of the sermon I preached on the Sunday after Dad’s funeral–which was apparently the fifth Sunday of Lent. “Six days before Passover.” Probably a couple of months–though only one…
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…
[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,…
Spacious Faith 