“Blessed is she who believed what was spoken by the Lord!” It all begins with women. Have you noticed how the Bible’s two cornerstone stories, the Exodus and The Incarnation, begin with women? Exodus begins as Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, refuse to uphold Pharaoh’s diabolical plans. Then Moses’s mother and his sister, Miriam, hatch […]
Why do we feel such self-righteous anger when we believe we have been cheated? Why do deceptive numbers, undelivered promises, and broken vows stick to your memories or is that just me? Why is releasing our debtors so hard? As I prayed my way through today’s Scriptures, I remembered a boss during college, whose final […]
On the surface, the story of the Widow’s Mite appears so simple. A widow, amid utter poverty, gives everything she has to God. Jesus declares that she has given more than all those who gave from their abundance. It is a beautiful thing to give. Jesus often tells us “the measure you give will be […]
“What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” is the kind of question that church folks ask. Did you notice, Jesus does not answer with a creed or confession of faith? Jesus answers “if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” It is a little thing but, did you notice that […]
A few weeks after my father died, I steadied myself for the first Sunday back preaching. I did not want my grief to interrupt my sermon. My sermon went fine, but as I came to the Communion Table the ritual landed in a new way. I raised my arms and said, “And so, with your […]
Dear Belmonters, I spoke to a soldier last week who, like other federal workers, is working while not being paid because of the ongoing government shutdown. On Saturday, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will run out of funding leaving many people hungry. SNAP “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget […]
Sometime in high school, feeling my adolescent bravado, I started calling my dad, “the cheapest man on the face of the earth”. I could tell a lot of stories to illustrate this, but when we ate out, and we rarely ate out, no matter where we ate out, dad slowly opened the check, shuttered, and […]
Scientists have categorized somewhere around 160,000 different kinds of months. The four inch tulip-tree silk moth is part of the nearly 1 million varieties of insects in the world. A newborn baby Blue whale baby is 23 feet long and weighs 2 tons. It is one of the 1.5 million categorized species of animals in […]
In 597, King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces laid siege to Jerusalem coming over the walls and through the gates and placing Zion under martial law. The Babylonian troops looted Solomon’s Temple and David’s Palace carrying off sacred vessels, the queen’s jewels, the army’s weapons, and national banners as trophies of war. They deported princes, business leaders and […]
On this world Communion Sunday, as I preach in English and Hai Htoo and Wisinee translate into Karen, there will be moments where you may have to wait until someone says something you understand. Could we take these slower moments and practice loving our neighbors as ourselves? Maybe we could do some holy day dreaming […]
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