May 18, 2019 Dear Belmont Family, As we continue to live into these times of change and transition, I am thankful to be joining a larger conversation about what’s next for the UMC to help shape and create the next Methodism – a Methodism defined by Wesleyan theology, a missional focus, evangelism and social justice, […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
My mother was terrified of water: terrified. She could sit on the edge of a pool almost shaking with fear. And yet, she sat on the edge of the pool. Mom’s almost irrational fear, of even the shallow end, came to me as a four year old through mandatory swim lessons. After ending one swim […]
“As a mother comforts her child, So I will comfort you, says the Lord, You will be comforted.” As babies nurse in their mother’s arms, Lord, cradle us within your love! (from Isaiah 61) Oh God- Our Mother Today, we pause in praise of mothers, who carried us whose labor pushed us into […]
Acts unfolds with acts or scenes as in a grand play, “The Acts of the Apostles.” Our passage begins with directions: “Meanwhile.” Meanwhile, in simultaneous time, God’s unfolding drama leads Philip on one stage and Saul on another. Acts 8 began, “at that time, the church began to be subjected to harsh persecution…those who had […]
Easter sends us out with a benediction to live as Jesus lived: “as the Creator sent me, so I send you.” (John 20) In our passage from Acts 5, Luke recounts actions from the earliest days of the church. “The Apostles On Trial” is a story of holy boldness. Just as Jesus lived with a […]
“By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps…. How could we sing the Lord’s song as slaves in foreign land?” Psalm 137 Today, I sat on my porch nearly in tears as I read the […]
Like all preachers, I want you to leave here saying, “I saw Jesus.” If I could hand out a little Easter Sampler Basket to give you that then I would. It might hold beautiful wrapped gold foiled delights: “A sense of the Holy, Awe before the Creator, knowledge that you are made in God’s image, […]
My dad worked as a factory foreman; Mom taught fourth grade. My deeply generous and very frugal parents took us on a trip every summer where we stayed with friends or family. We never went to an amusement park, but always to a museum: Chicago’s Field Museum, The Gateway Arch and the Kansas Agriculture Hall […]
When you pass through the waters…. When you swim through the river to the last station….. When the Lord, makes a way through the sea, cutting a path through the mighty waters….. Don’t remember that- don’t ponder ancient history. Look! Right now! I Am is doing a new thing; it sprouts up; don’t you recognize […]
Water is the first thing the waiter brings to our table. We are made of water. Our cells are filled with water. Without water we dehydrate and die. “O God, my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is […]
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