What’s on is your Christmas list? What are you asking for? What do you hope to unwrap on Christmas day? What are you longing for? What are you praying for? Are you imagining God doing something new and lovely in your life? Advent means “arrival or coming.” Advent not only anticipates the Christ child laying in a […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
In hospital, Anna was not too far from the end of her life. Her husband of 50 plus years was too frail to come and visit her. Maybe thirty years, before they lost their only son in an unspeakable tragedy: a drug fueled robbery. Anna and Bill lived with a beauty, grace, courage and generosity […]
Although sounding similar “the pursuit of happiness” and “the act of thanksgiving” are fairly different. One is the seeking of an emotional state somewhat dependent on outside persons, resources, luck, or events. Thanksgiving is a slowing down to render an internal accounting of the blessings, beauty, gifts, and God’s goodness in any circumstance. The pursuit of […]
Almighty God, Giver of life, Creator of all We long for the day spoken of by the prophet Isaiah When your Love and Light eclipses our sin When You come to judge the nations, when all swords shall be hammered into ploughshares, and all spears crafted into pruning-hooks; when nation shall not lift up sword […]
Have you ever listened to the orchestra tuning up or the sound check for a band? It may not be the most lovely sound, but tuning up is necessary for the production of great performance. If John Cook pulls out his guitar to play for us, he must take a little time to tune it. […]
Before supermarkets imported apples from New Zealand and grain from Kansas the harvest produced tremendous joy. To taste a crisp apple right off the tree or bake bread with grain fresh from the threshing floor led to harvest festivals and feasting. Yet, the faithful Levitical farmer waited to experience tasty harvest delights. Leviticus 23:9-14 calls the […]
Almighty God, Heal our land Forgive us For we have turned from Your paths And we have turned away from each other Come bring wisdom Remind us that one day all things will be made known Free us from our craven consumerism, greedy idolatry and narrow self-interest Quench the partisan desires for reelection that […]
A seldom celebrated, yet vital part of any good preaching is asking questions. Questions are more dangerous than declarative statements for they demand an answer. We brush off a hard statement. It is harder to shake a good question. Jesus asked questions all the time. Here are a few: Is not life more than food? Do not even […]
I grew up in a church that did not regularly pray the Lord’s Prayer during worship services. One of my Youth Director, perhaps fearing my education at “Mary Queen Of the Holy Rosary School”, told me not to pray the Lord’s Prayer. He emphasized it was just a model prayer not intended to be prayed! […]
A church friend shared with me that she had never heard a mother preach on Mother’s Day. I might share a lot of things about being a parent, but I can’t speak about being a mom. In 1956, the United Methodist Church finally ordained women to full clergy rights. We decided to fully include women […]
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