After receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses says to the nation: “I set before you blessings and curses, Life and death. Now choose life, so that you and your descendants might live”. (Duet 30) Life emerges (as a blessing) when we as individuals and together in community adhere to the covenant. We do not enter the […]
Tag Archives: religion
I want to invite you to imagine that the Bible simply ended with Jesus’ Ascension. Jesus ascends and sits down in heaven. Imagine: that forty days after Easter, the disciples gather atop Matthew’s mountain. The Risen Christ speaks “peace be with you” and shows them the wounds in his hands and side. Jesus shares a […]
Luke 23:33-34 “When they arrived at the place called the Skull, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.’ They drew lots as a way of dividing up his clothing.” John 19:25-27 “Jesus’ […]
Amid a national disaster, Jeremiah writes to those unsettled by loss and transition, as Jerusalem was utterly destroyed: “The Lord, our God, proclaims to all those living in exile: Build houses and settle down. Cultivate new gardens and eat the produce. Get married. Have children and look forward to grandchildren. Don’t dwindle away! Promote the […]
Before the boys were born, someone gave us a 4” thick, 573 page guide to our baby’s first year. These days, I imagine someone has invented a parenting app, with location services that can gently chirp suggestions to help you coax a frightened toddler from the top of a McDonald’s playland, as you nurse a […]
In 1997, on a clear cloudless night not long after Lewis was born, I felt a pull to carry Lewis outside. Maybe I felt a bond so rich that being surrounded by walls and held in by a ceiling seemed wrong. I looked up at the starry sky. That same sky called out to Abraham […]
In May of 2020, the United Methodist Church General Conference will bring together delegates representing the 136 countries that are a part of our worldwide denominational communion. Our own, Rev. Marie King is one of those delegates. Jacob Vaughan, Jefferson Furtado, Linda Furtado and I will be alternates there as well. The gathering will consider […]
Eight children and eight adults sat along Mount Leconte’s cliff-tops watching the sun receding over the Smokies. It was so spectacularly beautiful. The sun hung full, pale, orange, and low over the Smoky Mountains until meeting the horizon when it squished together and disappeared. A thousand fading streams of lilac and gold slowly turned to […]
There are twelve chapters of context before we get to the pinnacle of the Apostle Paul’s writing, 1 Corinthians 13. Paul, along with Priscilla and Aquila, worked in Corinth for at least 18 months planting the church that he writes to. The larger church did not save the Corinthians’ letters to Paul, but Paul’s letters […]
No matter what our lesser rules or rulings might say, our United Methodist constitution declares: “The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth. All persons without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or economic condition, shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, […]
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