Words for the Beginning: You are a Blessing

Our friends with A Sanctified Art, the clergywomen who wrote this year’s Advent and Christmas liturgies, remind us that “Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. As the calendar year comes to a close, a new church year begins. Christ’s birth ushers us into new...

A Grace-Filled King

Questions for Reflection When you think of a king, what qualities do you imagine? What qualities does Jesus Christ possess as our king?  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen On the church calendar, this is the last Sunday of the...

A Future with Hope: Promise of Jubilee

We’re back in the wilderness alongside the Israelites one more time this morning.  Over the last three weeks, we’ve accompanied these fellow wanderers through their liminal space experience, that time between being liberated from Egyptian slavery and making it to the...

A Future with Hope: Promise of Enough

Numbness.  Rage.  Courage.  Panic.  Determination.  Weariness.  Hope.  Despair.  This election cycle, we have all contained multitudes, stopping at least briefly at every point on the feelings wheel.  With most of the results in and races called, perhaps the...

A Future With Hope: Promise of Guidance

While it may seem like an odd stewardship text, the Ten Commandments are a helpful touchstone in our efforts toward A Future with Hope.  One of the key questions they respond to is “How do we live in community with each other, especially in uncharted territory?” So...

A Future with Hope: Promise of Resources

As I wrote in this week’s Pastor’s Message, seasons of leadership transition and congregational change can often feel disorienting and anxiety-producing: the stability and security of what has been and what is now both have to be held a bit more loosely as we explore...