Tag: joy
-
“What Are We Waiting For?”
Thankfully and joyfully, the kingdom of heaven is a present reality as much as it is a future expectation
-
Reflecting on Ezra 6 13-22
We are a few weeks in to a set of lessons that all have something to do with freedom, and with the character of God as liberator. With that in mind, we could ask ourselves where we see references to freedom in Ezra 6:13-22, the text we are studying for Sunday, March 20. But there…
-
A Living Text
Once upon a time in a class, the professor said, offhand, in passing, not the main point, “so you have the juxtaposition of images – the source of all meaning …” That basic theory has stayed with me, like a meteor crater, one of the things I really learned in seminary. The juxtaposition of images…
-
New Life
A sunny day, not too chilly. Some of us didn’t even need our coats. Birds singing all around. And people singing, too, albeit behind masks. Brilliant flowers from someone’s garden – already?! – around the base of the ancient pulpit that’s really more of a podium, the one from the old church (no, the one…
-
Joy
Other people. All together in one place. “Like real church.” If it weren’t Lent, we would shout Alleluia! We do, anyway. 1When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the…
-
Shabbat shalom
Your personal joy will rise up when you want nothing but the joy of God – nothing but joy in itself. Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Schocken Books, 1947, 28. Image: James Garden Laing (1852-1915), “View of the Synagogue in Nürnberg,” Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
-
A Present from a Friend, or The Keep Going Song
Got this by text this morning: Here’s something an old friend shared with me that made me smile and weep at the same time. Me, too. The Bengsons have a YouTube channel here.
-
Reflecting on John 15 4-17
We are studying John 15:4-17 for Sunday, November 8 – Jesus’s metaphor of the vine and the branches, and repetition of the commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.” [Some notes on the text are here, and here.] Here are a few questions about the text we might want to consider: What…
-
Shabbat shalom
The hasidic movement did not weaken the hope in a Messiah, but it kindled both its simple and intellectual followers to joy in the world as it is, in life as it is, in every hour of life in this world, as that hour is. Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Schocken Books, 1947, 27.
-
Renewal and Recommitment
Easter is a big day in church world. The biggest. The cliché, familiar from religion text books and every newspaper ever, is that “Easter is the holiest day in the Christian year.” How we measure degrees of holiness may not be crystal clear – we don’t have anything like a geiger counter or a thermometer…
-
Grateful Sore Feet
Sore feet do not just happen overnight. It takes months of deconditioning to make possible the kind of foot-soreness that comes from actually using one’s feet for the purpose of standing and walking on them for an extended period of time, like most of the day, on a hard, flat surface, like the church kitchen…
-
Study Notes – 1 Chronicles 15
We are studying portions of 1 Chronicles 15 (mostly leaving out the long lists of names, but there are a couple of other interesting omissions) for Sunday, December 1. This is the Chronicler’s account of David’s bringing the Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel to Jerusalem. Here are my notes on this…
-
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Celebrating Our Bicentennial I)
Today was the first day in our church’s week-long celebration of our 200th anniversary. It’s a lot of work. But it’s the kind of work that is also bringing people a lot of joy, which makes it a satisfying kind of exhaustion. There’s probably a lesson in that somewhere. The day began with a worship…
Matters of Interpretation 