Tag: metaphor
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Perspective
the abortion debate presumes that pregnancy itself contributes nothing essential to the creation of a rights-bearing person
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Study Notes – Amos 5 18-24
We are studying Amos 5:18-24 for Sunday, March 1 – the first Sunday in Lent, so this pointed repudiation of ritual worship unaccompanied by substantive change in one’s manner of living, this pointed insistence that justice and righteousness is the real worship, is timely. [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are a few…
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Ephesians 5 21-33
We are studying Ephesians 5:21-33 for Sunday, August 25. [Study notes on this text are here.] This may mean we’ll have a lively discussion, or it may mean we’ll have no discussion at all, because no one will want to step on anyone else’s toes. Whatever happens, here are a few questions about the text…
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Upon Noticing the Oak in the Back Yard on a Rain Day
Tangled gnarled branches withered and wavering against the dismal gusts and hardened autumn gaze of gray impassive sky. Long since the clutching leaves were soft and full and warm, long since the shade and sun embraced and dappled earth o’erspread with romping play. No matter when cold still upright stance gives starker notice in advance…
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How Low Can God Go?
When my daughter was little, I thought I had hit on a way to explain why we could not see God. Because of course she wanted to see God. She wanted to see everything. “God is too big to see.” The way the air is too big to see. God is everywhere. God is everywhere?…
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Real Life Metaphor
What looked like a bush on the edge of the woods turned out to be a sapling, bent almost to the ground under the weight of a rotting log, reaching out of the woods like a leafy, outstretched arm. How long had that log been there, pressing on its skinny trunk, forcing it out instead…
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Fourth Sunday of Advent
Sometimes, something will happen in worship that takes me by surprise, and makes me think of things in a whole different way. This year during Advent, our pastor has been giving the children’s message at the beginning of the order of service, and having the children light the Advent candles. There’s been one for hope,…
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Rethinking Matters of Time
One of the perks of having time off for the Christmas holiday is being able to watch a few movies, both “on demand” at our family’s house and in the theatre. Oddly – perhaps, but then again, perhaps not, since we live where we live when we do, so something could be happening in our…