Tag: relationships
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Abundance
The story of the wedding at Cana – where Jesus turns water into wine, into exceptionally fine wine, into hundreds of gallons of exceptionally fine wine, into more than enough exceptionally fine wine to keep the party going for days – is a story of abundance. Unlikely abundance, surprising to those in the know, its…
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Collects
Corporate worship isn’t the only thing people do “at church,” but it is what everyone thinks of as “going to church.” Many, maybe most, people think churches – that is, congregations – mainly are organized for the purpose of conducting regular corporate worship. If, that is, they think much about “the life of the church”…
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Connection – or not
Where does connection come from, really? We sense it. We might describe it as “having something in common,” or “caring about one another,” or “meaning something to each other,” mattering. If we put it that way, then it seems clear that it must grow out of something real. Almost as if it is already there,…
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Weather Talk
If it weren’t for COVID, we’d be changing our routines for the weather: last week’s ice, this week’s expected days’-long snow and freezing drizzle and more snow and frigid temperatures that will keep everything from melting down to a clear driveway any time soon. All of this was good for almost an hour’s conversation on…
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Reflecting on Genesis 42 6-25
We are studying Genesis 42:6-25 for Sunday, September 20. This is the episode in the story of Joseph and his brothers when the brothers arrive in Egypt to buy grain, which is not exactly a family reunion. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to consider or discuss…
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Trinity Sunday
The Holy Trinity is impossible to understand, but we can probably understand what it means to be a Trinitarian Church: a Church that is called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in word and in deed to the world that God created and loves.…
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Stepping Up
All kinds of groups can be “church” in the sense of being that place where we feel the people around us embrace us and accept us, and where we can count on people to care about us and support us. Most recently, last night at rehearsal one of the chorus members announced that she may…
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Epiphany
Our new interim pastor was out of town because of a death in the family – alas! – so we had a visiting preacher who reminded us of a quotation by Edith Wharton: There are two ways of spreading light: to be The candle or the mirror that reflects it. [The quote is from a…
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Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
One of those extraordinary ordinary days at church. A beautiful, clear, sunny day in late fall. The sun hitting that stained glass window at just the right angle to cast a rose-colored shadow on the wall across from the choir loft. I’ve never seen that before. Some people we’d expected to see weren’t there [“You…
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Who Would Want to Hug a Porcupine?
Smith, Sean K. How to Hug a Porcupine: Easy Ways to Love the Difficult People in Your Life. MJF Books, 2009. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] This book did not cost a lot, happily.[*] If you’ve had enough therapy, or enough of the right kind of life experience, like working for more than…
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Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Because I am modern, I assume effects have causes. I assume sciatica has a cause. Our theory about the cause of D’s recent bout of sciatica is “stairs.” Specifically the stairs in Dayton, Ohio, at her family’s houses, that she spent a lot of time going up and down last Labor Day weekend. As the…
Matters of Interpretation 