Tag: relationships
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Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We did a lot of crying today. The church has always been, from the very beginning, a community of people coming and going, in every kind of way, at every stage of life: a community of strangers we meet and welcome and come to know as friends and companions and bid farewell and Godspeed. It…
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Sixth Sunday in Easter
Today was about the flag. After months of discussion, in the congregation and Session and Worship Committee and back to Session, the decision about what to do about displaying the American and Christian flags that were donated by a member before we moved to the new (“new,” that is, 25-year-old) building from the church on…
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Third Sunday of Easter
The day-to-day reality of participating in church could give you emotional and cognitive whiplash, if you let it. Like this morning: we spent an hour or so talking about the kind of deep theological topics that people debate in seminary and in theology texts – justification by faith, redemption, atonement, grace, which faith is it,…
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Second Sunday of Easter
The Preacher says there’s a time for everything. You know: “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance,” etc. etc. Ecclesiastes 3. “Turn turn turn.” A time to meet, and a time to say good-bye. We’re adults, we understand, we do. We understand that people…
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Fourth Sunday in Lent
Our pastor was on vacation this week. When I saw the bulletin for this morning’s service, I thought: Will we ever get out of the fourth chapter of Luke? Is something going on, or is this just what happens when pastors are ill or on vacation and guest preachers substitute during Lent? Did Jesus wonder…
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Love as a Second Language
Gary Chapman. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts. Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2015 (1992). [An installment of the Read Me Project.] To be completely honest, The 5 Love Languages never quite made it to the “Read Me” shelf. It was on display in the back of Barnes and Noble, on the way…
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Third Sunday in Advent
The question of the day was whether we could imagine ourselves, just being with one another, as … having something to do with love. It’s almost cliché these days to say things like “Christmas … it’s about presence, not presents.” But what if we take that “presence” idea seriously, recognize that being there with another…
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Kinds of Outreach
True story: Saturday was Louisville Pride Festival on Bardstown Road. Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus opened the musical side of the festival with the Star Spangled Banner and other opening songs, and VOICES of Kentuckiana sang right afterwards, so I was there in the back row trying to sing newish-to-me music after having been out on…
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Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A long day, but a good one. We were fortunate to have Rev. Dennis Smith, with whom our congregation has had a mission relationship for many years, visit and come study the Bible with us and preach on Mark 8:27-38 and stay for brunch and fill us in on how things are going in S.…
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Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
A lot happens at church every Sunday. Most of it is pretty unremarkable. We drive up in our cars – or a couple of people walk or bicycle over, if they live in walking or biking distance. We say “Hi!” or “Hey!” and “How’s [insert name of husband or wife or grown-up child or mother…
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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Some days church is like this: We talked about Romans 12:9-21 in class, mostly thinking out loud about times something had been challenging for us: was that “not avenging ourselves”? was that “hating what was evil and holding fast to what was good”? was that loving? Practically, day by day, making those decisions requires ……
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That unmistakable gesture of contempt
I scolded someone I was having a conversation with on Sunday. We had gotten on the topic of the Huge Decision that’s looming at my church; I had made a comment that reflected what I understood to be some people’s concern about the possibility of having 150 children in the church five days a week…
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today was the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the sermon treated some themes in the gospel of the day, Luke 12:13-21. The discussion of the text(s) and the sermon are available, for those interested,
Matters of Interpretation 