7/19/2021

Each morning I walk three miles, a mile and a half to the local Heine Brothers Coffee and then a mile and a half back home. The path curls out of the neighborhood onto Moser Road, where it crosses Chenoweth Run.

Some mornings the creek is only a trickle, the rippling water reflecting the sunlight, the flow barely audible above cars passing by. Other mornings the run is swollen with rain, dark, fast and angry. A bit further, the route leads into the woods. The sidewalk ends. Spiders cross the path. There are deer.

7/16/2021

6/17/2021

6/15/2021

5/14/2021

The Gospel lections for June 2021 are from the Gospel according to Mark. In the characteristic form of the book of Mark, Jesus Christ traveled from place to place, an itinerant preacher/healer who breathlessly encountered young and old, healthy and ill, rich and poor, the lawgivers and the law rebels. The book’s account is a rapid-fire succession of one scene after another. The overall sense is of the Savior on the move, empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, on a mission to disclose the presence and power of the kingdom of God.

5/12/2021

4/15/2021

4/13/2021

How and where did your stewardship journey begin? Throughout the years, I have listened with awe and reverence as church members have shared stories of grandmothers who made sure dimes and quarters were ready to be placed in church offering plates; mothers and fathers who sat down to talk about budgets, tithing, and giving as an act of gratitude. Witnesses powerful and mighty, establishing generations of faithful stewards, worthy of sharing.

3/22/2021

3/15/2021

Life is filled with stones: stone of injustice, stone of inequality, stone of prejudice, stone of violence, stone of partisanship, stone of poverty … stone, stone, stone! Everywhere we look there seems to be a stone, something blocking our way.

2/10/2021

This year the heart of Lent falls in March, and the lectionary readings invite us to contemplate the mystery of God’s self-giving and the meaning of sacrifice. Every religion has its particular and peculiar insight into the holy. At the heart of the Christian insight are the incarnation and the cross. Both the birth and death of Jesus reveal the giving of God’s own self to us, to the world. Jesus’ life and ministry, and especially his suffering and death demonstrate the full measure of God’s generous self-giving. This is what we encounter as we read the scriptures. It is what we experience each time we come to the Lord’s Table – the life of God poured out and broken for us.

2/8/2021

Calder Pickett, the History of Journalism professor at the University of Kansas, edited a compendium of famous sayings, quotes, statements of Americans over the last 200 years. He entitled the book “Voices from the Past.” He shared in class that he wanted to have a resource that will highlight the incredible power of words that really changed history.