Five reasons to celebrate All Saints Day all year
Who are the saints who contributed to your life and to your church? There's never a bad time to celebrate the saints of the past.
David Crumm: The Jane Wells interview: How a Hunger Games Bible study can fire up your congregation””and help others
In Jane Wells’ new book””a Bible study for congregations, called Bird on Fire””Jane explains why The Hunger Games is such a hit with readers and moviegoers. Themes in this series of novels and movies tap deep into biblical history, including the lives of Esther, Gideon and David. The main symbols in Hunger Games echo powerful images established hundreds of years ago when mainline congregations first were sweeping across the American landscape.
Bishop Rob Wright: Gaining
Endurance allows us to gain our souls, Jesus said. Soul is the breath of God in us from the beginning. Call it inborn divine capacity. Treasure in a clay jar. But, we can activate it.
Jesus' Stories Are Our Stories
The stories that Jesus tells are about us. Once upon a time is our time, in other words.
Anne Howard: A Word in Time: Morning-After Scriptures
Luke’s Jesus is standing in the temple. The crowd around him admires the fine stones, the sturdy structure; they are proud of the results of their capital campaign. It is one fine temple they have built. But Jesus doesn’t join in the praise. Instead we hear doom and gloom and destruction. What’s all this about? This is actually a morning-after bit of scripture.
Shared Blessings
We give thanks for the people who have cared for our loved ones over the years. Those blessings and prayers have been shared.
Greg Carey: Self-Help and the Gospel
A Joel Osteen tweet crossed my Twitter feed the other day: 'You were not created to be unhappy in order to keep everyone else happy. You've got to run your own race.' I couldn't resist the temptation to reply: 'That's fine self-help, but it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.'
Carol Howard Merritt: Why Label? Why Not Just Follow Jesus?
For about a month, there has been an ongoing discussion about the term 'mainline.' I posted that I refused to use it because it has historic connections to upper class, white society and doesn’t adequately reflect the diversity of our social justice history. That spurred a number of Internet conversations.
Thomas Lane Butts: Celebrate the Temporary
Having a deep longing for something that last, we naturally chafe under the pervading temporariness of life. What can we count on for stability in a world where nothing stays the same?
David Lose: On Hope
It took me a little while to figure out what I liked so much about this commercial from All State. And, truthfully, I didn’t just like it, I found it peculiarly moving.
Bishop Elizabeth Eaton: A Place Called Lutheran
A first-call candidate as-signed to the Northeastern Ohio Synod came to me about an interesting encounter she had with a waitress. The waitress admired our candidate’s Luther Rose pendant and asked what it was. 'It’s Lutheran,' replied the candidate. 'Where’s Lutheran?' asked the waitress.
Marcus Borg: Does Christianity Have a Future?
I have just returned from a lecture event in Houston with Joan Chittister and Dom Crossan. The theme was the same as the title of this blog. None of us tried to predict the future of Christianity, even as we all spoke about our hopes for its shape in the future.
A Death Observed
When my father died, I gave myself the straight-forward advice that I had shared with others who had lost someone close throughout my long career in pastoral counseling: 'Every emotion, idea and action in your life over the next six months pivots on your father's dying. Don't make any major decisions, plans or changes for the next year. Pay careful and cautious attention. Be tender and gentle with yourself.' It was not long until I forgot my own advice.
Weekly Sermon Illustration: Press On
In our blog post every Monday we select a reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday, and pair it with a Frederick Buechner reading on the same topic. On November 17, 2013 we will celebrate the Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost.
ON Scripture-The Bible: Jesus, Poor Veterans and the Grass That Suffers (Luke 21: 5-19) By Billy Honor
In the United States, a large number of veterans who fought in wars at the command of the political elite have returned home from the battlefield to a life of impoverishment and fickle social services.
Carl McColman: Contemplation, Truth, Honesty and Love (Why Contemplation is Revolutionary, Part Four)
We’ve been considering the words of former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who suggested that the Christian practice of contemplation is a powerful antidote to the insanity and unreality of our world, dominated as it is my greed, acquisitiveness, and the fantasies spun by the triple threat of Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and Hollywood. Today we will shift gears and consider contemplation in itself, and why it is in itself such a good thing.
Debra Darvick: Show and Tell Is for Grownups Too!
A week or so ago I had the pleasure of participating in a program at the Northville First United Methodist Church sponsored by the Read The Spirit team on our shared American values.
Ron Buford: Blessed Assurance
Some religious people think they have all the answers about Jesus, his resurrection, second coming and so much more. And while these topics may be interesting, they are not central to our faith in the God as made know to us by Jesus, whose central message was the shockingly good news of God's unfailing love and compassion.
Agnostic
An agnostic is somebody who doesn't know for sure whether there really is a God. That is some people all of the time and all people some of the time.
Susan Baller-Shepard: Going Monastic: Thoroughly Modern Woman Experiences an Ancient Rule
Judith Valente wears many hats in this life. One hat she wears is that of good friend to countless people. I am proud to have her as my friend, proud to see her work come to fruition, whether that is her work as a journalist, writer or poet. Here is an interview Judith granted me about her book, 'Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith.'