Benjamin Pratt: Martin Luther 2017: 500 Years of Reformation
To kick off this historic year, we invite author and columnist Benjamin Pratt to stir our reflections on the Reformation by describing his own recent visit to Luther’s home...
ON Scripture: Trump’s Inauguration and Conflicted Hope in a Divided Christianity (Isaiah 9:1-4) By The Rev. Billy Honor
The nation of Israel was in a time of looming war and destruction, darkness and gloom (Isaiah chapter 8). As a result, the people were divided and uncertain about the future and searching for answers. This was the period of time somewhere around the end of the reign of King Ahaz when the Isaiah prophesied that the coming of a new messiah or divine leader was near.
Weekly Sermon Illustration: Denominations
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 January 22, 2014 we will celebrate the Third Sunday after Epiphany.
Wayne Meisel: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the Intersection of Faith and Service
What I like best about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is that it is a day on, not a day off.
Bishop Elizabeth Eaton: A Message for Martin Luther King Day
On Monday, Jan. 16, our nation will be observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King’s work called us, all of us, to remember our neighbor. As a civil rights leader, he spoke about a vision of a beloved community and preached a message of love.
Kenneth L. Samuel: Affirmation
According to Matthew's gospel, before Jesus performed any miracles . . . before he interceded on behalf of the weak and the afflicted . . . before he offered himself as a ransom for the sins of many . . . Jesus was affirmed by God.
Bishop Elizabeth Eaton: Happy New Year!
Here is where the great gift of grace, especially as it comes to us in baptism, helps us make sense of our lives and resolves the stress of New Year’s resolutions””it acknowledges that we are broken and does away with the false hope or the intolerable burden of our being able to make ourselves right.
Something Better and Truer
This is a Day1 Key Voice article by The Rev. Frederick Buechner.
Carl McColman: Seven Ideas for a Contemplative New Year’s Resolution
”˜Tis the season for making a resolution for a positive change in our lives. It’s easy to get cynical about new year’s resolutions (how many of us join the gym in January, only to cancel our membership by March?), but I think we need to keep a positive attitude. Better to make a resolution and at least attempt to improve ourselves, than just not to bother at all.
Frederick Schmidt: 4 Reasons for Abandoning New Year’s Resolutions
On one level, I have no specific objection to New Year’s resolutions. Any opportunity for change and improvement is a welcome occasion. Evidently, countless cultures have thought so as well. As far as I can tell the practice goes back to the Babylonians and has been renewed somewhere in the world ever since.
Carol Howard Merritt: Shared space, shared vision
In Asheville, one church was dying while another was being born.
Bill Flippin Jr.: Matthew 2:13-23: Significance of Jesus' early years
Threat to the life of a child intended for some important destiny is a common enough feature of ancient narratives. In the book of Exodus a familiar story of destiny is found in the threat to life of the infant Moses.
Weekly Sermon Illustration: He Will Strengthen You
This is a Day1 Key Voice article by The Rev. Frederick Buechner.
ON Scripture: Work, Identity, and God's Beloved (John 1:29-42) By Mihee Kim-Kort
For many Christians, baptism signals a new beginning, and a clean slate for life. It is also entrance into the Christian faith and participation in the work of the community. Likewise, Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan marked not only the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, but his identity as God’s son.
Talitha Arnold: A Prayer for a Leader
May the leader be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth." - Psalm 72:6
Kenneth L. Samuel: What Are You Teaching Today?
We all know that some of the greatest lessons in life are not given by those designated as teachers. The great lessons in life are not confined to classrooms and lecture halls. The Christians at Colossae, a city in S.W. Asia Minor, were admonished to teach one another in word and deed.
What Christ Meant
This is a Day1 Key Voice article by The Rev. Frederick Buechner.
Anthony Robinson: Sacred Speech/Verbal Pollution
Lots of attention these days, rightly so, to things that pollute the air, the water, the soil. Paul knew, and reminds us, that there is such a thing as verbal pollution. Moreover, its consequences are serious. Careless words, distortions and lies, fracture trust and destroy life.
Chuck Queen: Three Reasons I Am a Christian Universalist
Before I tell you why I am a universalist, I must first clarify the kind of universalist I am. I don’t believe that one who has been a hateful jerk just automatically walks into a kin-dom of love upon death. There is nothing to suggest that simply passing through death would transform a hater into a lover. How would someone with prejudice, greed, a thirst for vengeance, etc. be able to exist in a realm of self-giving love?
Will Willimon: Herod in Trouble
Jesus is born in Bethlehem, City of David, fulfillment of the messianic hopes of Israel. And yet the first to recognize and to worship him are the magi, Gentile stargazing magicians, immigrants from the east. An even greater irony: compromised, corrupted, lackey-for-the-oppressive-Romans Herod, though he knew little of the scriptures knows enough to be 'troubled' along with nine-out-of-ten Judeans. What does the future hold? Can a baby threaten the government?