It was a Monday afternoon, in Marengo, and a young woman walked into the church and asked to use the telephone. Not a problem, I said. And while she sat in the office dialing numbers and getting no response, I sat at my desk trying to pick out hymns for worship the next Sunday. Are…
Advent
Words and lyrics
Everyone is gone for the day. The church is quiet and still. And here I sit, pouring over the words in the hymnal and songbooks. Looking for just the right combination of joy and reflection. Of longing and praise. Of reality and possibility. Of the familiar and the uncomfortable. Sometimes I forget we also have…
Expectations and Realities
Sermon based on Luke 1:39-55 and Matthew 11:2-6 About a year ago, I began working with Imagine No Malaria here in the Iowa Conference, and I have to tell you… since then, I can’t look at a pregnant woman the same way again. In our scripture this morning, we actually have two pregnant women –…
Shine Like Stars
Imagine No Malaria Guest Sermon – Advent 2 When we lit our advent candles just a few minutes ago, we were reminded that not everything in our scriptures is full of sunshine and roses. Luke’s vision of the coming Messiah includes terrible signs and distress among the peoples. As the Message translation of these…
my good deeds are like a tampon…
In this week’s lectionary readings we find a prayer from Isaiah 64. The tide has turned in Isaiah’s (or second Isaiah’s) thoughts and no more are there promises of destruction… now there are promises of salvation and pleas for God to act. “If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!” Isaiah cries. …
Love… gotta have it!
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The Sunday that I traveled up to Cherokee, my nine-year-old cousin Taylor was baptized. One afternoon, she came home very upset from school. You see, one of her best friends at school had asked her that day if she had been baptized. Taylor wasn’t sure, and her little friend responded: If you aren’t baptized, you…
Advent Blog Tour: Day 14
“Las Posadas” by Maria Laughlin As Christmas approaches, we are reminded that a very pregnant young woman and her patient fiancé were once left out in the cold. They made their way to the town of Bethlehem hoping and praying that someone would have a place for them to stay… but there was no room.…
Joy… for the tough times
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This morning in worship we focused on John the Baptist’s question to Jesus: How do I know that you are the one? Are you him? photo by: Mattox Jesus listed off all the signs of the kingdom – the things he was doing that demonstrated the Kingdom of God had come near. Instead of preaching,…