Speechless Wonder
Mag Richer Smith
MAKE READY FOR THE CHRIST, WHOSE SMILE, LIKE LIGHTENING, SETS FORTH THE SONG OF EVERLASTING GLORY THAT NOW SLEEPS IN YOUR PAPER FLESH…LIKE DYNAMITE! This is Advent and these words from Thomas Merton shape our calling: to Make ready for the Christ…to prepare for the birthing God has in store within each of us & […]
A Black Rook in Rainy Weather
Joanne Gallardo
I don’t particularly like thinking about the end times. For this year in the liturgical season, Advent 1 is apocalyptic. I understand, and yet, I’d rather not. I grew up in a tradition that spoke of the end times most Sundays. I remember a particularly rousing sermon being given by our pastor telling us that […]
Help! Wow! Thanks!
Mag Richer Smith
IN Guatemala City, one of the biggest garbage pits in the world can be viewed from a cemetery overlook. And from that vantage point, one can see people moving about in the trash, making their homes in the squalor and stench, scavenging to eek out their subsistence while vultures are hovering overhead. THIS is […]
The Next Great Adventure
Joanne Gallardo
(Sermon includes Apocryphal text, Wisdom 3:1-9) Last year I preached an All Soul’s day sermon after the actual All Souls day, so I was inclined to do the same this year. Around this time of year, not just because of the liturgical season, people (myself included) start to think about family and loved ones. We […]
Conformed Resistance
Dan Schrock
Many Christians would like to think that these United States of America are a Christian nation. If we vote Christians into the various offices of our local and state governments, if we choose Christians to sit in Congress, if we elect a Christian president, and if that president nominates Christian judges and justices to the […]
Using Leverage in Obedience to God
Dan Schrock
Our biblical text for today is an ancient story, crafted at least 2,500 years ago but set in a timeline at least 3,200 years ago. The main characters are an unnamed king at the top of the nation, two lowly Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah, and a God who works in hidden yet detectable […]
An Inconvenient Woman
Joanne Gallardo
Women are terribly inconvenient. Whether you’re looking at an ancient text like the Bible, looking at more recent history, or trying to appoint a Supreme Court nominee, women seem to get in the way. Women bust up our image of heroes when they come forth with truth about their past actions. Women adjust our notions […]
Weight Lifting
Mag Richer Smith
We call it the Ketchup Revolution in our family. And it happened after my parents had been married for many years and patterns were well established. My dad fixed things and my mom served meals. So one night after we had all started eating dinner, my dad said, “Ketchup.” (There was no ketchup on the […]
Hope for the Future of the Church
Mag Richer Smith
We have a friendship quilt on our bed, given to us by the congregation in Indianapolis. And one of the patches was created by children 3rd through 6th grades and it says: We are NOT the future of the church….We ARE the church! In thinking about why life here in the Berkey Congregation gives me […]
Keep on a Prayin’
Mag Richer Smith
I met her in Guatemala… a mother of 8 and a persistent woman! When she and her husband decided to build a home for their growing family in Guatemala City, she did the paper work for access to land and petitioned for a building permit and WAITED… When nothing happened she kept showing up at […]
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