Ten Thousand Ways
Mag Richer Smith
Orpha was an older woman in our congregation. Her occupation in life had been “cleaning lady,” and Orpha’s life vocation was “servant of God.” She would collect the towels in the church kitchen and the blankets in the nursery and bring them back each week all refreshed. She quilted for the MCC sale and let […]
The Wall will Happen?
Mag Richer Smith
The WALL WILL happen. The Wall won’t happen.. And the debate about a Wall on the southern border of our nation keeps us stuck behind walls of hostility & resistance. We know we need appropriate boundaries to keep us safe and none of us wants to live in a house without walls, especially in the […]
Tell God I Say Yes
Mag Richer Smith
Billy was a kid in the neighborhood who had a rough edge, a rowdy kid who pushed other people’s buttons. He hung out with my younger brothers and was in and out of our home. One day when Billy was 10 years old, my Mom got a call from Billy’s mom, a single parent with […]
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 & […]
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 […]
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 […]
Plenty Good Room?
Mag Richer Smith
William Sloan Coffin Jr. says: “For Christians the problem is NOT how to reconcile homosexuality with Scripture passages that condemn it, but how to reconcile the rejection of homosexuals with the LOVE OF CHRIST.” YET… for many in the Church the problem HAS been how to reconcile an open door to LGBTQ folks with a […]
Breakfast is Ready
Mag Richer Smith
This past week my friend played a song for me that she and her husband would sing together, especially after his Alzheimer’s diagnoses and throughout his illness. I did not know this song, but maybe you do. Lyrics were something like this: We are going. Heaven knows where we are going. It will be hard […]
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