The Wrestler Unmasked
Mark Schloneger
Could it be that we are Jacob — away from our home, away from our family, away from ourselves, and carrying in one of our pockets a future that we grasped by the heel but was never meant for us? Who are we? What is our story? Where is our place? Why are we here?
Postcards from the Psalms
Mark Schloneger
As a way to connect Berkey’s summer worship series with his summer of sabbatical, Mark intersperses verses from the psalms that were read during Sunday morning services with vignettes that come from his sabbatical.
Rooted and Grounded, Known and Loved
Mark Schloneger
Pastor Mark shares about the sabbatical project and what that will mean both for him personally and for Berkey.
The Us and Them
Mark Schloneger
The story of Peter having the vision of clean and unclean animals and ultimately being led to Cornelius’ house. To Peter and other Jewish believers, God’s call for Israel to be holy was to be symbolized in the everyday acts of eating. However, through both his vision and subsequent witness of God pouring out the […]
The Economy of Grace
Mark Schloneger
I think Jesus told this parable to get under his disciples’ skin a bit. I think he told it not only to teach us about what the kingdom of heaven is like but about what this world is like and what we are like. The world sees strength, power, intelligence and wealth and rewards it. […]
Let It Be
Mark Schloneger
Faithfulness, at its essence, is not the quest for a mystical experience, an experience that takes us out of the here and now. Faith does not equal a feeling of transcendence. Faith means following Jesus, trusting that what lies ahead is even greater than what has already been experienced. You see, you can spend your […]
Beggars in the Hands of a Generous God
Mark Schloneger
Beggars in the Hands of a Generous God. When we see ourselves in this way, when we see others in this way, and, when we see God in this way, then treating others as we would want to be treated becomes a natural extension of our life in prayer. In the end, as Martin Luther […]
War, Worship, and Sacrifice
Mark Schloneger
June 19. June 19, 1865. On that date, Union soldiers arrived in Texas, the remotest state in the former Confederacy and proclaimed to both enslaved people and slaveowners that the war had ended and that all slaves were free. That’s what Juneteenth commemorates. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture calls this […]
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