Featured Listening for God: The Eagle and the Bent Woman (Lk 13) “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and
Featured Describing “Silent” Worship to Children Awhile back I did a Godly Play story during our meeting for worship. We invited the children to say with the adults and participate in our listening to the story. After the story we had our normal 15 minutes of silent, or waiting, worship. This is a description I wrote
Featured Thoughts on Bringing Children To Worship As parents bringing children and teens to a time of worship can be a struggle. We place a lot of expectations on our kids and often hope they won’t “misbehave” during church. Plus, it is easy to succumb to their rowdiness, distraction and desire for entertainment. The last thing
Featured Listening as an Act of Faith (Hebrews 11) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NRSV) Introduction: Red Phone Skit – LInk There is No Red Phone If we’re going to talk about what it means to listen to God’s Spirit, then I think we need
Blog Entries There is No Red Phone [A Skit] This is a skit we did just before my message this past Sunday. We had fun with it. [Person picks up red phone and dials. Sound of Phone ringing. God Picks up.] God: Hello? Person: Hello…is this God? God: Yes, this is God. Who is this? Person: This is
Quotations Rufus Jones – What is Vital? The time has come – it is long overdue – for a Christianity that is fresh and vital and in conformity with established truth, but, what is no less important, proves its reality by the test-tube method of corresponding results. Too long our Christianity has consisted of words – has begun and ended
Blog Entries I dreamed a dream I rarely have vivid dreams but last night I had a dream that a random group of people followed me as I walked home. They shouted “hey boy,” I could hear them with chains clinking and baseball bats smacking their hands. They wanted to kill me. I escaped by hiding
Uncategorized Listening From the Divine Perspective (Hosea 11) “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them
Quotations George Bernard Shaw – The True joy of Life This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I
Blog Entries Mysticism, Revolution or Suicide? One of the books I’m reading currently is Henri Nouwen’s “Wounded Healer.” There is a lot that is quote-worthy in this text but I wanted to draw out a couple of quotes that have specifically speak to me. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, Nouwen states
Featured Having Ears to Hear: Moving Towards Sympathy (Amos 8) As you are all well aware this past weekend a not guilty verdict was handed down to George Zimmerman acquitting him of the murder of Trayvon Martin, the teenage african-american boy he shot last year. Martin had been walking through Zimmerman’s neighborhood wearing a hoodie and carrying a bag
Blog Entries Jesus and Love – James Alison We often speak of God as love, but what do we mean by that? Often “love” is used to mean “don’t take sides,” “remain neutral,” but is this reflective of who God is revealed to be in Jesus? I like James Alison’s response to this question: God’s
Featured Revelation #Sketchnotes Reading Revelation #Sketchnotes, a photo by cwd1978 on Flickr. Here are some sketchnotes I’ve put together as a kind of overview of some of the things I’ve tried to focus on as I was reading, studying and preaching through this difficult book. You can find the rest of
Featured Revelation is Remix (Revelation 21-22) The ‘Self-Portrait’ as Remix A couple weeks back I showed you this image [Bob Dylan’s album titled Self-Portrait]. The cover image is one that Dylan himself painted. I couldn’t find any mention of who the cover was supposed to be, but it has a certain resemblance to Pablo
Featured Economics, Poverty and Crashing the Beast’s Party (Revelation 13, 18) Making Heads and Hands of the Mark of the Beast If there is one aspect of Revelation that has been overused, abused and fallen prey to our constant temptation to make John’s first century letter a document that predicts the future it has to be the mark of the
Featured Revelation 12 : Liturgy as Formation – What Are We Creating? Image from hellojenuine. “But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.” (Revelation 12:11) The work of the People One of the signs of a true artist
Featured Finding Our New Song (Revelation 7) Ever More Precise Let’s begin with a poem called Claritas by Denise Levertov: The All-Day bird, the artist, whitethroated sparrow, striving in hope and good faith to make his notes ever more precise, closer to what he knows. I love this line: Striving in hope and good faith to
Featured The Lamb that Was Slain (Revelation 5) This is the message I shared at Camas Friends on Revelation 5. [Painting by Francisco de Zurbarán — “Agnus Dei”] Fear, Desire for control and Violence are some of the main qualities that tend to show themselves when our lives feel like they are spinning out of control. When we first
Revelation Darkness, Lampstands and Light (Revelation 2-3) The Lampstands in the Darkness This past week the American consciousness has been tilted towards the East Coast. Every news source, every line posted to social media, and many of the prayers offered up have been on behalf of those who were injured, killed and/or traumatized on Monday in
Featured Revelation 1: From Bafflement to Wonder Bafflement During the retreat I was on last weekend with other young leaders led by Parker Palmer and Marcy Jackson, Parker mentioned that he never writes books about things he knows, he only writes on things that baffle him. You know the difference? You never google the stuff you are
Featured Into the Tomb Luke (23:50-24:12) Unless we are dead we are on a journey. Our journeys might be more inward focused at the moment, they might be more about outward changes, but either way life is filled with journeys. But the best kind of journeys are the ones that cost us something: where risk is
Featured Bread and the last(ing) Supper (Luke 22) This is the message I gave on Palm Sunday this year at Camas Friends. A dinner party When I look at this text I see a very unusual and meaningful dinner party. It is nothing like a dinner party at the White House, or what we might find on Downton
Featured Holding the Tension, Umwelt and Hearts Broken Open This is the message I gave Sunday March 17, 2013 at Camas Friends Church and is drawn from Isaiah 43: 16-21. Holding the Tension This past weekend I had the chance to go to Philadelphia to participate in a consultation with a Quaker foundation. Not only did I learn a
Featured The Emperor, Little Deaths and the Fig Tree (Lk 13:6-9) On Sunday we did a reader’s theater of the Hans Christen Andersen’s fable “The Emperor’s New Suit.” That helped set the stage for the rest of the discussion that followed. Idols Create a false sense of self During Lent, Michaela Bruzzese, says that “we are offered a
Creativity Bullies Called Him Pork Chop [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY&w=640&h=360]
