• Cancel Our Debts?

    In my reading of the Disciple’s Prayer (the anabaptist/Quaker name for the Lord’s Prayer), we have to make sure that we don’t limit what forgiveness includes ((See part 3, part 2, and part 1)). Our (Western) tendency is to think of forgiveness in terms of personal wrongdoings, forgiveness is an individual action.  But in the…

  • Resources for Studying the Disciple’s Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11)

    This Sunday morning we are beginning a series of discussions around the Disciple’s Prayer in Matt. 6-913 and Luke 11:1-4. The Our Father (Catholic) or Lord’s Prayer (Protestant) is also known among Quakers, and Anabaptists as the Disciple’s prayer, that is, it is the disciples who should be praying this prayer, and this one of…

  • Interventions: The Drawing of A Sword, the Healing of an Ear

    “While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” When those who were around him saw what was…

  • Are We Too Sleeping? Presence in Chaos, Hospitality Amidst Hostility

    Last week as I was working through Luke 22 I was struck by what seemed to be almost an off-hand comment I read in Joel Green’s commentary about the garden scene with Jesus and the disciples. He reads the interaction in the garden, the contrast between Jesus’ own struggling in prayer and the sleeping of…

  • The Community of the Holy Spirit: The Birth of a Diverse Church (Sermon)

    This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and for someone who spent his high school years in a Charismatic church, I know the day fairly well. It proved to play another significant role in my spiritual autobiography as it was also the day of my first sermon as pastor of Camas Friends Church. We covered the…