Making Friends with Strange Cats

How do you know?

November 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Unvirtuous Abbey

Old Testament Reading:  2 Samuel 23:1-7

For Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012—Christ the King Sunday

During a senate debate, Richard Mourdock said, “I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” For a moment, it crystallized the division among people about just what is wrong with mixing politics and religion. Despite attempts to explain himself, he couldn’t put the cat back in the bag.

In response to that statement the monks of Unvirtuous Abbey prayed, “For those who claim to know “what God intends” when most of us can’t figure out what our cat wants, we pray.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2 Samuel, Featured, Old Testament, Uncategorized, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Papa’s Got a Brand New Bible

How long can you dance?

November 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Unvirtuous Abbey

Gospel Reading:  John 18:33–37

For Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012—Christ the King Sunday

The King James Brown version of the Bible might say, “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” And that’s what Jesus and Pilate are doing in John’s Gospel, the hardest working Gospel.

High-stakes Flaminco

The Gospel writer sets the stage apart from Matthew, Mark, and Luke with a group outside of the praetorium and Pilate shuffles back and forth trying to reconcile the antagonists. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, John, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What is Truth?

How do you read?

November 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading:  John 18:33–37

For Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012—Christ the King Sunday

Read the Bible long enough, over years and years, teaching and preaching and you get what Pilate is going through.

So many voices, so many words. What is truth? Sometimes, they are just words on a page that seem no longer capable of meaning, or they mean the same that they’ve meant for the last hundred times you’ve come across them. What was once insight seems like scratching the surface, assumed interpretations.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, John, New Testament, YearB

All Hail, Christ the King!

Must we be so triumphal?

November 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Russell Rathbun

Psalm  Reading:  Psalm 93

For Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012—Christ the King Sunday

Some versions of the NRSV subtitle Psalm 93: “The Majesty of God’s Rule.”

The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall never be moved; your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Old Testament, Psalms, YearB

They All Come Tumbling Down

Waiting for the end or waiting for the end of the day?

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Jodi-Renee Giron

Gospel Reading: Mark 13:1-8

For Sunday, November 18, 2012, Year B − Ordinary 33

After a day spent talking about loving your neighbor and commending sacrificial widows, Jesus and the disciples walk away from the temple in Jerusalem. Seemingly buoyed-up from their theological one-up on the scribes, the disciples point out to their teacher the glorious architecture surrounding them.

Maybe it’s indicative that Jesus didn’t share their triumphant attitude because he tells the disciples that not one stone of this architectural grandeur will be left standing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

All That Glitters May or May Not Be Gold

GOD’s 6 step plan to happiness and the house of your dreams.

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Jodi-Renee Giron

Psalm Reading: Psalm 16

For Sunday, November 18, 2012, Year B − Ordinary 33

The psalmist, ascribed to be David, starts with a plea for protection from the Almighty One then unfolds into a number of reminders of the faithfulness of the one praying.

Reading it down, I can almost hear my own plaintive seven year old reminding me of all of the things he’s been doing to “be good” and that’s why he deserves the extra M&M’s after dinner. According to this prayer, which may have been an inscription or a very purposefully arranged song, David attributed his material abundance and physical safety to his own right choices following GOD’s instruction. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Old Testament, Psalms, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Little Women

Bossing around the powerless.

November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Mike Stavlund

Old Testament Reading: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

For Sunday, November 11, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 32

As the father of three girls, and the husband of yet another woman, I am perhaps becoming more sensitized to the female characters we see in the Scriptures.

There aren’t very many of them, and even fewer who are very strong characters.  Their locus of control is far outside of themselves: they seem to be in need of male characters (not to exclude God) to direct them through their lives.  They appear to bat their ample eyelashes, asking any male figure within earshot (prayershot?) “Oh, whatever shall I do?” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Old Testament, Ruth, YearB Tagged With: , , , , ,

Blood from a Turnip

Does God really need every last bit of me? Everything I have to give?

November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Mike Stavlund

Gospel Reading: Mark 12:38-44

For Sunday, November 11, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 32

Hanging out recently with a friend who grew up Baptist, I was asked if I had heard of the “Lottie Moon Offering”.

Apparently an annual part of his Baptist church life, the memory of the famous missionary was invoked.  “Lottie Moon was a missionary to the Chinese.  As a famine caused the population to starve, Lottie Moon was so touched by their suffering that she shared her own food with them until she herself also died from hunger.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Say What?

The Greatest Commandment, yes, but not an easy beat to follow.

October 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Lia Scholl

Gospel Reading: Mark 12:28-34

For Sunday, November 4, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 31

When I really look very closely at my congregants, I see that we are a hippie church. Peace, love and justice are our themes. In celebration of my discovery, I planned a drum circle for Hippie Church.

Drum to Drum

But let me make this clear. I am not a hippie pastor. Pinko, yes. Pacifist, yes. But not hippie. I prefer the organ to guitar, hymns to choruses, and stoic quiet to profuse emotionality. When we were required to introduce ourselves with our drums, I sought to use silence as my introduction. Clearly, a drum circle is a stretch for a non-hippie pastor. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , ,

DiscipleNow!

Or would that be DiscipleNot?

October 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Lia Scholl

Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

For Sunday, November 4, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 31

When I was in high school, I was in a DiscipleNow group. We had a weekend retreat, followed by 12 weeks of Thursday night meetings in a youth leader’s home. I did a quick search of the Internet for DiscipleNow, and saw that it’s now called DNOW (how cool!), and the wiki page says it’s led by “totally rad youth leaders.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Deuteronomy, Featured, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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