I will light Candles this Christmas, Candles of joy despite all the sadness, Candles of hope where despair keeps watch, Candles of courage for fears ever present, Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, Candles of love to inspire my living, Candles that will burn all year long. Howard Thurman, from "The Mood of Christmas" Though his poem, "The Work of Christmas," is far more famous, this second poem, written around 1950, still speaks

This weekend is our annual Nativity play. There are two reasons why we do this, in some shape or form. The first is that our children and youth are still learning the story of Jesus's birth and one of the best ways to imprint something on our hearts is by physically doing it. The second reason is that every time I engage the narrative from Luke and Matthew's gospels, I find something new. An insight or a key element that I had missed until now. Because the truth is that when

"War No More" by the Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity This weekend is our annual Cantata Sunday, with beautiful music and images from around the world and throughout history. But one thing we will not be doing is reading and expounding upon the prophet's words for the weekend, which is why I want to take a moment to do so here. The passage, if we were to read it, would be from Isaiah 2:1-5. It is a song about the future establishment of God's house and kingdom when people will come t

"Magnificat" by Ben Wildflower Welcome to Advent! It is one of those funny things about this very short season - it gets full lickedy split. One minute you are on your way up the hill of the holiday rollercoaster for Thanksgiving and the next thing you know you're screaming "Woo-Doggies" on your way down towards Christmas Eve. We are not quite there yet. However, there is so much happening and so much coming in the next couple of weeks that Christmas Eve will be here before w

This weekend is Christ the King Sunday. And as I'm sure you've heard me say, it is New Year's Eve in the liturgical calendar - the end of the old year before it begins anew next Sunday with Advent. We will be looking at a passage from Jeremiah. In it, the prophet is responding to the extremely problematic state of affairs in ancient Judah. For several generations, the kings who have risen up over Israel did not follow God's commands. They tore the people apart by supporting o

One of my lesser known talents is that during university I served as a worship leader for one of our local college ministries. A whole lot of the music we used had some really bad theology. Like, really, really terrible. However, a few of the songs were dripping with scripture - much like our Book of Confessions - and I can still find myself singing them from time to time. There was one song in particular that was based on the psalms that we sang the night before I left to go

Last month Grace celebrated her thirteenth birthday. It was in October that we were officially chartered as a family of faith. As so many other churches in our denomination (and so many others) are grappling with how to embrace change, Grace has already lived out a real-life resurrection story. Three churches faced their death and came out on their other side. They embraced transformation (even though it had its really rough patches), and here we sit nearly a decade and a hal

"Sacred Family in the Streets" by Kelly Latimore In 2016, our General Assembly committed our denomination to reaffirming our connection to one of the most central teachings Jesus ever gave. Years later it became a movement - one that Grace intentionally joined, too.   The passage answers the age-old question, if Jesus came back tomorrow, what would he ask us?   In Matthew 25, Jesus actually tells a parable that responds to that very query. It is about the Messiah coming in gl

This weekend we will celebrate the "Kirking of the Tartans." As we prepare for this beloved tradition, here is a bit of history to help. The word Kirk comes from the Gaelic for "church." The legend of "kirking" tartans (the plaid fabric specifically designed for each clan or family in the Highlands) dates back to the days following the Rising of 1745 when the Scottish rebels, led by the Jacobite Bonnie Prince Charlie, lost on the field of Culloden. In the years that followed,

This weekend we are looking at a healing story in the gospel of Luke when Jesus cures ten lepers. Then nine out of ten of them race on...

This weekend, we will be looking at one of my favorite, oft forgotten parables. It is the other story of Lazarus. Not to be confused with...

This weekend we run into something strange. And no, it's not Jesus speaking in parables. That's just par for the course. This time, Jesus...

"Lost Coin" by James Hasse, S.J. This weekend we continue in Luke's gospel, picking up a set of parables that links with one we explored...

"La Sagrada Familia" by Kelly Latimore While at Ghost Ranch recently I was reminded about a bit of philology that I had misplaced. It is...

This weekend we will finally reach the end of the Genesis narrative. The last of the patriarchs - Joseph - is actually only the fourth...

"Tangled Blessing" by the Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman of A Sanctified Art, LLC This weekend we are tackling Jacob. Kind of an ironic way...

"The Space Between Us" by Roxana Save The Celts believed that throughout the world there were "thin" places. Locations where God comes...

As we mentioned this past Sunday, once the matriarchs and patriarchs stories begin, we are already into the thick of the story. And it...

This weekend we make a turn in Genesis. We began with the primordial stories of how everything came to be or as one of my professors used...

Throughout history, and quite often in Sunday School, we have been taught that the sin of Babel is the sin of Icarus - we flew too close...