I’m from the Pacific Northwest, where I now live again. I’ve rediscovered that we who live in the Pacific Northwest always, always have water within our reach. It’s all around…
When I was a little girl, a beloved Sunday school teacher gave me a small ivory cross with the words “John 3:16” etched on one side and the entirety of…
How do we engage our whole selves in worship? Martin Billmeier, pastor of St. Lucas Lutheran Church, Toledo, Ohio, reflected on this question in a meditation last Lent, asserting he…
Some years ago, just before Christmas, I was sitting and enjoying conversation with a staff member one minute, then lying on the ground the next, completely unaware that my body…
Should we give something up or take something on in Lent? It seems the rules aren’t quite as clear as they used to be: fish on Fridays, evening worship on…
“All we had to eat was red Jell-O, flour and communion wafers,” she remembered, her eyes gazing into the past. A fundraiser for the ELCA’s global ministries, I was out…
You make beautiful things out of the dust / You make beautiful things out of us —Gungor. My dad knew the beauty of dust. Even before he was sick and…
Lectionary blog for March 5 The first Sunday in Lent Genesis 2:15-17, 3:17; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 A few years ago, a young man I know found himself…
Lent is the season when we seek to draw closer to Jesus by taking on simple disciplines for the 40 days (not including Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday….
Lectionary blog for Feb. 12 The sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 In the 1980s, I was a pastor in Rowan County,…
For me, the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday feels like the countdown to New Year’s. I am filled with bubbling anticipation to dress in my best clothes or…
They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the…
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