Placeholder image
Voices of Faith

Lent blog series: As goes Jesus, so goes life – John 11:1-45

Jesus does two incredible things in John 11. He weeps at death. He calls forth life. Jesus must know, somehow, that he has the power to raise Lazarus to life….

Placeholder image
Voices of Faith

Lent blog series: As goes Jesus, so goes light – John 9:1-41

John 9 tells the story of Jesus healing a man “blind from birth.” No accident in life caused the blindness, no disease—he had been blind from the womb, unable to…

Placeholder image
Voices of Faith

Lent blog series: As goes Jesus, so goes water – John 4:5-42

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…

Lent blog series: As goes Jesus, so goes love
Voices of Faith

Lent blog series: As goes Jesus, so goes love

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…

Engaging body, mind and soul in worship
Living Faithfully

Engaging body, mind and soul in worship

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…

Placeholder image
Voices of Faith

Losing faith • finding it

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…

On giving up and taking on
Spiritual Resources

On giving up and taking on

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…

Grounded in grace
Voices of Faith

Grounded in grace

“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…

Beautiful dust
Voices of Faith

Beautiful dust

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…

Placeholder image
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: Knowing who you are

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…

Study guide: On giving up and taking on
Study Guides

Study guide: On giving up and taking on

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: The minimum isn’t enough
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: The minimum isn’t enough

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,…