Today we begin to prepare for the birth of Emmanuel, of God being with us. The assigned passage from the Hebrew Scriptures is taken from the writings of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived during a time of great insecurity. His writings were meant to calm the people’s insecurities. The threat of and the actual destruction
One of the outcomes of the selfie phenomena with cell phones is that people now know how to make a pretty good photo of themselves. I have watched people taking series of selfies of themselves that are immediately posted on their social media and I am amazed at the wonderful techniques that are used to
STEWARDSHIP JOKE #5 10 Things You Never Hear in Church: Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front pew! I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 10 minutes over time. Personally, I find witnessing to my faith to my friends much more enjoyable than golf. I’ve decided to give the church
Stewardship Joke #4 Did you hear about the town’s richest man who met with the minister after the Sunday service? He was distraught and whined to the pastor, ‘I overheard people talking about me and they called me cheap and stingy.’ He continued to complain, ‘I’ve told everyone I’m leaving half my money to the
Stewardship Joke #3 There once was a strongman at a circus sideshow who demonstrated his power before a large audience. Toward the end of his show, he squeezed the juice of a lemon between his hands. He said to the onlookers, I will offer $200 to anyone who can squeeze another drop from this lemon.
OH NO!!!! Stewardship season is totally in full bloom when the pastor gives the Stewardship Sermons! Some ask if it is appropriate for the minister to speak about money from the pulpit…. but we all know that Jesus did. In fact Jesus talked about money more than anything else including loving God and neighbor. Several
‘Called to be a Repairer of the Breach and a Restorer of the Streets’ The Rev. Martha M. Shiverick I remember a professor in seminary asking us what a communion table should really be if it was theologically accurate. Think about it for a moment… Not what realistically or actually could be in this space
Last week Mimi shared with me these lovely Sunday school lessons from her childhood. They teach the stories and lessons of the Bible in a way a child growing up in the mid the 1950’s would understand. I loved reading them over and enjoying the artwork and puzzles on the back. A lot of care
After our summer of jumping through the Hebrew Scriptures with the stories of women in our Old Testament and the section of the Bible we call the minor prophets, we have returned to the Gospels and will center most of our learnings until Advent in five chapters of the Gospel of Mark. Although Mark is
I always find that the summers where the sermon series is on scripture from the Old Testament, that I begin to look forward to returning to the New Testament and the ethics and teachings of Jesus in mid-August. And even though I dearly loved and learned so much in our series on the Minor Prophets