June 7, 2015 1 Samuel 8:4-20, Common English Bible So all the Israelite elders got together and went to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “Listen. You are old now, and your sons don’t follow in your footsteps. So appoint us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.” It seemed […]
1John 5:1-9, Common English Bible Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: […]
1 John 4:7-21, Common English Bible Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent […]
1 John 3:16-24, Common English Bible This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. But if a person has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need and that person doesn’t care—how can the love […]
Easter Sunday Don’t Be Alarmed April 5, 2015 Mark 16:1-8, Common English Bible When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the […]
As I continue to read articles, books and pray about the part of the body of Christ known as the United Methodist Church, I continue to believe that it is the ways we interpret and understand scripture that drive us apart instead of being able to hold ourselves together. Do no harm continues to resonate. […]
Amy Frykholm’s article, A Time to Split? in the April 16 edition of the Christian Century (to read the entire article you must subscribe to The Christian Century, which I do) caused me to continue to think critically about the crux or the kernel of what makes the issue of sexual identity cause us to consider schism/splitting. I, too, […]
Until this past week I had remained hopeful that that the United Methodist Church might be able to find the “Middle Way”–the way that allows “both/and” to be a part of who we are so that we could love one another as Jesus loved and be “one in the Spirit.” I am now convinced that […]
“We never intended to hurt anyone”–Do No Harm “Conference withdraws clergy age guidelines’ is an article from the United Methodist News Service, August 23, by Heather Hahn. It was this past Monday when I first read it. I shared it on my Facebook page, and several UM clergy who meet for a weekly breakfast discussed it […]
The sermon series, Sinning Like a Christian, A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins, base on the book by the same title by Bishop Will Willimon continues at Starrsville UMC. This past Sunday sloth, I so enjoy the sound of that word as I think it sounds like its meaning, was the sin of focus […]
