Category Archive

Crossing Over from Fear to Faith Mark 4:35-41                        6/21/2015 Two weeks ago, Jerry Hancock spoke after Sunday Assembly about the correctional system in Wisconsin. He told us that it is the politics of fear that drives the push to build more prisons in the state. The politics of fear also gets people elected these days. Twenty-four hour news shows convince us that we live in a dangerous world. Politicians promise to do whatever it takes to keep us safe like building more prisons. Fear can be a major driving force in our lives. Whether or not we have been at sea …

The Reign of God and Garlic Mustard? Mark 4: 26-35 by Colleen Hartung, June 14, 2015   On the face of it, the parables in today’s Gospel read like some straightforward adage or truism.  Seeds are something very small that, when sown and scattered on the ground, grow, at least potentially, into something much greater.  In other words, great things come from small, homely beginnings.  It is true, a mustard seed is small, about 1/20th  of an inch in diameter and a mustard plant can grow anywhere from two to eight feet tall and in ideal conditions such as those provided …

Temple Beth El Suggested Readings: Ruth 1:6-16 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.   p.141. The “whites only” signs may be gone, but new signs have gone up—notices places on job applications, rental agreements, loan applications, forms for welfare benefits, school applications and petitions for licenses, informing the general public that “felons” are not wanted here. A criminal record today authorizes precisely the forms of discrimination we supposedly left behind—discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service. Those labeled criminals can even be denied the right to vote. Reflection Full disclosure requires that …

“As we pray, so we believe” is a rough translation of the original Latin expression, lex orandi, lex credendi.  It is an expression deeply rooted in Christian theology. Before the Nicene Creed, before the Apostles’ Creed, before the canon of Christian Scripture was established, before even the Council of Jerusalem, the followers of Christ were praying together. Their praying set the foundation for what they believed and what we believe. In the succeeding days, weeks, months and years after Jesus’ death and resurrection the first followers continued their custom of praying in the synagogue on the Sabbath and continuing their …

Pentecost Paul Knitter                      May 24, 2015 PENTECOST: FOR ME, THE MOST ‘COMFORTABLE’ FEAST IN THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR For me, Pentecost is what I might describe as the most comfortable feast in the whole liturgical year. I hope my efforts today to explain what I mean by that might be helpful to many, I hope most, of you. For most of the Sundays, as I listen to the readings and pray the prayers, I so often experience different degrees of discomfort as I engage in an internal task of translating. I …