For six days God labored to create the heavens and the earth. Light and dark, land and sea, plant life, light and dark, day and night, all manner of animals, humans, and more beside: God created it all. And then, 2God completed all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God…
This week we are kicking off our church calendar year with our annual Taste and See event. We are Presbyterians of course, so how are we going to get things started right? With more food than you can possibly imagine, of course! I’ve had an interesting relationship with food over the course of my life. Ever since I was a tiny boy, I have been a picky eater. For a while there I only had a handful o…
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4, NRSV) We live in a dangerous and frightening world. Rejoicing and celebration are seldom words that come to mind when we read the daily headlines, examples of which include: “Israel deploys soldiers after deadly Palestinian attacks” “Obama warns Afghanistan fragile, will leave 5,500 U.S. troops” “Turks, Kurds trade blame for bombings”…
During the final meal that Jesus shared with his closest 12 friends, he got up from the table, removed his coat, tied a towel around his waist, picked up a basin of water and began to wash their feet. It was not unusual for guests to have their feet washed. That was a common practice because the rugged terrain, dusty roads, and travel mainly on foot led to hot, tired, dirty feet. Having them…
“The Christian Discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style.” So writes Richard Foster about the spiritual discipline of simplicity. Over the years calls to live simpler lifestyles have challenged us to give up all attachments to this world whether they be possessions, relationships, or some other things. Is that surrender of worldly things the key to sim…
