We gather because Christ gathers us. He said to the people of Jerusalem: "How often would I have gathered you in as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not" (Luke 13.34). Often, on a Sunday morning, we may feel a similar reluctance; even thinking of Jesus as a big warm chicken may not be enough to lure us from our nice warm bed. We gather in our local congregation because we are willing to be gathered into the community of faith, which stretches across time and space, from Abraham our father in faith, to the latest baby to be baptized. Faith is the beginning of our acceptance of friendship with God, learning to look at the world lovingly, with gratitude, delighting in its intelligibility. - Timothy Radcliffe, Why Go to Church?
Provision in the Wilderness - Dr. Cyndi Parker | 10.22.23
"Our spiritual journey must lead through the desert or else our healing will be the product of our own will and wisdom. It is in the silence of the desert that we hear our dependence on noise. It is in the poverty of the desert that we see clearly our attachments to the trinkets and baubles we cling to for security and pleasure. The desert shatters the soul's arrogance and leaves body and soul crying out in thirst and hunger. In the desert, we trust God or die." - Dan Allender, The Healing Path
Passover - Rev. Chris Currie | 10.15.23
In Western culture, we like to see ourselves as rugged individuals forging our own way through life. We desperately grasp for complete freedom and self-determination, not realizing that we do so at the expense of our own humanity. Jesus came to show us the way to be truly human, but this wasn't a life free from submission. That is impossible for us. We all submit to and are enslaved by something. Jesus, however, paradoxically promised true freedom through submission. He promises us liberation by constraining us in love. - Joshua D. Chatraw, Telling a Better Story