"Moses tells us, Jesus tells us, that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Theology should give us some beginning of an idea of what it might mean to satisfy this commandment. A first step, I propose, would be to step back from all other disciplines and categories, to invite a kind of awe at the entire phenomenon of Being that embraces disciplines and categories and error and aspiration and everything they touch, that embraces thought, and error, and the work the mind does in its sleep." - Marilynne Robinson, "Theology for This Moment," in What Are We Doing Here?
Meeting God - Rev. Chris Currie | 10.29.23
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