During the pandemic, most people have been cut off not only from traveling to distant places, but for many months, we were cut off from even visiting our family or friends in their own home – even if it was right next door or across town. Most of us cancelled plans and vacations, or simply […]
Let us pray: Grace extending God, always and everywhere, in moments of intimacy or isolation, you summon us into relationship as our constant Companion. You invite us to meet and companion one another, traveling together toward your kingdom of love. Amen. Much of the biblical story takes place on the road. Or on the water. […]
Pilgrims, travelers. Wayfarers, peregrinis. Love our journey and love our homeland. Bound for the Kingdom of God. And so we enter this worship series of cultivating Travel as a Spiritual Act. In the tradition of Celtic monasticism, Irish monks would set sail in a small boat called a coracle, without oar or rudder, to sail […]
We are in the third week of exploring Paul’s second missionary journey with Silas, Timothy & Luke. They were met with success, but also persecution. They are thrown out of synagogues by fellow Jews, beaten and jailed by the Romans for being subversive in preaching that Jesus the Risen Christ is Lord rather than Caesar. […]
This narrative is action-packed. It includes an exorcism, a mob scene, a kangaroo court, a flogging, a prison-cell, a midnight hymn sing in a prison-church, an earthquake, an altar call, a conversion, a baptism – concluding with new friends gathered around the table sharing food and hospitality in the name of Jesus. This is Paul’s […]
The last two Sundays we have explored Barnabas & Paul’s 1st missionary journey from Antioch to the Island of Cyprus, to Derbe & Lystra and back. The two apostles have a falling out over a disagreement over whether to take Barnabas’ cousin, John Mark, who some scholars believe wrote the Gospel of Mark. Barnabas ends […]
Today’s theme is about arguments and disagreements among the early Christian community. Humorous illustration: How Many Christians Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb? punctuates the vast diversity within the body of Christ. It offers an opportunity to laugh at ourselves, and allow walls of division to fall so the unity of the […]
We are in week 8 of a summer worship series on the inspirational acts of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. If you remember, at the beginning of Acts, it is a letter written to someone by the name of Theopholis, which means God Lover, or the one whom God loves, so […]
Our first introduction to Saul occurs at the stoning of Steven Acts 7:58: Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul is a Zealous Jewish Pharisee, fiercely loyal to his Jewish convictions and heritage, and also characterized as a man of violence. Saul’s religious righteousness and zealousness […]
Last week, we explored Acts chapters 6 & 7 culminating in the stoning of Stephen. At the beginning of Acts 8, we read that great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. The disciples scattered and Philip went proclaiming the good news of Jesus in the city of Samaria, with great success. An angel […]