We are in the midst of a summer worship series called: The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Spiritual Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner. The Practice of Soul Friendship.  Some people might call the relationship between David & Jonathan; Ruth & Naomi – soul friends. John O’Donohue – an Irish poet, philosopher, […]

We are in the midst of a summer worship series called: The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Spiritual Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner.  In Ch. 4 she writes: “One of the beautiful practices of the Celtic tradition is blessing the world, blessing each and every encounter and experience, even and especially […]

Summer Sermon Series based on: The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Spiritual Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner Six years ago, Angie and I found ourselves driving in unfamiliar places on the left side of the road, and if not for the grace of God, we would still be circling counterclockwise in […]

Summer Sermon series based on: The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Spiritual Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner In the turning of the seasons Christine invites us to connect our spiritual journey to seasonal cycles – in modern Christianity, we might say, to the liturgical year. In Celtic spirituality, it’s paying attention […]

Summer Sermon Series called: The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Spiritual Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner This summer during worship, we are invited to cross over a threshold into paying attention to our spiritual lives –  to what Christine Valters Paintner calls in her book “The Soul’s Slow Ripening”.  She offers […]

Last week we heard about Peter’s trance and vision from God, and a story about the conversion of Cornelius, a Gentile “Worshiper of God”. This week, a few chapters later in Acts, Paul has a night vision of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to come and help them. The verses preceding this passage […]

My brother David taught me to read at 4 years old – he insisted I would read before the next door neighbor 8 months older than me, the one who let me play touch football with the big kids, the one who taught me to drive using his own car – manual transmission – I […]

Psalm 23 is one of the most familiar passages in scripture. Some of you, like me, had a painting of Jesus tenderly holding a lamb with another sheep looking trustingly up at the Good Shepherd. Some of you, like me, when you attend a memorial service where the 23rd Psalm is read, find yourself mouthing […]

Some scholars think the Gospel of John may have originally ended at ch 20 with the story of Jesus appearing to Thomas. The last few lines of John 20 seem to be a good way to wrap up the gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not […]

Easter doesn’t often fall this close to Earth Day. But these two celebrations coming a day apart invite us to pay closer attention to the holiness of the earth, and the earthiness of Easter. The four gospels offer a different lens of encounters with the resurrected Christ. In Matthew, the resurrection resembles a theophany—with earthquake […]