Non-condemning love

It’s bumper sticker Sunday next Sunday, AKA Trinity Sunday. John 3:16 seen frequently on bumper stickers clues me that this Gospel is one of the best loved and most motivating passages in Christian scripture. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes…

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Hidden treasure

The other day while cleaning out an old tool shed, I found a quaint looking little glass bottle packed with what looked like dried mud. Having found it in a corner beneath lots of other “castaways,” I figured it may be have been there for a while. On the bottom…

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Comfort

Tenderness and Pentecost go together. In his farewell speech (John 14: 17-18, 25-27; 16: 7-8), a tender Jesus knows the loss his disciples will face when he dies. Jesus speaks for and with the Father to assure the disciples — and us today — that we will always have the…

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Together

Our administrative offices are housed in a building about a quarter of a mile down the road from Salem Heights, the “central house” of the congregation. We are blessed to have a chapel as part of our work place where we can go to recharge in the presence of the…

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Moving on

Today in the U.S., we celebrate the feast of the Ascension. Dismay is a feeling that I always have when I hear the in the Ascension reading that “… as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Oh, no! And so…

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Fill ‘er up!

I always check out gas prices as I drive along. One day I noticed the price had gone up at one station. I immediately pulled over and checked on my Gas Buddy app to see where the cheapest gas was near me. I really didn’t need it because my tank…

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Eternal love

“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always … I will not leave you orphans.” What an insight into God’s character this passage gives! Our God loves us so much that he cannot bear that we might feel abandoned or orphaned.…

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Robin’s Egg Blue

The window outside the room where we pray the Divine Office looks onto the porch of our old farmhouse. The porch wraps around two thirds each of the west and south sides and its roof is supported by brick pillars. Each of the four pillars has a ledge on the…

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Living stones

In today’s Gospel, the community of John the Evangelist is struggling because Jesus seems absent. At the time he writes this Gospel, it is about 70 years since Jesus died, and many of those who knew him and shared their stories about him have also died. John gives his community…

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The Good Shepherd

“… the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them … the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.” It is so very hard to hear the voice of the divine Shepherd because of all the other voices in our lives:…

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