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Mind the Gap
Sometimes, another person speaks the truth of the Gospel so well that it is almost impossible to imagine saying it any better. This is one of those weeks. Most of the thinking in this sermon is indebted to the thinking of Craig Satterlee, a Lutheran Bishop in Lower Michigan Synod, whose “logjam” on Lent 5 informed the…
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Talkers and Doers
If there is one thing that the Lenten Season does for us as Christians, it is this: it puts in stark relief the difference between talking and doing. Over the course of the season, we are asked to reflect on what it means to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers as well,…
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Eli’s Tips and Tricks for Living Well
1Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that…
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Not Enough Hours In the Day….
There is this wonderful woodcut that I came across a while back called “8 Hours.”* It is a triptych, really, and there are three images with the following captions: 8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will. I love this woodcut, in part because it resonated with my own…
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Free Food and other Amenities
What am I doing right now? Drinking a (free) cup of coffee at IKEA, of course (and two little coconut chocolate oat balls, which at .49 each represent quite the splurge on my part!) One of the things that is difficult about working and committing to living on SNAP benefits for a season is planning.…
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Beans, Beans! The Magical Fruit….
If there were one food item that my family seems to universally adore, it would probably be beans (steak *might* be a close second for the kiddos). My partner in crime has never, at least to my knowledge, met a bean he didn’t like, and as a result, prominent shelf space in our kitchen is devoted…
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The Day After Ashes
When I was in seminary, a group of friends who were interested in the emergent church movement got together for a Bible Study called “Lazarus at the Gate.” Put together by the Massachusetts Bible Society, Lazarus At the Gate the mission of the study was to “promote simplicity for the sake of generosity.” The original site…
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O, For a Cup of Coffee…
Ash Wednesday marked the first day of our family’s commitment to stick to the limits of the average SNAP benefit in PA ($3.85 a person a day in 2014). And for most of the day, it went remarkably well. Except, that is, for a few tiny things. I had been particularly concerned about the reality that…
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Lenten Hunger Challenge 2015
How much money do you spend every day on food? That is what I found myself wondering recently. I was wondering because I had recently come across the statistic that the average family on food stamps receives benefits roughly equal to three dollars per person, per day, on food. Three dollars. That makes one dollar for…
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Transfiguration Worship at Home
Sometimes bad weather keeps us from worshipping together, but that doesn’t mean we cannot worship God. Below is the order of worship for Transfiguration Sunday for those of you unable to join with us today. Be safe out there, and know that you are in our prayers, and that you are in God’s hands. We Gather…