The Fellowship of Joy

Happy Mother’s Day Photo by  Sidney Pearce  on  Unsplash I recorded a 25 minute sermon from the notes below, but … somehow, there was no sound. It was silent. I replaced it with a shorter version. Here is the text of the sermon I first recorded — Rough Notes. Mother’s Day, not Mothers’ Day is an American tradition started by a daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, who felt one day needed to be set aside for children to honor their own mothers. Paul reminds us that we are part of a larger family as well and that the call to honor is even broader. “[Treat] the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.” -1 Timothy 5:2 Just who is your mother? Timothy had his own mother and grandmother, but as a pastor, he was to set an example to all the church to treat all the elder women as mothers. They were to be respected, honored, and treated with care and affection. Who is your mother? Who do you honor on Mother’s Day? First, it would be the woman who gave you ...

Story or History? Myth or Events? What Is the Meaning in the Moments? The Key to Theological Reflection is Asking: Where is God and What Is God Saying?

  Christology and "Humanology" A Prayer on Tap   There is nothing that stands between us and the God of the Universe as we honestly pray.  I need a prayer song and I need it now!   So, the heart has insisted with restless desperation more than once.   Psalm 38 is a template of timely prayer for anyone who has suffered or is suffering. It gives voice and emotion to the cry of the heart that struggles to emerge. It holds a mirror before our souls so that we can know what we may be feeling within.   The psalm takes our innermost thoughts and makes them accessible to us so that we might express them to God.   We do not always have words. The prayers of the ancients provide us with words that we can borrow on the occasion of our pain.    We do not always have a keen sense of what we are feeling. The psalms suggest possibilities.   We can pray these words and feelings with confidence that, whether or not they are accurate for our l...