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Worship
“Ruah” is one of my favorite Hebrew words. It means breath, life. You see this word, or variations of it, anytime you see God’s life-giving breath in the Old Testament. Then, as we move into the New Testament where Greek is largely used, we see “pneuma” as the word for Spirit, wind, or breath. Again, anytime we see pneuma in scripture, we see something that is life-sustaining and life-giving.
Huge sigh of relief… When you spend time talking about the Trinity, it always seems like, once we get to Jesus, we can breath a sigh of relief. Jesus is the person of Trinity that people most often connect with the easiest. Why? Because Jesus was an actual person.
It is impossible to begin the conversation about God without also acknowledging the Trinity. It is impossible to acknowledge and begin to understand the Trinity without first recognizing our own limits on language and human understanding.
I believe prayer is often treated like a last ditch effort. Something has gone wrong, I’ve tried everything else, maybe I should throw up a prayer. Or prayer is treated as a good thought or a well wish. Prayer is so much more than all of that. Prayer is a conversation with the Creator. There is power and there is relationship building in prayer. I believe fully and completely in prayer. It is essential to our well being and our lives.
It is important before you build anything to first build a good foundation. Without a solid foundation, whatever you are building will just fall apart. I believe at Sewickley United Methodist Church, you have a good foundation and a good building for that matter. As I get to know those foundations this community is built upon, I believe it is important for you to know the foundations I am built upon. I look forward to this journey ahead with you!
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.
God has called on many servants throughout history. Many of them are documented in the Bible, but that particular record ends quite a long time ago. Is God still calling his servants today? Would you know it if he called your name? Would you be brave enough to answer?
Jack Moffett will be bringing the message this Sunday, and Leap of Faith will debut their new song: Call My Name.
After 2,000 years of history, it’s become easy for the church to get complacent, to expect people to come to us, to prefer safety and the security of counting butts in pews and bucks in the offering plates. And then we count this as “following Jesus.”
Have you ever been scared? I mean really scared? Lock yourself behind closed doors kind of scared?
If you have done any traveling at all, you know that the local people can always—always—spot a foreigner. They look different, smell different, talk different, dress different, and think different. If you’re a foreigner, you’re going to stick out and stand out. There’s no hiding.
I was nearing the end of the race, just a couple of miles to go and my left leg cramped up. It felt like someone had shot me in the leg. The pain was excruciating and brought me to a standstill.
My paternal grandmother gave birth to 10 children, one of which died in infancy. She reared 9 children, plus two grandsons, in a two-bedroom, company house. What intrigues me is, how do you even get nine children with only two bedrooms? How is that possible? I think you know what I mean!
This is the 7th Sunday we have not been able to worship face to face. Life is anything but normal. And we can’t help but wonder if life will ever be normal again. It seems to me we are just kind of existing.
I was seated at the head table. Also seated at the head table was a woman who served as their maid of honor. I walked over to where she was sitting and introduced myself. She looked up at me and said, “I know who you are! Don’t you know me?” I looked at her and said, “Of course I do.” God forgive me, I lied through my teeth.
Touch is so very important to our well-being. In this time of social distancing, we have lost that gift. We crave that gift. But it is no longer safe to touch… to offer a handshake, a hand on a shoulder, a friendly embrace. When will this all end? When can we touch again?
This year’s Easter celebration is not like those we have known. The sanctuaries that are normally full on this festive day are painfully empty. The choir lofts usually filled with singers standing shoulder to shoulder are empty and silent. This year, we might get the closest taste we have had yet to what the first Easter was like.
Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Over the years, I have sat with, talked to, ministered to, prayed with, and walked with hundreds of Marys and Marthas: in hospital rooms, in hospice facilities, in private homes, and in funeral homes. It never gets any easier. It is a most difficult place to be.
I don’t care how well you think you know the Good Shepherd of Psalm Twenty-Three, you don’t know him until you’ve realized that he is a pursuer.
We know she is a woman… the first strike against her. We also know she is a Samaritan—we are told this not once, but four times in this text—the second strike against her. And we know she has had five husbands, and the man she lives with now is not her husband. Strike three, and she’s out, at least according to society!
