by KRISTA SIMPSON Luke 1:57-80 Are you a planner? Do you like to know what’s going to happen? Almost every night my daughter asks me what our plan is for the next day. She likes to know what to expect. Well this year has certainly thrown us all for a…
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Take This Cup: Ash Wednesday
by GREGG JENNINGS Luke 1:1-56 What child is this that lay to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? What child is this that cries out from my inner self still weeping? What mortality is this, the ashen cross reminder upon my forehead creeping? Older this year than last. Perhaps a…
Holy Resistance: Day 10
Faithful Presence “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” These words of Jesus are not just what he promises to us, but how we are to live faithfully in the world. Jesus doesn’t abandon those whose righteousness is lacking, he rather remains present and puts…
Holy Resistance: Day 9
Submission Remember your baptism for a moment. The moment you went into the water and gave your “YES” to Christ and he gave his Spirit to you, washed you clean, and sealed you with the covenant of love. Yet, at our baptism, we also bound ourselves to Christ as his…
Holy Resistance: Day 8
Unity Through Lament Think of the unity between Job and his friends in the first week that they “sat with him in silence” and simply were present. Think of the unity lost as they opened their mouths to let Job know God’s heart in the matter. A matter they knew…
Holy Resistance: Day 7
King Jesus: A Transition of Power There is a long biblical precedent for the transition of power. From David saying, “I will not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.” To the stories of lesser known Israelite kings like Rehoboam, and Asa ascending to the throne. Some were good kings,…
Holy Resistance: Day 6
Sabbath as Resistance In the land of slavery the Israelites were forced to work 7 days a week, 30 days a month, 365 days a year. Through illness, through pregnancy, through exhaustion, they had become the source of financial stability to the Egyptian Pharaoh and after 400 years in slavery…
Holy Resistance: Day 5
Peacemaking Everybody wants to be a peacekeeper, yet no one knows what it takes to make the peace. It begins with internal identity and then moves to external emulation of our Father. Jesus is in a downright argument with the Pharisees in John 8. He observes their lies and double…
Holy Resistance: Day 4
Justice Take a look at The Bible Project’s well done video on Justice. We have such a short term memory that we think everyone around us started this race at the same starting block. We didn’t. There are the haves and there are the have nots. The same is true…
Holy Resistance: Day 3
Humility God comes to us in humility. Christ as the head of the church shows us what leadership and love look like when he as a wounded healer and a suffering leader bend down to us and speaks to us in kindness. Consider the immoral, foreign woman at the well….
