blip : Blogging Linear Interstellar Points :

A few years ago, someone from our church went to Iraq with the Mennonite Central Committee to work for peace while our country waged war. During the Easter season of 2004, he sent us a letter, a dispatch from the front. Peter Dula wrote to us, “Jesus has indeed risen even if it was a [...]

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Title: Tombs and Gardens
Date: 3.23.08, Easter
Texts: Jn 20:1-18

John 20, verse 1: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed.” It was still dark. The night of Good Friday lingered into Easter morning. John doesn’t tell us [...]

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A foot-washing prayer from the Mennonite Hymnal, # 783:
Lord Jesus,  we have knelt before each other as you once knelt before your disciples, washing another’s feet. We have done what words stammer to express. Accept this gesture of love as a pledge of how we mean to live our lives. Bless us, as you promised, [...]

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This is the last of the unedited Lenten reflections I wrote of the Mennonite publication, Leader Magazine. Here are the other ones: Lent 1, Lent 2, Lent 3, Lent 4, Lent 5.
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Lent 6: Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11.

Jesus has traveled throughout Palestine proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, [...]

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Lent 5: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45.If there is any single characteristic of Lent, it is that we are humans—and that means we are mortal, we die. During the season of Lent, we contemplate that dark reality because we know that, as Paul says, “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from [...]

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Lent 4: I Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41.

The miraculous healing of the blind beggar shocks the people who knew him. They want to know more about what kind of power, and what kind of person, can work such incredible feats. They come to the beggar and ask, “Where is he?” And the [...]

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Here’s another Lenten reflection.
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Lent 3: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42.

The story of God and Israel is a love affair—God longs for intimacy with Israel. God delivers Israel from Egyptian slavery and begins a journey of intimacy, a courtship. But Israel turns out to be quite the tease. At every turn in the [...]

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(Here’s another unedited Lenten reflection that I wrote for the Mennonite magazine, Leader).
The only true God is the God of freedom. The other gods make you feel at home in a place, they have to do with the quiet cycle of seasons, with the familiar mountains and the country you grew up in and love; [...]

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It’s rarely that I think a sermon went well. But I think this one was decent. Maybe it’s because I’ve been sick all week, so I have some insight on spitting mucus (just read the sermon).
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Title: Mud
Date: March 2nd, 2008, 4th Sunday of Lent
Texts: I Sam 16:1-13; Ps 23; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41.

Mud, made with [...]

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