Lent: A Season of Returning [Devotional]
Scripture for Ash Wednesday: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; II Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 “‘And yet even now,’ says the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart . . .’” —Joel 2:12...
View ArticleSelf Denial: Setting Our Minds on Things Above [Devotional]
Come my heart says, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek. —Psalm 27:8 Most years I don’t feel quite ready for Lent with all its demands and disciplines—especially the call to self-denial...
View ArticleRepentance: Cleaning Our Messy House [Devotional]
Lectionary Readings for Third Sunday in Lent Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let us return to the...
View ArticleInterim Time [Devotional]
It was March 4 yesterday and here in Minnesota we still have four to six inches of snow on the ground. But temps have been above zero for a week or so and more importantly – or at least more inspiring...
View ArticleSuffering: Dying That We Might Live [Devotional]
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”...
View ArticleHer Extravagant Holiness: Reflections on John 12:1-8 [Devotional]
Her Extravagant Holiness: Reflections on John 12:1-8In anointing Jesus' feet with expensive oil, Mary teaches us a simple message about extravagant holiness.By Alyce M. McKenzie, March 10, 2013Six...
View ArticleWhat can seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? [Devotional]
Reflection on John 13: 1-17, 31b-35 What is it that makes us worthy to receive the love and grace-filled forgiveness that God provides? Who do we have to be in order to be one of Jesus’ disciples in...
View Article2013 Easter Message from The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA Presiding Bishop...
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,Easter. It is about more than an open tomb. It is the good news of the risen Christ who opens lives.Think about Jesus' friends after his death. Their lives were...
View ArticleWhy Don?t We Read the Bible More? [Devotional]
Now that "the holidays," Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter, are over for this season, we're looking ahead to our next program year. We've decided as a staff that it would be well and...
View Article"Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name..." [Devotional]
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…”In the Lenten devotional, 40 Days with the Lord’s Prayer, Henry French reminds us of the importance of the little words that we find in the bible. Take a...
View ArticleYour Will Be Done [Devotional]
"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with...
View ArticleGod's economy [Devotional]
This week, Carla Thompson Powell, pastor of Salem Lutheran Church on Chicago's South Side, reminds us of God's grace-filled economy. She and her husband, Darryl, also an ELCA pastor, have three kids...
View Articlefaith reflections: our mothering god [Devotional]
Café is an online magazine for young adult women who identify as Lutheran or not. The following faith reflection was contributed by The Rev. Angela T. Khabeb I just got back from the dentist with our...
View ArticleScattered and Gathered [Devotional]
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba!...
View ArticlePentecost is the season of the Holy Spirit [Devotional]
Yesterday was the day of Pentecost, and now we begin the long season in the church year which is sometimes called "ordinary time." But Pentecost is far from ordinary. It is the season of the Holy...
View ArticleSleeping Through Storms: Rethinking Theodicy, Natural Disasters and God?s...
(adapted from an article written on May 28, 2013 By David R. Henson) God is not all-powerful.At least, not in the ways we tend to define power.For us, power means that we get our way, that we can...
View ArticleA Rainy Day Psalm [Devotional]
A Rainy Day Psalm(from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim: A Personal Manual for Ritual and Prayer by Edward Hayes)I greet you, Pilgrim Rain, mystic, ancient traveler, visiting me today, washing...
View ArticleA Vote of Confidence [Devotional]
Something to think and pray about this weekThe Jesus of the gospels was always surprising people. He constantly cut across expectations. He was never dull or bland. Someone recently expressed this...
View ArticleRules for the New Life [Devotional]
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make...
View ArticlePlanting Season [Devotional]
Mary stood weeping outside the empty tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the...
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