Mark 10:17-31, Hebrews 4:12-16 Micah Bales I don’t know about you, but for me, this is a part of the Bible that strikes home in an almost visceral way. When I read this, I know that God has found me out. He has uncovered a place of weakness and resistance in me. He has found a…
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HERE, EAT THIS! – WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
Jesus as Food: a reflection 1 Corinthians 11:27-33 I grew up in Pennsylvania in a house that my parents built on a lot which was formerly part of the farm my Grandparents on my Hosler side used to farm. Now the connection to the actual farm was rather tenuous. My grandparents, Marlin and Mae Hosler,…
OBSTACLES
Mark 9:38-50 Jeff Davidson If I ever get a tattoo, which is doubtful, it’s going to say, “Be careful what you wish for.” I was reading a commentary on today’s Gospel reading from Mark by Amy Oden at a website called “The Working Preacher” (www.workingpreacher.org) and she had an idea that I thought would be…
FAVORITED: REFLECTIONS ON THE SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
James 2:1-17, Mark 7:24-37 Nathan Hosler The protests in Syria began while Jenn and I were doing peacebuilding work in Nigeria with the Church of the Brethren. Once a year we would come back to the United States so that Jenn’s permanent residency card stayed in good order. In June of 2011 we came home for…
HE IS OUR PEACE
Psalm 23, Ephesians 2:11-22 Jeff Davidson Back in the 1980’s, one of my favorite comedians was Emo Philips. A lot of his jokes are based on wordplay, which I like, and a lot of his jokes have a religious or faith aspect to them. For instance: “When I was a kid, I used to pray…
WHO ARE THE PROPHETS?
Mark 6:14-29 and Ephesians 6:10-13 Micah Bales When I was 18, I spent my first summer away from home. For six weeks in between my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college, I participated in the Young Adult Leadership Development program at a Quaker retreat center called Pendle Hill, just outside…
HEED THE PROPHET
Ezekiel 2:1-5, Mark 6:1-13 Bryan Hanger The idea and role of the prophet has always been a fascinating thing to me. When I think of prophets I often think of images of charismatic preachers speaking powerfully and emotionally and sometimes quite strangely. And I don’t know about y’all but when I read the stories about…
(THERE MAY YET BE HOPE) A REFLECTION ON THE CHARLESTON MASSACRE
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Nate Hosler [Read 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27] There are different ways of learning to do a new task and similarly there are different ways of learning from the Bible. Think of learning to hammer a nail. Would you read a book? Study a history of the design of hammers? While there…
CHARLESTON
Jeff Davidson Originally I was planning to talk about Father’s day. I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful father who has loved me as much and treated me as well as anyone ever could have, but I know and wanted to recognize that not everyone has been that fortunate. I was going to talk about…
THE SPIRIT WILL GUIDE YOU
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15, Psalm 104:24-35 Jeff Davidson One of the nice things about where I work is that I have some options for how to get there. I usually take Sudley Road over to I-66, then get off at the Fairfax County Parkway, take that over to RT 29, and my building is right there….
Washington City Church of the Brethren 