To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31, 32) Last weekend I attended a “Live at the Met” event at our local theatre.  This is a livestreamed production put on by the Metropolitan Opera, and the opera I saw was “Dead Man Walking”.  I love these productions.  For a while I thought about titling our streamed worship on Sunday morning a “Live at Bethel Event”.  But, considering there were only 5 of … Read more

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner   Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  – Psalm 37:4   This morning when I was on social media catching up on what news I could find, I was given (sent?  What is it called when the internet gremlins just make a decision on what you should read?) a link to the Public Service Jobs website to apply for a job in “Security” for CSIS.    A SPY!!! How … Read more

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s[b] feet and thanked him. And he … Read more

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) During the integrity versus despair stage, people reflect back on the life they have lived and come away with either a sense of fulfillment from a life well lived or a sense of regret and despair over a life misspent.  (Erickson’s Stages of Development – the Aging Adult). For the past month or so I’ve done a whole lot of funerals.  Its very sacred work and I’m always so honored to walk with families at this time … Read more

Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Ezekiel 12: 3,4 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  (Psalm 23:5) Sometimes you have to be the first to walk across the … Read more

For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies, For the Love which from our birth, Over and around us lies. Christ our Lord to you we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.  (Folliet Sandford Pierpont, 1864)   Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. … Read more

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.   But Jesus bent … Read more

Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, released an 85-page advisory declaring loneliness a new public health epidemic in the United States. “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. May 6, 2023 (Forbes Magazine) Then the Lord God said “It’s not good that the human is alone.  I will make a helper that is perfect” (Genesis 2: 18) The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shard meals and to their prayers. (Acts 2: 42) All the believers were united and shared everything … Read more

Love lifts us up where we belong.  (Buffy Sainte-Marie, Will Jennings, Jack Nitzsche.  From “Up Where we Belong, Recorded by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes). 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the … Read more