About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need to Aftertalk. Join us for some food, fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.

Themes for this week:
Hope, Honesty, Honor/Shame

• What does hope look like in the midst of your own list of expectations, pressures, and worries?
• ​The Luke text ends with an image of guarding against despair and protecting hope. How does that happen, do you think? What practices and patterns “steward” hope?

​Reflection:

Edward Hays, A Pilgrim's Almanac, 20th century
"Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace."

Jürgen Moltmann, 20th century
"I tried to present the Christian hope no longer as such an 'opium of the beyond' but rather as the divine power that makes us alive in this world."
 
Martin Luther King, Jr., 20th century
"Only in the darkness can you see the stars."
 
Aeschylus, 5th century B.C.E.
"He who learns must suffer;
and even in our sleep
pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
by the awful grace of God."
 
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, 20th century
"For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
 
Frederick Buechner, 20th century
"Go where your best prayers take you."

Lectionary Texts:

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need to Aftertalk. Join us for some food, fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.

Themes for this week:
Pilate, Power, On Earth as in Heaven

• The readings of this week are filled with imagery of power. How would you characterize the power they envision?

​Reflection:

"We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom."
    - Stephen Vincent Benét

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will ourworld know the blessings of peace."
    - William E. Gladstone

"You see what power is—holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them!"
    - Amy Tan

"He's not safe, but he's good."
    - CS Lewis, referring to Aslan from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
​
Lectionary Texts:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 | Psalm 93 | Revelation 1:4b-8 | John 18:33-37

Resources:

U.S. No Longer a Democracy...​

About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need to Aftertalk. Join us for some food, fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.

Themes for this week:
Prayer, Prophecy, Provision, and aPocalyspe

• The cycles of our private and public lives seem to move between more settled and unsettled seasons. What do we make of these seasons in the context of apocalyptic language such as we have encountered in today’s readings?
• In the anthem “Thou Shalt Know Him When He Comes” the text speaks to the coming of God, that isn’t by great fanfare or particular clothing, but “…by the holy harmony which his coming makes in Thee.” What do you think this might mean? How might it look? Does it strike you as true?
• Do apocalypse and violence go hand in hand?

​Reflection:
"Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused."
    Charles H. Spurgeon

"'O God - please give him back! I shall keep asking You.'"
    John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
 
"Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at [God's] disposition, and listening to [God's] voice in the depth of our hearts."
    Mother Teresa

"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy."
    Thérèse de Lisieux
​
Lectionary Texts:

Daniel 12:1-3 | Ps. 16 | Hebrews 10:11-14 | Mark 13:1-8

About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need to Aftertalk. Join us for some food, fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.

Themes for this week:
Restoration of Community, Noticing, Prophecy

• God sent Elijah to a foreign place where he has to rely on the help of a stranger (and a stranger with next to nothing to boot).  Have you ever anything like experienced this? What was it like?
• Where have you noticed the kind of giving action that the Widow in Mark displays?
• What does it meant to be a prophet or to be prophetic?

​Reflection:
"Hard as it may be to believe in these days of infectious greed and sabers unsheathed, scientists have discovered that the small, brave act of cooperating with another person, of choosing trust over cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the brain light up with quiet joy."
    - Natalie Angier

"Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else."
    - Booker T. Washington

Lectionary Texts:

1 Kings 17:8-16 | Psalm 146 | Hebrews 9:24-28 | Mark 12:38-44
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(...for further consideration):