October 11, 2015

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.

​Read
Lectionary Texts: ​Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 |  Psalm 90:12-17 | Hebrews 4:12-16 | Mark 10:17-31

Themes for this week: Security, Goodness, Stewardship

Ask

• Have you noticed moments during your week when you have made connections to our previous worship and discussions?
• We have heard that the Gospel “comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.” What does this mean to you in light of the Mark reading of the man with many possessions?
• For the prophet Amos, the city gate (Amos 5: 10, 12, 15) is a place of judgment: a place to discern and decide between good and evil, justice and injustice, righteousness and sin. Jesus has similar things to say about entrance into the kingdom of God (Mark 10: 23– 25): a difficult choice is required— letting go of privilege, power, and possessions. What have you left behind to follow Jesus? How would you describe what Bonhoeffer calls “the cost of discipleship”?

Explore
Stated Clerk of PCUSA Issues Letter to Donald Trump on refugees, immigrants.


​Didn’t make it onto the yearly roll call of the mega-wealthy? Now’s your chance to find out where you actually sit in comparison to the rest of the world.
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Median Household Income Worldwide (Gallup)
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How to Own Land
Morgan Farley (From Sabbath, Wayne Muller)

​​Find a spot and sit there
until the grass begins
to nose between your thighs.
 
Climb to the top
of a pine and drink
the wind’s green breath.
 
Track the stream through alder and scrub,
trade speech
for that cold sweet babble.
 
Gather sticks and spin them into fire.
Watch the smoke spiral into darkness.
Dream that the animals find you.
 
They weave your hair into warm cloths,
string your teeth on necklaces,
wrap your skin soft around their feet.
 
Wake to the silence
of your own scattered bones.
Watch them whiten in the sun.
 
When they have fallen to powder
and blown away,
the land will be yours.


It’s easier for a camel to get on the cover of a lifestyle magazine than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

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