October 9, 2016
About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us reflect on the implications of our faith and make the transition from worship to world.
Readings for this Sunday: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 • Psalm 66:1-12 • 2 Timothy 2:8-15 • Luke 17:11-19 Meeting Places The story in Luke is a familiar one to many. Jesus and his followers encounter ten lepers whom he quickly heals, instructing them, "Go and show yourselves to the priest." Nine disappear never to be heard from again. But one turns back and gives thanks, a Samaritan. This is interesting for a number of reasons. One, we might wonder what good it would have done for him to go to the priest. He wasn't a Jew, and in fact would not have been welcomed. Seeing the priest would restore these former lepers to their families and communities. They would no longer have to hand around the edges, keeping a safe distance, essentially cut off. This was a big deal!
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October 2, 2016About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us reflect on the implications of our faith and make the transition from worship to world. Readings for this Sunday: Lamentations 1:1 - 6, 3: 19 - 26 • 2 Timothy 1:1-14 • Luke 17:5-10 Worthless? Self-talk is a powerful thing and it all the more powerful when we put the weight of God's opinion of us behind it. Jesus seems end his story in Sunday's Gospel with a question about self-talk? Do you consider yourself worthless? We might also ask, do we think too highly of ourselves. So In Sunday's after-talk we will ask these question (and probably a few others): What are we to tell ourselves about our place in God's community.? How can we practice telling ourselves the truth of who we are in God's eyes? What difference does it make? Resources for your Reflection September 25, 2016
About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us reflect on the implications of our faith and make the transition from worship to world.
Readings for this Sunday: Amos 6:1a, 4-7 • Psalm 146 • 1 Timothy 6:6-19 • Luke 16:19-31 Lazarus and "Dives" Little seems to have changed since we met in the spring for Aftertalk. Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise. Luke's story of poor Lazarus, in death comfortable in the arms of Abraham, and the unknown rich man suffering in Hades after an apparent life of leisure and complacency may speak deeply to us... or it may make no impact whatsoever! What do you think? The parable is notable in part because it doesn't seem to leave us with any obvious question or a challenge. Karl Barth spoke of God's persistent "YES" to us, but this story is filled with inaction. God's "no" to "Dives" as Martin Luther King referred to him--a transliteration of the Greek word for "rich"--in his sermon at the Washington National Cathedral four days prior to being shot and killed dominates. "No" to sending Lazarus once more in service to comfort Dives. "No" to sending Lazarus to his brothers in warning as if their unequal social status persists beyond the grave. So what do or can we make of this story? What has it to say to us? How might it connect to the conversation about black and brown lives and a chasm of perception and lived experience that seems to be splitting this country in two? Is there a balm in Gilead? Resources for your Reflection
July 24, 2016About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.
Readings for this Sunday: Hosea 1:2-10 • Psalm 85:1-13 • Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19) • Luke 11:1-13 Learning How to Pray It might be fair to say there is a "little bit" going on in our culture of late! Black lives matter. All lives matter. Shootings and demonstrations. Uprisings around the world. Sunday, we'll find ourselves gathering on the Lord's Day between two political conventions. Apropos, perhaps, for the sense of being squeezed by all sorts of questions. Would you like to try to make sense of this, and think about your/our response? Join us after worship. Conversations about race and privilege have been in the news a lot these past few weeks. A long and tragic history of police shootings have alternated recently with tragic stories of shootings of police. Can we have a meaningful conversation about both? What do we make of deeper political, cultural, and spiritual patterns at play? Can we talk about gun violence without devolving to an argument over the Second Amendment? How can we have seek solutions that keep us committed to the value of all human life, and to the presence of injustice in all its forms? Can we talk about both without finding ourselves divided by slogans or sides? What does the church have to add to the conversation? What should we be doing? How does our faith inform our understanding? This Sunday marks the end of Aftertalk, with out last meeting for the summer. We will see you in the fall. June 5, 2016
About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.
Readings for this Sunday: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) • Ps. 146:1-10 • Galatians 1:11-24 • Luke 7:11-17 What is it in the widow at Zarephath that enables her to look past her own need to offer Elijah what might be her last meal? How does the generosity of our faith get rooted so deeply that it can elicit self-giving responses in the hardest of times? The psychologist Angela Duckworth earned a MacArthur "genius" grant for her work on grit—that combination of passion and perseverance that enables us to continue toward a goal or stay true to our values. You can hear from her 2013 TED Talk below:
Themes - Suffering & Faith I Grit I Compassion & Empathy I New Life
May 8, 2016
About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need. Join us for some fellowship, laughter and ample space for reflection and real questions to help us make the transition from worship to world.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 16:16-34 • Psalm 97 • Revelation 22:12-21 • John 17:20-26 Everything goes wrong for Paul and Silas in the story from Acts. They've given themselves completely, dedicated their lives absolutely; they've literally put their bodies on the line. No good deed goes unpunished in this narrative. And then the earth shakes. Even as shackles are broken, new bonds are formed, and the future is unlocked. What are we to make of this? Many things, probably. Eddie Huang (pronounced "Wong") is a celebrated chef, attorney, and self-described "Trojan horse." He is the author of the book Fresh Off the Boat which has been recently turned into a sitcom on ABC. Recently he was on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert talking about his show Huang's World, which appears on the TV channel Viceland. You can watch selections here. You can watch the third segment in which he tells the story about getting thrown in jail in Sicily.
Huang offers hints of a possible way of reading the Acts text as the work of gathering all the passion, creativity, imagination, and will we've been given from our own stories in order to transform our environments. He summarizes what he's trying to do in a recent story from the New York Times:
April 24th, 2016About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need . 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.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 11:1-18 • Psalm 148 • Revelation 21:1-6 • John 13:31-35 An absolute break in the way things were done. That's what Peter must justify to his brothers and sisters in the early church as they struggle to understand why in the world they would include Gentiles, and why they would give up on sacred practices that went to the very heart of their identity. John saw in Revelation, "A new heaven and a new earth." So did Peter's friends! In John's vision, "the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" Sounds about right. And "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." April 17, 2016About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need . 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.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 9: 36 - 43:• Psalm 23 • Revelation 7: 9 - 17 • John 10: 22 - 30 We have entered into Easter, which is a season, not just a day. To be precise, it is a week of weeks--seven weeks, including Sundays, plus a great 50th day--Pentecost. Keep an eye on the artwork in the sanctuary as the Sundays build and a vision of God's salvation unfolds. This coming Sunday we will hear the familiar words of the 23rd psalm: The Lord is my Shepherd, I Shall Not Want. So familiar that it's words are beautifully sung in the beloved theme song for a popular BBC show The Vicar of Dibley. Does this psalm contain a memory or a hope that is important to you? We will talk about this and other themes, questions, and thoughts that may be stirred in worship. April 3, 2016About 10 minutes after worship ends, we’ll gather together for Aftertalk. We hope you’ll join us! Bring your questions, stories, insights, doubts, musings, imaginings and whatever else you need . 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.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 5:27-32 • Psalm 150 • Revelation 1:4-8 • John 20:19-31 We have entered into Easter, which is a season, not just a day. To be precise, it is a week of weeks--seven weeks, including Sundays, plus a great 50th day--Pentecost. Keep an eye on the artwork in the sanctuary as the Sundays build and a vision of God's salvation unfolds. |