It is common, as William Sloan Coffin notes, that we are prone to use the Bible as a drunk uses a lamppost—for support rather than illumination. — anonymous
Every bird in flight, every creature of sea, every hair of every head is numbered and known.
In darkness and in light, whether happy or sad, asleep or awake, there is an Advocate who lingers, Who does not forget, Who notices every tear and cherishes all laughter.
Who is this Advocate, this gracious Father, this guardian Mother, this Presence whose Way is peace, whose Will is justice, whose Weal is shaped in mercy.
Read more › Call to worship
Welcome to this Circle of faith. Today we mark both the palm and the passion of the human journey toward the arms of God.
Jesus, riding a humble donkey, entered Jerusalem, cheered by the crowd.
Palms and cloaks were laid in his path as a sign of messianic hope for deliverance.
Read more ›Encouragement is the lime and silica that cement fickle sand into concrete resolve. The ministry of encouragement is not the “soft,” interpersonal side of our more hard-charging, public mission of confronting disruptive power.
We rejoice in the Blessed One,
who draws us up and circles us round
and builds a bulwark against gales of destruction.
Offering pastoral encouragement within the Body is not “feminine” work where mission in the larger world is “masculine.”
Read more ›From the turbulent bowels of darkest deep, our roiling souls cry to you, oh God!
Close not your ears to the sound of our afflictions!
Draw us to the Still Point of love’s tranquil refrain, to the melody of restful hearts:
Read more ›There are many images in Scripture which express Heaven’s purpose, but none more concise than this phrase from Jesus, the one we herald as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith:
The meek shall inherit the earth.
The powers that rule—and sometimes overtake our own hearts—consider the Way of Jesus a foolish option:
Read more ›Who among you believe that grieving and lamentation are symptoms of despair?
Not so!
Only the hopeless are silent in the face of calamity—
Read more ›We are free to act boldly because we are safe.
We are safe because we are at rest.
We are at rest because we have been forgiven.
Read more ›History says, Don't hope on this side of the grave.
It is too much to ask for mere mortals such as us.
Yet we say, Noli timere. Do not be afraid.
Hope is not beyond your reach. It is not in the highest
region of heaven, or out beyond the farthest sea.
Hope need not be the exclusive province of heroic figures.
Noli timere. Do not be afraid.
Hope is in your mouth, ready to be savored; it is in your
heart, awaiting love’s harness. Noli timere. Noli timidus.
A life in Christ is
an invitation
to live according to a different rhythm.
It stimulates the courage to
move forward
even when the path seems to crumble
beneath our feet, when every way forward
is shrouded in threat.
The Love of Christ is that embrace which
untangles the anxious heart
and calms the fretful hand
where fears are overruled by confidence and
trembling is tempered
with pardon and permission.
From the turbulent bowels of darkest deep,
our roiling souls cry to you, O God!
Close not your ears to the sound of our
afflictions! Remind us again that Heaven’s
Provision will yet outlast earth’s squalid distress.
Draw us to the Still Point of love’s tranquil refrain,
to the melody of restful hearts:
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