"A Sanctuary in the City… Living Faith"
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Come join the conversation! Each week, one of the pastors will reflect upon and ask questions of the focus texts for the upcoming Sunday’s worship. We invite you to read, reflect, and engage. Ask your own questions, or provide your thoughts on ours, in an email to the author if you’d like. Scripture is meant to be engaged in community, as we seek a way toward living our faith.

Holy Stained Glass

” Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … For…

Grant Us Light, Dear God

What has come into being in Christ was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:3-5) I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I…

Barriers

This picture is one of my favorites that I took on our recent Israel/Palestine pilgrimage. It was on the Mount of the Beatitudes, and I was deeply struck by the irony of this image. A fountain of water springing forth from a rock, the words of Christ from the Gospel of John inviting all who…

Reaching Jerusalem

Today, we reached Jerusalem. We began the morning early with the Haram Al-Sharif (or Temple Mount). It is the place where according to scripture Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac. It has become the center of so much beauty and inspiration … and so much controversy, conflict, and sacrifice ongoing today. For Muslims, it houses…

Wadi Qilt

We worshiped today at the Wadi Qilt. This place inspired Psalm 23 — though it’s not exactly “green pastures and still waters.” Amid the dry and seemingly barren landscape one can see crisscrossing trails of sheep over the years. There are a few tufts of vegetation. There is dry creek/river bed that would become a…

The Sea of Galilee

We worship in a boat in the Sea of Galilee. In view are so many places where people would have seen and heard Jesus and experienced God’s love in him—his call to discipleship, teaching, healing, eating meals, sharing ordinary every day life. It is a holy place in its way. And these waters remind me…

The Valley of Armageddon

We overlook the valley of Armageddon from a mount outside Nazareth, Jesus’ home town. This valley is the main route from the ancient civilizations in the Tigris / Euphrates and Nile river regions. And so it has been a source of commerce, culture, and great battles for millennia. Peaceful and green and verdant now. And yet, experience of humanity over many generations inspires the apocalyptic imagery in the Bible and popular culture. More than fanciful “Game of Thrones” prophecy about a literal future place and time, the Bible tries to articulate and connect with realities people would have known, while using the poetry in geography and legendary memory to express the promises of God’s love in, greater than, and transforming all suffering and death to bring abundant life.

Delayed Start to Holy Land

We arrived at the airport in Chicago to find out our first flight to Vienna has been cancelled for a medical emergency on the inbound plane. So we were rerouted through Zurich. And we had no choice but to accept an eleven hour layover. So two overnight flights back to back … what to do…

Dignity in Community

Children and teachers go back to school. Sports. Marching band. Theatre productions. Some many activities get into full swing again. All of us in some way transition from summer fun to regular autumn routines. Fields and orchards abound with a harvest to nourish our taste buds and basic needs. Life flourishes in so many ways—in…