Monthly Archives: March 2017

March 15, 2017 · 7:26 pm

Purple flowers, Old Louisville 7

IMG_4719 (800x600)

These tried to hide.
12 March 2017
Louisville, Kentucky

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Louisville, Photo

Tagged as , , ,

March 15, 2017 · 7:09 pm

Lent 2017, day 15

“Our job is to [paraclete] comfort, console, and advocate, as God has given us a [paraclete] Comforter to comfort, a Consoler to console, and an Advocate to advocate. The use of this Greek term may be a theological reminder that the trinity works on our behalf, while also working on us, to bring about God’s desired unity.”
Jerrod B.Lowry
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

It is interesting to ponder the Holy Spirt – the paraclete – as a verb. We are given the Holy Spirit to care for us. We are also given the Holy Spirit to live as the Holy Spirit – to shape our behavior.

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Lent, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

March 14, 2017 · 7:24 pm

Purple flowers, Old Louisville 6

IMG_4717 (800x600)

12 March 2017
Louisville, Kentucky

Leave a comment

Filed under Louisville, Photo

Tagged as , , ,

March 14, 2017 · 8:28 am

Lent 2017, day 14

lenten-reflections-on-the-confession-of-belhar“If I am going to know and bear your burdens, I must be in relationship with you as an equal partner on the road to discipleship. I must humbly admit my own burdens and respectfully bear yours. We who follow Jesus should be willing to take the yoke with another and give them rest.”
Gradye Parsons
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

Guide me to build and nurture
partnerships of equity and justice,
with people who challenge me and the way I live,
who hold me accountable to the vision and to my actions
with people of privilege so that, together,
we can disrupt systems and structures.

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Lent, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 13, 2017 · 9:14 pm

Lent 2017, day 13

“From slavery to mass incarceration, factions of the church in America have paid silent witness here to the injurious principles and powers which paralleled the insidious behaviors in South Africa. … let us acknowledge the sin of our past and present, invoking the power of the Holy Spirit to mature us to unity and the full stature of Jesus Christ.”
John C. Welch
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

God grant us strength
to confront principalities and powers;
to disrupt sinful structures and systems;
and to live into the unity you desire.
Amen.

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

March 13, 2017 · 7:22 pm

Purple flowers, Old Louisville 5

IMG_4716 (800x600)

12 March 2017
Louisville, Kentucky

Leave a comment

Filed under Louisville, Photo

Tagged as , , ,

March 12, 2017 · 8:20 pm

Purple umbrella, not flowers, Old Louisville

IMG_4715 (800x600)

12 March 2017
Louisville, Kentucky

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Louisville, Photo

Tagged as , , ,

March 12, 2017 · 1:24 pm

Lent 2017, day 11

“I love the chance to remind them that Christ’s love is not just contained in their home sanctuary, but that it is waiting in any place they worship, connecting them with Christians around the world.”
Katie Styrt
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

Love binds us together.
Binds us to Christians.
Binds us to all God’s family.
Love experienced in worship.
Love experienced in daily life
as we offer each moment to God.
Love binds us to people in the United States
who struggle with racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism,
and related, intersecting systems.
Love binds us to girls in Guatemala who died and were injured
in a fire at a shelter where they were locked in.
Love binds us to Shiite pilgrims killed and injured
in bombs in Damascus.
Love binds us
and brings tears
and inspires anger.
May love move me to act.

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

March 11, 2017 · 11:42 am

Lent 2017, day 12

lenten-reflections-on-the-confession-of-belhar“As a new creation, the church must remember the very incomprehensible love of God that reminds it of its comprehensive mission in the world.
Kang-Yup Na
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

Love.
Perhaps by its nature
love is incomprehensible.
We stumble.
We fall.
We judge
exclude
create systems of domination.
Still God loves.
Loves us as we are.
Loves us that we might be
who God intends.

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Lent, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Tagged as , , , ,

March 10, 2017 · 7:27 pm

Lent 2017, day 10

lenten-reflections-on-the-confession-of-belhar“God hopes we don’t approach the gift of our unity out of begrudging obligation, but that by God’s grace, we will embody our unity from a spiritual posture of joy and awe, amazed at how wonderfully God has made us one.”
Shannon Johnson Kershner
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar

May awe
and amazement
give rise to
joy

This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

See you along the Trail.

Leave a comment

Filed under Antiracism, Books, Lent, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Tagged as , , , , , , ,