Friday Festival

Remembering her own mountaintop journeys prompts Martha Spong to reflect on the mystery of the Transfiguration.  She poses an interesting question about what the disciples – and we – perceive. “In this era of propaganda and marketing, social media and political campaigns, our perceptions are being messed with all the time. What are we noticing? Has truth changed? How… Read More

Friday Festival: Dawn and Dusk

Shorter days are coming in some parts of the world, while others are finding longer, sunnier days.  In the U.S., I find this time of year hard, as the dark and the cold take a mental toll.  I found sustenance in our bloggers’ reflections on light, new dawns, and the beauty of twilight.  A new… Read More

Friday Festival: Connections, Broken and Whole

Our bloggers are guiding our minds to the connections of the heart this week.  Turning from weariness to gratitude, Kristin Berkey-Abbott notices a parallel between herself and the living things in the garden, “The milkweed is blooming this week–these are plants that have been eaten back to bare stalks several times since I bought them… Read More

Friday Festival: Relationships Reconsidered

With honesty and tenderness, our bloggers are considering relationships this week – with God, with Jesus, with our stuff and with a lamented mother, who has just died.  The hard work of stopping the rush of her life has Sally Coleman thinking about where God is inviting her to sing a new song.  “I have… Read More

Friday Festival: Back to the Foundation

As the week winds up, our bloggers are returning us to the essentials.  They offer a counterbalance to whatever sorrow, aggravation, worry or rage the week has brought to us.  The image above is Bonnie Jacobs meditation on the laundry — just in case your week has been like that, too. Jan Edmiston reminds us… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Banquets and Blessings (Matthew 14:13-33)

Yawn…another feeding story…another miracle story.  Because versions of this story show up in the readings so often, the power of the story gets lost in our familiarity with it.  Even the delightful details are familiar – Jesus inviting (commanding?) the disciples to share the work with him, the grass that evokes a new Eden, the… Read More

Friday Festival: After Valentine’s Day

Whether you love Valentine’s Day or despise it, it echoes through our culture, and the feelings linger on even when the day is past.  Our bloggers are looking past the flowers, and past the pressure to be a perfect couple, past the teddy bears and the emphasis on romantic love to something deeper.  This day… Read More

Friday Festival: What Will Be Your Legacy?

As I write this, I’m watching the Aretha Franklin’s celebration of life service.  Rev. Robert Smith Jr. posed the question “will you leave this world better than when you found it?”  Such a question is one for all of us to ponder in our lives and one that many of our writers have reflected upon… Read More