Monthly Archives: February 2015

Lenten reflections on scripture — earthen vessels

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Maren

2 Corinthians 4:7 I have this treasure in — my Grandma Snider’s mixing bowl, touching it I taste biscuits, my forty-year-old seminary Bible covered with all my notes for open-Bible exams, the hand of the Sunday School kid (dirty doesn’t … Continue reading →

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Lenten reflection on scripture — Micah 6:8

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Maren

What doesn’t the LORD require of you … once insider trading, walls across the Mexican border and strutting are off the table? The rest of everything. Hymns, praise music, sermons and capital campaigns are not required. The second amendment is … Continue reading →

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Marches … from Argentina

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Maren

The poem is by Gerardo Oberman of Argentina in translation by Katie Fiegenbaum and I pair it with a photograph that I took in Israel in a place that was called the wilderness of the temptation. But Gerardo’s point is that … Continue reading →

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Lenten reflection on scripture — for insomniacs

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Maren

Psalm 4:8 (OK a bunch of others, too) Not melatonin, not diphenhydramine HCI, yoga breathing, clear conscience, meditation, or writing my worries in a journal, safe for the morning … but you alone, O God, cause me to lie down … Continue reading →

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Lenten reflection on scripture — Judge not …

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Maren

Matthew 7: 1-3 Do not judge the school bully if you cannot count his beatings. Do not judge the addict to online pornography if you don’t know why she wants to be spanked. Do not judge the alcoholic with a … Continue reading →

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Lenten reflections on scripture — One for clergy

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Maren

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, for parish clergy For everything there is a season and a Lent or even Ordinary time for every purpose – a time for a first quaking climb to the pulpit and sabbatical or retirement to pew-sit, a … Continue reading →

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Lenten Reflections on scripture – the Temptation

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Maren

Mark 1:12-13 The Spirit drove Jesus out into the worlderness for forty days, and he was tempted — not three-point sermon tempted — but tempted by all the temptings we are ever likely to know. And it was hard, but … Continue reading →

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Guest Reflection: Jerry Hebenstreit

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Maren

On Sundays — not part of the forty days of Lent — I pause from my scripture reflections and this poem from Jerry Hebenstreit of Reston, Virginia, arrived. Perhaps it asks for “Natalie Sleeth’s “In the Bulb there is a Flower” … Continue reading →

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Lenten Reflections on Scripture — Red Underwear

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Maren

Apologies that I sent out two prayers on one day yesterday … guess it sent me reflectively scurrying … Matthew 6: 16 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in … Continue reading →

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Lenten Reflection on Scripture — Pauline couture

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Maren

These forty days I will spend time with scriptures, reflecting on them, improvising on them, re-telling them, trying, in spite of Lent, to turn them … resurrection out. February 21, 2015 Ephesians 6: 13-17 Therefore, pull on the mittens of … Continue reading →

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