Monthly Archives: July 2016

Art in the summer afternoon

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Maren

I am making art of the afternoon. I don’t mean that I’ve allowed all the distractions to triumph – reading other people’s blogs, turning too often to my smart phone, remembering that I have not yet gone walking on my … Continue reading →

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Your going out and your coming in …

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Maren

Words for out going and coming — the going and coming of our churches, of our daily lives, of the occasions of our public life — from the United States political conventions to the hopeful athletes meeting in Brazil. These … Continue reading →

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What’s wrong with the story? Luke 12: 16-21

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Maren

I grew up in real barn country – horse barns, cow barns, hay barns, grain silos, and, of course barn raising when everyone came together to build their neighbor a barn – even a neighbor they didn’t know yet. There … Continue reading →

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Remembering, Munich

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Maren

There are many famous people from Munich – Richard Strauss and Carl Orff, both musicians, Werner Herzog, the film director and Jeri Ryan the actress, Marie Louis von Franz, psychologist and King Ludwig II, the swan king who built fairy … Continue reading →

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The Naïveté of Jesus

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Maren

(Matthew 7:9-10) The story is told of Jesus’ confident questions. What parent asked for a piece of bread would hand a child a stone? And who would give a son or daughter who holds out a dinner plate for a … Continue reading →

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This Jesus, He’ll Eat With Anybody

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Maren

Stephen Price always has a way of making us feel uncomfortable. Read more of his work as Uncommon Baptist Pastor here. “Why does he eat with sinners?” They asked. Why should they care? We wonder. Rabbis differ all the time … Continue reading →

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Our Feather … a prayer

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Maren

And the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. And he replied, “keep it light…” Our Feather, one small brush of the grand and lifting wing, holy are all the names of God. Your kindness come and your … Continue reading →

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Prayer for Nice, France

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Maren

God, as I turn on my ignition, pull out of my driveway, turn at my street pause at a stop sign – help me to remember that everything becomes a weapon when there is hate, and so I shift it … Continue reading →

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A message for the worriers — on Mary and Martha

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Maren

So often Lucy Berrios Taveras translates poetry and worship resources from the Spanish for me here. This amazing poem she wrote for a Luke project a couple years ago. It is exquisite and certainly convicts me in more than one … Continue reading →

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Making history this morning (in Portsmouth)

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Maren

A strip of woodland behind my house separates us from the high school and, as long as my children crossed the graveyard and made the treeline by the time to bell began to ring, they were in class in time … Continue reading →

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