What on Earth? Earth Day, God, and the Apocalypse (Rev. 21:1-6)

Last updated on: April 25, 2013 at 3:07 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Rev. Adam J. Copeland How Religious Leaders Are Taking Charge of the Environmental Congregations should be leading the environmental movement, says the Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham, president of the Regeneration Project. Interfaith Power & Light, which mobilizes a religious response to global warming, promotes energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Have you ever heard someone described as, “So heavenly minded, he was no earthly good?” This phrase suggests one danger of interpreting the book of Revelation. Sadly,... Read more

Why I Pray that April Tragedies Bring May Justice (Acts 9:36-43)

Last updated on: April 19, 2013 at 3:24 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Margaret Aymer Resurrection is the theme of the fifty days of Eastertide. Yet, for decades, the month of April has been filled with particularly horrific deaths: • The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968) • The murder of 13 persons at the American Civic Association Immigration Center in Birmingham, NY. (April 3, 2009) • The shooting death of 32 students at Virginia Tech. (April 16, 2007) • The end of the Waco siege and the death... Read more

Repairing Our Grief (John 21:1-19)

Last updated on: April 11, 2013 at 4:47 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Greg Carey My Uncle Norman fought in Europe during World War II. An artillery observer, he didn’t return with many “heroic” stories to tell. When I was little, he would roll out some souvenirs from the war, and I’d be impressed: German military dress knives and lovely table linens. I don’t recall all of the stories or how these things became his, but I’m pleased to report the table linens were a gift. His war experience was hardly glamorous.... Read more

How Long Does Darkness Last? (John 20:1-18)

Last updated on: April 4, 2013 at 4:05 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Rev. David Lewicki There is a pall over this morning. As this story begins in John’s Gospel, “it is still dark.” It is still dark where we wake up today. Beautiful, beloved children of God awake this morning in rooms where no light will break through. Morning brings no solace. It is still dark. How Women Are Breaking the Church’s Glass Ceiling Jesus treated women differently than others would have treated women during his time, serving as a sort... Read more

Why Our Bodies Matter

Last updated on: April 4, 2013 at 3:46 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Greg Carey Immediately following the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope came the predictable speculation. From the United States and other wealthy nations, folks wondered what the new Pope would say about issues related to gender and human sexuality. What about birth control, homosexuality, and women’s leadership in the church? Did the new Pope really support civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in Argentina, as some reported? Others, including many from Latin America, Africa, and parts... Read more

The Liturgy of the Passion (Isaiah 50:4-9a)

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 4:49 pm By Odyssey Networks

Dr. Walter Brueggemann The voice that speaks in Isaiah 50:4 – 9a is the poet of the exile himself. Here he offers an autobiographical reflection on his call as a prophet sent by God to the deported Jews in Babylon in the sixth century BCE. His message to the Jews is they are now free to go back home to Jerusalem. This freedom came, says the poet, because of the dispatch of Cyrus the Persian at the behest of YHWH,... Read more

Pressing on Toward Higher Goals: Philippians 3:4b-14

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 4:31 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Efrain Agosto I have often wondered about the trajectories my life has taken. I was raised a Latino Pentecostal in New York City but educated in a liberal arts tradition at Columbia University in Manhattan. I was exposed to evangelical and then liberal Protestant traditions in seminary and graduate school. My theological views have changed over the years. I have moved from Pentecostal to Baptist to Congregational (United Church of Christ) church traditions. Yet at each step of the... Read more

When People You Don’t Much Like Receive God’s Love

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 4:08 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Eric D. Barreto Our distaste for people who cut in line remains unchanged as we grow up. Whether someone gets to the front of the lunch line or the airport security check before us in an unfair way, our annoyance is raised. People who steal our parking spots during the Christmas season are the recipients of our worst thoughts. We might–just might–yell a string of expletives and death threats at anyone who has wronged us on the road or... Read more

How to Survive the Sequester, Syria, and Other Threatening Headlines (Luke 13:1-9)

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 3:49 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Matthew L. Skinner Current events, like much about our lives, frequently leave us hopeless, fearful, and uncertain. Religious faith isn’t a matter of wishing away these experiences; it involves perceiving God in the midst of our hardships. I still remember one Friday night when I, an overly sensitive preteen, made a conscious decision to stop watching the nightly news with the rest of my family. I found what I saw too depressing and threatening: crime after crime, yet another... Read more

Climate Change and Setting the World on Fire

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 3:14 pm By Odyssey Networks

By Melissa Browning It was Earth Day, 1988. I was in my fifth grade “Earth Science” class, a place where one might expect to talk about the importance of caring for the earth. But this was not what we were talking about that day. At least, we weren’t talking about it until one student asked our teacher about the hole in the ozone layer and whether or not she should stop using hairspray. Our science teacher replied by saying that... Read more