by Iuliana Mogosanu, April 27, 2023
Stewardship Season: Our Money Story Week One Theme: Recommit: to Remember This fourth Sunday of Eastertide, which is also my farewell Sunday of my role as a seminarian at United Parish for the academic year, we’ll begin our stewardship series by remembering what we were taught or how we learned about money and how it influences our relationship with money in our daily lives. The Bible talks about money and includes many stories that aim to teach us how to think about resources. We’ll look at the story of the manna in the desert, where God provided the Israelites with… Read More
by Amy Norton, April 20, 2023
Greetings to you, and peace, from the One who is, and was, and is to come! My favorite class in seminary was called “God and Money,” taught by professor emeritus, Harvey Cox. He was using the class to workshop ideas for his book The Market as God (which I absolutely recommend – it’s written for the layperson so no need for a religion or econ degree to understand it). A brief description of the book: “The Market comes complete with its own doctrines, prophets, and evangelical zeal to convert the world to its way of life. Cox brings that theology out of… Read More
by Amy Norton, April 13, 2023
Dear Ones, As I sit on my porch writing the blog on this unseasonably warm Thursday, I’m noticing the buds on the trees, the returning green of the grass, the soon-to-be-lilac flowers emerging… signs of resurrection all around. On this second Sunday of Eastertide, we remember the story of disciples unexpectedly encountering the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. Our guest preacher for this Sunday, United Parish member Kate Baker-Carr, writes: From the glorious celebration of Easter Sunday we move into the Eastertide, the 50 days that carry us from Easter dawn to the pouring forth of the spirit on… Read More
by Kent French, April 05, 2023
It is a week of ups and downs, fear, betrayal, denial, prosecution and execution. And it culminates in Resurrection. We tell this story again, starting with Palm Sunday, going through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, remembering that joy is not automatic. Rebirth and resurrection don’t happen all at once. We often have to go through pain and hardship before we get to the sunrise of a new day, a new creation. And we do it together. The Easter story reminds us that the core of the Christian faith is about Resurrection — not just a body that arose from a… Read More
