As many of you know, I enjoy dabbling in genealogy. I especially love reading the old colonial wills because they gave you great insights into the life and relationships of the individual. They all begin with “being of sound mind” much as ours do, but then many of them unashamedly admitted the “uncertainty of life”Continue reading “7 Easter 2021”
Tag Archives: Jesus
6 Easter 2021
While still in the midst of Easter we are asked to look back at Jesus’ last night with his disciples, just hours before his arrest. We hear stories of people calling their loved ones in the middle of a disaster – the plane you are in is going to crash, your house has been washedContinue reading “6 Easter 2021”
5th Sunday of Easter 2021
“I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5a). This is a beautiful passage that we love to use to decorate everything from tea cups to T-shirts, but have you every really taken the time to read the full passage and digest all that Jesus is saying? He begins, “I am the true vine”Continue reading “5th Sunday of Easter 2021”
4th Sunday of Easter 2021
The story of the Good Shepherd is one most of us have heard many times and it brings to mind the pastoral images of Jesus as sweet and kind, but I want us to look closer at this story and what it is saying about who Jesus is. To do so, I want to backContinue reading “4th Sunday of Easter 2021”
2 Easter 2021
It is odd, and a little sad, that what history – the human memory of the past – remembers is when someone stumbled or fell, when they made a mistake, an incorrect statement, or even just hesitated. And right now, it seems that we go out of our way to look for people’s errors toContinue reading “2 Easter 2021”
Good Friday 2021
Several times in the gospels, Jesus challenges one or more people to “take up [your] cross, and follow me.” This challenge is found in all three of the synoptic gospels, and occurs long before Jesus is crucified. So what did the cross represent before Jesus’ crucifixion? What was Jesus telling the people to do? CrucifixionContinue reading “Good Friday 2021”
5 Lent 2021
Wednesday night, during our CS Lewis study, we talked about “tokens” or symbols and some ways we use them and how powerful they can be. I was in Food Lion the other day and the man behind me noticed the cross around the neck of the woman behind him and immediately started asking her whereContinue reading “5 Lent 2021”
4 Lent 2021
When I had a houseful of kids, if something went missing or got broken there were plenty of possible suspects and of course no one ever wanted to confess to being the guilty one. Now that I live alone, there is no one but myself to blame and when something goes missing, I know whoContinue reading “4 Lent 2021”
Lent 3 2021
How do you picture Jesus? Today’s reading is sometimes difficult for people because we tend to picture Jesus as what in literature one would call a flat or underdeveloped character. We like the wise teacher who is kind to children, but we shy away from the strong, assertive, and sometimes rigid aspects of his personality. Continue reading “Lent 3 2021”
Last Epiphany (Transfiguration) 2021
As I read today’s passage out of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, I had to read it twice, because the first time I totally misconstrued what he was saying, and it made me realize some of the difficulties individuals who have been participating in our C S Lewis study are having with the Screwtape Letters.Continue reading “Last Epiphany (Transfiguration) 2021”
The Rev. Beverly Patterson 