Community
Feed your spirit with these stories and reflections about living in relationship.
Against the current: Finding a place where I belong
by Liz Colver—I got married two weeks before I turned 21 years old. I had my first child when I was 25 and began seminary at 27. I’m certainly not the youngest to do any of these things, so I was surprised one morning when, as I was dropping off my oldest...
May our hearts be homes where Christ lives every day
by Helen Hollingsworth—It has been rightly said that everyone must be someplace because there really is no such thing as no place. There are all kinds of wonderful places to be. Maybe you aspire to be in some of them. Or some of you may be in those places...
Keeping the struggling flame lit
by Julie A. Kanarr—It was Sunday morning, and I was preparing to lead worship. This Sunday marked the festival of the Baptism of Our Lord, the first Sunday after Epiphany. During the service, we would be affirming the promises God makes to us in baptism....
From playing church to leading it: Fifty years of ordaining Lutheran women
by Anne Basye—Some girls play house. In the 1960s, Joan* played church. She would line her friends up on the sofa, set little glasses of cranberry juice in front of them and repeat the words she heard every week: “This is my body, given for you. This is my...
Can our relationships with food feed our souls?
by Anne E. Basye--My friend Georgia is a poet. Her poems are all about food: dizzying incantations to butternut squash, Chanterelle mushrooms, ripe tomatoes and the alchemy of transforming them into something delectable.A chef, baker and school food...
A place for us all in God’s limitless story
by Jordan Miller-Stubbendick--The kitchen counter is covered with a fine layer of flour. My hands rock back and forth over my grandmother’s rolling pin, smoothing cookie dough into a flat oval. My 3-year-old son’s eyes sparkle with delight as he selects...
Intergenerational community isn’t just nice. It’s necessary.
by Sarah Carson–Several years ago, I accepted an invitation to carpool to a Saturday morning diakonia class with a classmate I didn’t know very well. It took no more than half an hour in the car to notice how different we were.
Why is it so hard to ask for, to receive help?
by Joy McDonald Coltvet–The day of her funeral was hot, so hot, and I must have looked overly warm because the funeral assistant did a double-take. “Are you okay? Do you need a glass of water?”
Goodness is stronger than evil. The tomb is empty. Love and life win.
By Susie Gamelin— This week's mass shooting..." began the report on National Public Radio. I struggled to listen to yet another story of a mass shooting and scores of innocent people who, when they woke up that morning, had not suspected that their lives...
I keep finding myself with the women–and in them I find myself
by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller— It started with a small amount of flour. Gathered in a circle, women passed the bowl from one hand to the next.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…”
by Angela T. Khabeb—
John’s Gospel is probably my favorite of all the Gospels. Several narratives that are unique to John’s Gospel have deeply impacted my faith journey.
Soup’s on: This Lent be stretched, be filled and be warmed
by Cara Strickland— I first learned about soup suppers a few congregations ago. It was early in my journey to more liturgical worship. During that particular Lenten season, the congregation was engaged in a video series to explore our faith more deeply—but first, the...
Celebrate women’s strength
by Linda Post Bushkofsky— It's a little thing, really. Every time I change a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, I think of my mother. This thought connection goes back 40 years or so. I must have been a college freshman, home with a trimester of learning...
Celebrating bold women
by Linda Post Bushkofsky— Have you ever thought about Mary as a bold woman? Our Advent memories of Mary’s song of justice have not waned so much that we can’t appreciate her boldness. During Epiphany Mary persists, caring for the infant Jesus as visitors follow the...
Water and life abundant
By Ryan P. Cumming “I know I will never live as long or as well as I could have because I drank that water,” a resident of Flint, Michigan, told me and several of my colleagues from the ELCA churchwide organization. I sat in stunned silence and listened to this man...
To save just one life
by Sarah Carson Amanda was in a Detroit motel room when she found herself at a turning point. The man she was with had begun to beat her. “I was scared for my life, so I ran into the bathroom with my cell phone and locked the door,” she says. On the counter she found...
Real presence
by Elizabeth Hunter-- "Jesus meets us in our spiritual hunger and thirst," Bible study author Julie Kanarr says (p. 29), which perfectly sums up this issue's theme. At the same time, Jesus invites us to ''come and see," explains Susan K. Olson (p. 8), adding: "You've...
The wobbly manger
—by Venice R. Williams ...she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:7). The manger captivated me as a child. Each year I anxiously awaited the approach of the...