smstrouse

[smstrouse]

Holy Week, Foot Washing, and Human Trafficking

This was originally posted in 2015. I’ve made a few updates. I saw one of those fun quizzes on Facebook recently that I couldn’t resist:  “Which Saint Has Your Myers-Briggs Personality?”churchpop.com/2015/03/20/which-saint-has-your-myers-briggs-personality/ I got St. Catherine of Siena because, it said, “You absolutely love contemplating unity with Christ and the beauty of the Eucharist during…

View On WordPress

#foot washing #Maundy Thursday #pedicures #trafficking

[smstrouse]

Blessed Are the Farmworkers of Half Moon Bay

If you tried to plan a day to contrast two extremes of power, I don’t think you could come up with anything better than what we’ve got today. In just a couple of hours, there will be four – count ‘em – four football teams that will begin either their final leg on their Super Bowl journey or their last stop. Even if you’re not a fan, with the 49ers in the mix, the games are hard to ignore. There’s…

View On WordPress

#beatitudes #church #discipleship #Epiphany #Jesus #prophets #sermon

[smstrouse]

The "Wonder" of Advent

The “Wonder” of Advent

Sing verses 1 & 2 of “I Wonder as I Wander” I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,how Jesus the Savior did come for to diefor poor ordinary people like you and like I;I wonder as I wander, out under the sky. When Mary birthed Jesus, ’twas in a cow’s stallwith wise men and farmers and shepherd and all.but high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,and the promise of ages it did then…

View On WordPress

#"I Wonder as I Wonder" #Advent 3 #church #Isaiah 35:1-10 #Jesus #John the Baptist #Matthew 11:2-11 #sermon #wonder

[smstrouse]

When I Asked

Here are some great words of wisdom by Todd Jenkins. If we really want to live into ‘and,’ we have to learn to listen.

View On WordPress

[smstrouse]

Jacob & the Angel: A Spirituality of Struggle

Jacob & the Angel: A Spirituality of Struggle

I’m not a fan of wrestling – neither amateur nor professional. Maybe you were on a high school or college wrestling team or you enjoy watching the competitions in the Summer Olympics. There’s nothing wrong with wrestling; I’m just not a fan. Although I do have hard time with the macho theatrics of professional wrestlers. So why would a story about wrestling be one of my favorite Bible…

View On WordPress

#Frederick Buechner #Genesis 32: 22-31 #Jacob at the Jabbok #Jacob wrestling with an angel #Jacob&039;s ladder #Joan Chittister #magnificent defeat #sermon #spiritual wrestling #spirituality of struggle

[smstrouse]

Hanging on to Easter: from "a flailing, dying parish"

Hanging on to Easter: from “a flailing, dying parish”

It has been a lovely, meaningful Holy Week. And I’m looking forward to a beautiful Easter Sunday. This in spite of being told that my church is not only a “flailing, dying parish,” but is also “in schism . . . quite possibly from the Christian faith in general.” Funny, being told that my faith isn’t Lutheran, let alone ‘Christian,’ since the center of every worship service is – well, Christ. I…

View On WordPress

#Christianity #ELCA #gay lesbian ordination #inclusive church #inclusive langauage #inclusivity #lgbt #Lutheran #post-critical naiveté #Post-modern Bible #Process theology #progressive Christian Christianity #religious left #spiritual but not religious #spirituality #welcome church

[smstrouse]

How I Explained the Trinity in 9 Minutes

How I Explained the Trinity in 9 Minutes

See previous post. This is what I said. At the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City 2015, I was scheduled to present a workshop on Monday afternoon. On Sunday evening, I discovered that my workshop had been deleted from the Parliament app. Panicking, I ran down to the Parliament office in the Salt Palace, but it was Sunday evening; no one was there, except for one…

View On WordPress

#Trinity

[smstrouse]

Litany of Contradictory Things

Litany of Contradictory Things

After a conversation with a friend today, lamenting humanity’s seeming inability to move beyond either/or thinking, I went back to a prayer I found on a blog called prayerandverse. “Litany of Contradictory Things” is based on a prayer by the same name by Michael Moynahan, SJ in the book Hearts on Fire. Here is just part of the prayer – you’ll get the idea. Wheat and weeds:let them grow…

View On WordPress

#balance #Libra #Litany of Contradictory Things #living into &039;And&039; #prayer

[smstrouse]

Explaining God in 9 Minutes

Explaining God in 9 Minutes

How would you explain your understanding of God, the Divine, Higher Power, or however you understand that which is bigger than ourselves? Are you apophatic (the so-called ‘negative’ approach, which means emptying the mind of words and ideas about God) or cataphatic (the so-called ‘positive’ approach, that uses words, images, symbols, ideas for the Divine)? Are you a theist (for whom God refers…

View On WordPress

#Christianity #Cynthia Bourgault #interfaith #intrafaith #progressive Christian #Religion #Richard Rohr #Trinity

[smstrouse]

Living into 'And' in a Divided Church

Living into ‘And’ in a Divided Church

Sometimes it’s just too hard. Or to be honest, I just don’t want to. Living into ‘and’ is difficult enough in a politically and culturally fractured world is hard enough. But when a divide opens up in the church, it feels even more painful. Of course, the split in the Methodist Church is the big news these days. But there’s a division here in my corner of Luther World. In the ELCA (Evangelical…

View On WordPress

#Christianity #church #current-events #ELCA #ELCA Churchwide Assembly #emotional self-regulation #Lutheran #Megan Rohrer #Nelson Rabell-Gonzales #Revolutionary Love #Sierra Pacific Synod #Smart Politics

[smstrouse]

Spiritual Fluidity

I was very interested when I learned that the book club of my area’s interfaith organization was reading When One Religion Isn’t Enough: the Lives of Spiritually Fluid People by Duane R. Bidwell. I hadn’t heard of this book, even though it was published in 2018. But I was intrigued because in my book, The INTRAfaith Conversation, I have a chapter entitled “New Voices.” And one of those voices is…

View On WordPress

#Billy Jonas #Christianity #dual religious practice #Duane R. Bidwell #God Is Not One #hybrid spirituality #interfaith #interreligious #intrafaith #multifaith #multiple religious belonging #multiple religious bonds #Religion #religious hybridity #religious multiplicity #spiritual fluidity #Stephen Prothero #The Intrafaith Conversation #When One Religion Isn&039;t Enough

[smstrouse]

It's Not Either/Or

It’s Not Either/Or

It’s Not Either/Or It’s Both/And

View On WordPress

#current-events #gun violence #thoughts and prayers

[smstrouse]

Teaching Civil Conversation - then Buffalo Happens

Teaching Civil Conversation – then Buffalo Happens

This past weekend, I led a retreat and preached at the Church of the Nativity in Buffalo, NY. After phone and Zoom conversations beforehand with the planning committee about what they wanted to get out of our time together, we decided the title for the weekend would be “Carrying Christ into a Divided World.” It all started with Pastor Ruth Snyder, who’s been my best friend since the days I served…

View On WordPress

#Buffalo shooting #Christianity #civil conversation #current-events #politics #progressive Christian Christianity #religion #religious left #Revolutionary Love #The INTRAfaith Conversation #Valerie Kaur

[smstrouse]

What's in a Name, Good Shepherd?

What’s in a Name, Good Shepherd?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” This familiar line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is meant to convey that the name of a thing is irrelevant. Obviously, William Shakespeare was not Jewish. In the Hebrew language, the word ‘sheim’ (name) has the same letters as the word ‘sham’ (there). This is not a coincidence. A person’s name tells…

View On WordPress

#church #church names #good shepherd #Jesus #power of names #sermon #shepherd

[smstrouse]

No Doubt: It's Quasimodo Sunday

No Doubt: It’s Quasimodo Sunday

I don’t know how true this is anymore, in our confusing Zoom/hybrid worship era, but traditionally, this Sunday is called Low Sunday. Common wisdom says that it refers to the low attendance in churches usual on this day, after the big celebration on Easter Sunday. I love the story, though, of how back in the days after he retired, the beloved previous pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran in Buffalo…

View On WordPress

#affirmation of baptism #baptism #church #confirmation #discipleship #doubt #Easter #Gospel of Thomas #Holy Spirit #Jesus #John 20:19-31 #Quasimodo Sunday #sermon #sharing the peace #thomas

[smstrouse]

How Can We Celebrate Resurrection in the Midst of War?

How Can We Celebrate Resurrection in the Midst of War?

On Easter Sunday, it’s become my tradition to read two of the four gospel accounts of the Resurrection: the original short-form version from Mark (ending at 15:8) and one of the other three gospels. This year that will be Luke. I ‘stole’ this idea from Bruce Epperly, author of The Adventurous Lectionary blog, where he says: The gospel accounts present two different perspectives on the…

View On WordPress

#church #Easter #Jesus #pysanky #resurrection #sermon #Ukraine #Valerie Kaur

[smstrouse]

Join the Maundy Thursday Revolution

Join the Maundy Thursday Revolution

Did you know that tonight you are part of a revolution? It might not seem like it. Maundy Thursday has become a rather quiet part of Holy Week. It doesn’t have the festivity of Palm Sunday, the drama of Good Friday, or the exuberance of Easter. But, in light of current events in the world, consider this blurb from a book called The Holy Thursday Revolution. It came out in 2005, but seems even…

View On WordPress

#All Are Welcome #Beatrice Bruteau #Holy Communion #Holy Week #Jesus #Maundy thursday #Maundy Thursday Revolution #Reconciling in Christ