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This week’s lectionary texts all revolve around death -- and the rebirth and regeneration that can follow after the seeming finality of death. The main reason that these passages occur on this Sunday, of course, is because in many respects they foreshadow Jesus’ death and resurrection. But as team member Chris Keating notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, they also offer a way to address the human tragedy that has dominated the headlines for the past few weeks -- the ongoing drama of just what happened to the missing Malaysian airliner.
UPCOMING WEEKS In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Mark Ellingsen Frank Ramirez Bill Thomas Bonnie Bates
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 In the mid-1990’s, Wendy’s restaurants had a promotion win which they would “biggie size” your drink, your meal, almost everything but the Frosty! Wendy’s decided to discontinue this promotion after getting some criticism from those who claim the fast-food industry was contributing to the nation’s obesity problem.
Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men. Let us worship him today with dignity and love, remembering that he was once a child just as we have all been children.
Each of us faces the choice of who and what we will become. Sometimes, we don't really know what we want to be when we grow up until we are forty-something. Our earliest models for making that choice are the people who raise and nurture us. Although we identify with the adults whom we admire most, each of us is unique and intended to become "our own person."
Tradition is defined as an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought or action. Take for instance a cooking method. Sarah asked her mother, "Why do you always cut the turkey in half and put it in two small roasters?"
"Because my mother always did. It's a tradition handed down through our family," responded her mother.
"But Mom, did you ever think they didn't have big roasters back then?" Tradition -- a customary pattern or action. But who said traditions can't be changed?
In his book What's So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey tells of a conversation he once had with two scientists who had just emerged from the biosphere near Tucson, Arizona.1 For those of you who aren't familiar with what that is -- several years ago, an isolation experiment was conducted, in which a team of four men and four women lived inside a glass-enclosed structure, entirely shut off from the outer world. The general idea was to see if humankind might one day be able to exist on another planet by recreating a portion of the earth.
