Elijah’s successor Elisha boldly asked for a double share of Elijah’s spirit shortly before Elijah ascended into heaven. God grants bold requests even today, as shown during VBS and our new Hands & Feet program for upper elementary students last week.

Hear the story of Elijah and his escape into the wilderness.  He is done, exhausted and afraid since his life is being threatened.  An angel provides nourishment for the 40 days of travel.  He finally holes up in a cave.  God reaches out to him and passes before him asking Elijah, “What are you doing here?”  Are you tired, overworked, underappreciated, and burning the candle at both ends?  God comes to Elijah, not in the wind or in fire, but in sheer silence. Listen and hear how God nourishes us, how we are restored after a hard week, and given life through the one who is the Bread of Life.  Listen – perhaps God is speaking to you asking you to re-evaluate your life as he asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?”

We continue our series on Prophet Margins. Hear the story of Naboth and his garden. Learn about the cost of wanting more and more, and God’s response to this desire. Be reminded of the contentment that comes when we focus on all we receive from God.

In the readings for this day, God is busy feeding people in a famine from jars of meal and oil that never give out. God is busy bringing life to the dead through Elijah and Jesus. The miracles are amazing. But miracles can distract us from the message. Miracles tell us about God. They reveal answers to questions we ask about God’s will and ways. Does God love all people or just Christians? Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? The miracles today give us a glimpse into the God who will not be bound by our rules and boundaries.

You are invited to ponder as the Psalmist did when writing Psalm 8, the grandeur of God.  We may feel small and insignificant in comparison to the vastness of all creation, yet God has made us a little lower than God.  God has given us a vocation making clear his trust in us.  Listen and ponder the abundant love and grandeur of the God who claims us.

The story of Pentecost begins long before Pentecost. In the beginning, the divine love of the Trinity gathered together out of chaos all the fragments of creation – quarks and strings; light and energy; bits and pieces of nothing – and made it into something; made it into life itself. The story of humanity is one long string of ways in which we divide, categorize, separate and fragment what God put together. On Pentecost, the power of the Spirit swept into motion erasing the boundaries of language and then every subsequent dividing line to put things back together and erase our fear. ALL who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (reconciled, forgiven, reunited and put back together). And that means ALL. No more fragments. No more fear.

A slave girl turns out to be free while her slave owners are really bound. Prisoners end up free while the jailer is the one needing freedom. The stories in Acts 16 redefine freedom and salvation. We live in the land of the free, but few of us are really free if we are honest. Liberty and the “pursuit of happiness” inevitably bind us to things and debt. The question is: Are we free to love, serve, give to, or forgive others as we are led by Jesus? If not, we are not truly free.

Jesus promises that the God, through the power of the Spirit,

What makes the Christian faith community distinct from any other