Text: Mark 13:1-8 Blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted Blessed are the peacemakers For they shall be called the children of God Blessed are which are beaten […]

Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-9   Aino Anne (Annie) Kallio, 102, of Raleigh died Sunday at Elmcroft of Northridge, where she was a long time resident. Aino was born in Finland and had lived in the United States most of her life.  She was a retired nurse with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A service will be held in the mausoleum […]

Text: Mark 10:46-52 It’s all about freedom! The story about Bartimaeus, I mean. He won’t shut up. Even though people tell him to he keeps shouting out, some say crying out, “Mercy, Jesus, have mercy on me.” People scolded him, tried to hush him up. But defiant or determined, Bartimaeus keeps shouting: “Mercy, Jesus, have […]

Children’s Sabbath Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 Ours is the task, now is the time, to write the vision and make it plain: every child matters. Every child matters is the vision, but what’s the reality? In the United States, child poverty traps one in five children—one in two Black babies and one in three Hispanic babies. […]

Text: Job 1:1, 2:1-10 The book of Job raises some of the most perplexing theological questions in the Bible. Possibly the most obvious is: “Why do good, blameless and upright people suffer?” Stated even more directly: “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” The book of Job also brings clearly into […]

Text: Mark 9:30-37   Fears have a way of sneaking into our very being and depriving us of truly living. In fact, some of my worst actions and decisions in life have been motivated by fear. Such an experience happened recently. Several weeks ago, I received a phone call from Nora while I was in […]