Weird, Out of Touch, Merciless, and Absolutely Essential
The church is dead. Long live the church?
Read this article at this link Weird, Out-of-Touch, Merciless … and Absolutely Essential - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
"Weird, Out of Touch, Merciless, and Absolutely Essential"
On first glance, these words may seem like harsh criticisms of the Church. However, a deeper examination reveals that these traits are not only accurate, but are also virtues that make the Church essential to our lives.
How to Win a Rap Battle (With the Devil)
When the Devil Throws Your Sins in Your Face
When the Devil Throws Your Sins in Your Face
Read the whole article at How to Win a Rap Battle (With the Devil) - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
There’s a famous scene at the end of 8 Mile, the early 2000s hip-hop drama based on the backstory of Eminem. In a crowded basement, two rival rappers, Papa Doc and Rabbit (played by Eminem), face off in a freestyle contest, both of them trying to tear down the other’s ego in a battle of wits. The key is to reveal the other’s weaknesses. Any material that could be used to discred
We Need Less Goliath and More Bathsheba
I became like God’s child David, whom the Lord pardoned of his adultery and murder. I became like Noah, Abraham, Judah, Aaron, Gideon, and so many more wayward children.
I became like God’s child David, whom the Lord pardoned of his adultery and murder. I became like Noah, Abraham, Judah, Aaron, Gideon, and so many more wayward children.
Read the whole article at https://www.1517.org/articles/we-need-less-goliath-and-more-bathsheba-1
hen I was a kid, I roamed the alleys and nearby fields with a pocket full of pebbles and a slingshot in hand. My grandfather had carved me the slingshot from the fork of a mesquite tree. I’d even burned my name into the wood using the sun and a magnifying glass.
As you might expect, my favorite Sunday School story was David and Goliath. In my make-believe world, I was that boy from Bethlehem, and sparrows the Philistine giants. It felt good to be the hero who takes down the foe. I was but a boy. I was new to the world. I loved Bible stories about saints who co………………………………….
The Beautiful Irony Of The Cross
When God Was Numbered With the Transgressors
When God Was Numbered With the Transgressors
Read the whole article at The Beautiful Irony of the Cross - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
In any of the crucifixion narratives in the Gospels, the character that intrigues me most is Pontius Pilate. In many ways, he’s often cast as the villain of the story. He’s the Claude Frollo in this classic tale, with the quiet, unassuming Jesus, of course, standing as our consummate hero. But when you examine Pilate’s activity within the accounts of Jesus’s execution, he’s far more of a complicated figure than we like to remember. Especially according………………………
Crab Racing! April 23'
The Racing Crabs are Coming! May 28th 23’
The racing Craps are coming to Grace May 28th 2023
The Light has Come To Stay
The resurrection rips through all of my intellectual questions.
Read whole article at The Light Has Come to Stay - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
This reflection originally appeared in Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2.
“But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:17-18)
There is a local legend of a preacher in Jackson, Mississippi. He stood up to offer a word on Easter Sunday, simply leaned into the mic and said, “It’s all true,” then sat down. I have heard people tell this story two ways. Some people talk about that minister like he was a lazy so-and-so with little regard for the pageantry of Easter. Such a day demands a well thought-out sermon befitting the hats, lilies, and plastic eggs! And then there are the people…………..
Rise & Fall - Saul and David in Samuel (Teaching Series)
In a world where chaos has reigned, the people cry for the rule of a king, a king who will raise them into a bigger and brighter existence. However, as pride and the desire for power rise, so, too, come the falls.
In a world where chaos has reigned, the people cry for the rule of a king, a king who will raise them into a bigger and brighter existence. However, as pride and the desire for power rise, so, too, come the falls.
Reading Plan
The readings for Sunday
4/16/23
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Romans 9:1-5
Mark 13:1-8
4/23/23
1 Samuel 5:1-12
Romans 9:6-15
Luke 18:35-43
4/30/23
1 Samuel 8:19-22, 9:15-21
Romans 9:16-24
Matthew 21:6-11
5/7/23
1 Samuel 13:8-15
Romans 9:24-29
Matthew 23:13-17
5/14/23
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Romans 9:30 - 10:4
Matthew 18:1-5
5/21/23
1 Samuel 24:1-12
Romans 10:5-13
Luke 6:32-36
5/28/23
2 Samuel 1:1-6
Romans 10:14-21
Matthew 14:13-21
6/4/23
2 Samuel 7:8-16
Romans 11:1-10
Matthew 22:41-46
6/11/23
2 Samuel 12;1-13
Romans 11:17-24
Matthew 20:29-34
6/18/23
2 Samuel 18:31-19:2
Romans 11:25-36
Matthew 24:1-8
6/25/23
2 Samuel 24:10-17
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 24:36-42
![[Sunday] Grief - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1686834314419-MWSO75K85R6ZTSH6GEP6/R%26F10a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Bathsheba- Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1686320525961-SEJ40E4CQS8HCO3U523K/R%26F9a.jpg)
![[Sunday] House - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1685664450071-S7IZYOOLH9QR917HR6K1/R%26F8a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Future - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1685052434626-73KV9KG1818C0GGGHUCV/R%26F7a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Projection - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1684454086617-K5FFBWTSMHE2SCYW7AKP/R%26F6a.jpg)
![[Sunday] David & Goliath - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1683820778726-WFX3YS6PSAAD9G3Y5GZP/R%26F5a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Fickle King - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1683248946896-A2ANLKFVMK3GZUFR2ZH1/R%26F4a.jpg)
![[Sunday] We Want a King - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1682700535005-5MM2PLA1M9G3CWUIFGZR/R%26F3a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Pattern of Eli - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1681912627792-V7VCDGRLRH33HCDDYSGN/R%26F2a.jpg)
![[Sunday] Hannah's Pattern - Rise & Fall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1681478390671-978SXY58VLMTNRU7ERUD/R%26F1a.jpg)
Seder Meal Photos 23'
We had a great time remembering the Last Supper. The Passover meal of Freedom.
Thanks to all that hosted and came to the Seder meal.
The Transfiguration in the Garden of Gethsemane
In the garden, Jesus is confronted by two opposing wills that act in a hideous union.
Read the whole article at The Transfiguration in the Garden of Gethsemane - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
Every year during Passover week, Jerusalem would be filled with approximately 200,000 Jewish pilgrims. Nearly all of them, like Jesus and his friends and family, would’ve been poor. Throughout that holy week, these hundreds of thousands of pilgrims would gather at table and temple and they would remember. They would remember how they’d once suffered bondage under another empire, and how God had heard their outrage and sent someone to save them.
They would remember how God had promised them, “I will be your God and you will be my People.” Always.
They would remember how with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm God had delivered them from a Caesar called Pharaoh. Passover was a political powder keg, so every year Pontius Pilate would do his damnedest to keep Passover in the past tense. At the beginning of Passover week, Pilate would journey from his seaport home in the west to Jerusalem, escorted by a military triumph, a shock-and-awe storm-trooping parade of horses and chariots and troops armed to the teeth and prisoners bound hand and foot. All of it led by imperial banners that dared as much as declared “Caesar is Lord.”
So when Jesus, at the………………………..
Spring Clean up Day at Grace
Thanks for the Deep Clean!
Big Thanks to all that came and cleaned.
Big Thanks to our friends at the Korean Church!
The Calm Before The Storm
Jesus enters with all the pomp of a future King and departs as the butt of the joke.
Jesus enters with all the pomp of a future King and departs as the butt of the joke.
Read the whole article at The Calm Before the Storm - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
What experiences do you have on your bucket list? You know, that list we humans make of those things that we want to do before we die — whether it’s skydiving, seeing that band we’ve always loved (I see you U2), stepping our foot in Fenway Park, traveling abroad, or visiting all 50 states. This next Tuesday I am checking off the bucket-list item at the top of my list. I’m going to the grandest cathedral in American sport, Augusta National, and the Masters tournament. I joked with my Dad on Sunday night when I called to share the good news that there’s the beautiful experience of “telling your dad you’re having a child,” and just a sliver under that it is“telling your dad you’re going to the Masters.”…………….
Week 5 Vanishing Grace Together Groups
Holy Subversives
Together Group Video Week 5
Discussion Guide | Week 5
![Grace Hello, Welcoming New Members to Grace [Photos]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1677256986267-XJMFJGCSL9HHR3PQX0Y1/PXL_20230219_142746481.jpg)
Grace Hello, Welcoming New Members to Grace [Photos]
Inviting 16 new Members!
Great New Member Sunday at Grace. We invited 16 new people.
Tempted By an Unexpected Evil
The Trials of Job, Jesus, and Us
Read the entire article at Tempted by an Unexpected Evil - Mockingbird (mbird.com)
Along time ago in a heavenly court far, far away, God made a cosmic wager with the Devil. God was boasting to the Devil of the faithfulness of his servant Job, who was blameless, upright, and turned away from evil. The Devil was unimpressed, believing Job was faithful because God protected him and blessed him with everything he could ever want. The Devil seemed to have found such an arrangement unsatisfactory, believing t…………………….
The story of David follows those patterns of the kingdom of God. From Hannah’s pattern of humbleness to Eli’s pattern of pride leading to a fall. But David's fall at the end of Samuel cries out into the future giving us eyes to see the pattern again in the true and better David.