Ingredients for Worship

  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19

    Though I didn’t do anything with the text last week, I’m still thinking about the question Kathryn Matthews posed in her weekly musings in the United Church of Christ’s Sermon Seeds about the grieving parents in the Passover story. How… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19
  • Pandemic Prayers for Labor Sunday

    This weekend celebrates the end of summer. It is one of those American holidays that is celebrated with backyard BBQs and family gatherings before school starts (or at least that was my norm as a child in the Northeast) without… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Labor Sunday
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 17

    In the past week, my clergy groups have been full of posts and comments about how tired you are. Not just because you’re working so hard, dear clergy, or even because you need a vacation. Though, I imagine, those add… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 17
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 16

    That pressing question that Jesus asks of his followers just didn’t grab me when I first read it this week. It didn’t hit the nerve that it usually did perhaps because I need a Messiah to be vivid and real… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 16
  • Backpack Blessings in Coronatide

    In my first attempt at brainstorming for worship planning in the pandemic, I wondered how many blessings there might be as the school year begins. I wondered if there will not only be the usual backpack blessings but also blessings… Continue reading

    Backpack Blessings in Coronatide
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 15

    My baby girl took her first unbalanced steps to the dinner table on Sunday night while my toddler has been working hard on her ABCs. She’s curious about these strange shapes. She wants to identify them and has even started… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 15
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 14

    This gorgeous reflection on 1 Kings 19:9-18 by Richard W. Swanson has got me thinking about silence. Silence feels all consuming right now. There is so much of it. Or, at least, there is for me. Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 14
  • Pandemic Worship Planning Ahead

    I’ve peppered my little internet home with Ingredients for Worship during this strange season of life and liturgy. Most of these posts have landed midweek when I remember to do so because I suddenly realize what day it is. That’s… Continue reading

    Pandemic Worship Planning Ahead
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 13

    I’m finding it hard to enter the power of the miracle in Matthew’s Feeding of the Five Thousand. I feel myself withdraw and not in the prayerful and restorative manner that we imagine Jesus does in that thirteenth verse. Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 13
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 12

    It has been over a month since I shared these pandemic prayers. I got swallowed up by the logistics surrounding our move across Texas. Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 12