A Sermon at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN, August 11, 2013.
Sermon on Faith and Economics
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When help doesn’t come
“If you believe in GOD’s powers and you ask for help and he doesn’t help you right away, it means he believes in you!
It only takes 20 seconds of insane courage to do the impossible.”
– Ruth J., 9 yrs. old.
After worship at Shepherd of the Hill in Chaska, Ruth and Lily hand me their reflections on the sermon – either in words or in drawings and symbols printed on the backs of yellow visitor/prayer request cards. Their insights blow me away. I look at their cards and ask myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Ruth is a young Paul Tillich:
“Faith is the courage to be. Courage can show us what being is, and being can show us what courage is.” – Terry Lectures delivered at Yale University, The Courage To Be, Yale University Press, 1952.
Jazz – the language of love and awe
“Who is your favorite jazz pianist?”
“Bill Evans,” came the quick reply from Ted Godbout, the jazz pianist who came to us out of the blue as a candidate for the music position at the little church in Chaska, MN where jazz is the language of love and awe.
In the news Michael Jordan is defending himself against a young man’s claim that he is Air Jordan’s “love child” who deserves more of Michael’s time. Listening to Ted Godbout at his audition, I wondered….
We sent Ted’s DNA to the lab for testing :-). He’s that good. And only 29! Ted leads the music at Shepherd of the Hill for the first this Sunday, March 10.
Extracts from the Visitors page of the church website speak of the language of jazz.
Imagine a place…
a church, actually, your church,……
where it is a safe place to land, for a bit of time
while you marvel….
and wonder, and revel in
love…..
and justice…..
and mercy….
where the questions get clearer and
better questions replace them….
where your heart burns to return
Again and again……
where jazz is the language of love……
and love, the language of
Awe…….
where God is a three letter word again….
spoken to soothe your tired feet…
On your journey of becoming
more of who Love intended you to be,
(since you have heard it said, “fear not….”)
Sermon on the Sane Man
This sermon was recorded Sunday, Feb. 17. It was delivered to the congregation of Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska where we had concluded regretfully that a second scheduled community program on gun violence in America would not serve the purposes of constructive dialogue.
Two texts interact in this sermon. The first is the traditional First Sunday of Lent account of the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. While two later Gospels, Matthew and Luke, tell the story of three temptations in the wilderness, the earlier Gospel of Mark describes the entire wilderness temptation with one curious phrase: “he was with the wild beasts.” The second text (Mark 5:1-20) is the encounter of “Jesus, the Son of the Most High God” with the insane man living alone among the tombs, “possessed” by the “Legion” (a Latin word in a Greek text, the word for a unit of the Roman occupation forces). The story ends with the man who had been possessed/occupied by the Legion “sitting there, clothed and in his right mind” to everyone astonishment.
Police Chief spokesman for gun control
“Small Town’s Big Voice on Gun Control” appeared this morning in the Star Tribune.
Click HERE to read the story on Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight, including information about last Tuesday’s First Tuesday Dialogues event on “Gun Violence in America” at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church here in Chaska. Here’s a photo of Chief Knight and Carver County Sheriff Jim OIson from last Tuesday’s Dialogue.
Scott night (L) with Sheriff Olson
MEET THE ARTIST: Koffi Mbairamadji
“Abraham’s Sons” – Koffi Mbairamadji
Friday evening, January 11 from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.
Drop by the wine and cheese reception for African artist Koffi Mbairamadji from Chad.
Click HERE for Georgetown University’s Center for Liturgy article on the artist.
The exhibit will be on display at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN in preparation for the Martin Luther King Day Celebration, January 21, 2013 at 7:00 P.M. in the Chapel of Shepherd of the Hill.
All are welcome.
The River of Blessing
The World through a Poet’s Eyes
Join with Plato Oct. 23: “Poetry is closer to vital truth than history” … or a political campaign.
An evening with Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen
MN Poet Laureat Joyce Sutphen
Joyce Sutphen’s first collection of poems, Straight Out of View, won the Barnard New Women Poets Prize; Coming Back to the Body was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award, and Naming the Stars won a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. In 2005, Red Dragonfly Press published Fourteen Sonnets in a letterpress edition. She is one of the co-editors of To Sing Along the Way, an award-winning anthology of Minnesota women poets. She is also a Renaissance scholar and has published essays on Shakespeare’s Sonnets. She grew up on a farm in Stearns County, Minnesota, and she teaches literature and creative writing at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Her latest collection, First Words, is a “memoir in poems,” and was published in 2010. She is the second Minnesota Poet Laureate, succeeding Robert Bly. Joyce will read and discuss her own poetry and works of other poets:
- Wislawa Syzmborska,
- W.S. Merwin,
- Charles Simic,
- Mary Oliver, and
- Nazim Hizkmet.
“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history” – Plato. Take a break from the campaign season to look through the eyes of a poet.
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church, 145 Engler Blvd., Chaska, MN 55318.
*First Tuesday Dialogues: examining critical public issues locally and globally” is a community program for the common good, re-creating the public square in the southwest Twin Cities metro area.
www.shepherdofthehillchurch.com
“A place for the Mind and Heart”
What is your name?
A sermon from Shepherd of the Hill in Chaska…with a humorous wrinkle.
Click “What is your name?” to sit on the re-telling of the New Testament story of the man who was “occupied” by the Legion, living among the tombs. “My name is ‘Legion’,” he said, “for we are many” (Gospel of Mark 5:1-20).
Church to become home for homeless families
Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska has decided to use its space as temporary overnight accommodation for homeless families. The press release and the Chaska Herald’s online story just made its way to AOL.com.
Click HERE for the story. The project is targeting to begin in February, 2013. To help with the project, leave a comment here.
Views from the Edge 