There may be two sides of the coin of paying attention that are worth thinking about here. The first is that it’s how we become aware of God working in our lives. The second is that it becomes a form of worship.

What the author of Ephesians is trying to do here is to encourage us to pay attention to our lives. Our lives are not made up just of 24 hour days. Our lives are made up of meaningful moments which last far longer than any stop watch could ever capture.

That’s the passage that Brenna Rubio read to start the service at the beach yesterday. Then she had us do a simple exercise in embodiment. She invited us to take a few deep breaths, breathing in to the word ‘peace’ and breathing out to the word ‘blessing.’

Sharon Irving’s spoken word is a powerful prayer of peace and an experience of intimacy with God.

In the story of the woman caught in adultery the men caught in hypocrisy, Jesus handles the Old Testament prescription of violence with a radical new twist.

Today we want to think more on these sorts of questions. If this awkward book that makes us question and think actually contains the Word of God, can we trust that God will help us find truth as we listen to it?

On Sunday we had some lively interaction around this passage where God commands Moses to kill off a bunch of people. What a doozy.

When Moses went up on Mount Sinai to meet with God, the people of Israel got tempted back into idolatry. Perhaps there’s a way we can look at the story of the Golden Calf with a gentler appreciation for their stumbling.

As we head into the weekend, after a week of reflecting on the role of law and the primacy of love, it seemed appropriate to listen in to some old saints on these things.

Paul writes to his friends in what is modern day Turkey (called Galatia in the first century) about the freedom that we have in Christ.

Sometimes Jesus says things that are so extreme that it’s hard to know what to do with them. So today we’re going to reflect on how this could actually be good news.

One day, an impatient Gentile asked Hillel to explain the entire Torah while standing on one foot.  Hillel’s response was brilliant.

Yesterday we spent time thinking about the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. And we looked ahead to these somewhat awkward lines in the book of Hebrews that comment specifically about following the law.

As we’ve thought about the question this week, “Who speaks for God?” it might be good to end with some simple reminders.

Jesus had a strange habit of lifting up children as the kind of people we should imitate. And he thought that a pagan Roman centurion had more faith than anyone in the nation of Israel.

Often we think of religious leaders as speaking for God. Often we look for their approval or ask them for advice. And so many times they’ve given it (sometimes without us asking!).

Being part of God’s covenant family gives a sense of groundedness, stability and love. And it’s free.

God spoke this promise to the people of Israel: they would be special. As priests, they would play a role in blessing the whole world. This was the corporate fulfillment of what God had spoken to Abraham generations before: “All peoples on earth will be blessed by you” (Yahweh to Abraham in Genesis 12:3). This promise complicated because it can be both dangerous and excellent.

Three reflections on lament today. See what strikes you.

In order to stay present to the Spirit, sometimes it’s helpful to look at things with a fresh perspective. Consider that ancient Hebrew had no punctuation marks. The means the phrases of this poem could be combined in slightly different ways.