Words for change
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Words for change

Change.Are you excited or frightened? Is it a command, a request, a statement? Do you see it as external or internal? In the changing of the year, we reflect on change “for auld lang syne.” Time, by definition, changes, and studies suggest the pace of change is increasing. There is economic change, social change, political…

Imaging God
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Imaging God

Picture God. We might have a mental picture, but the commandment against graven images tells us not to limit God with our pictures. The Scriptures are full of metaphors to help us relate to God: Father, King, Lord, Shepherd, Rock. When theologians describe God, they often use negatives. God is independent, immutable, infinite, indivisible, and…

The art of questions
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The art of questions

Art Linkletter asked children questions. He concluded “kids say the darndest things.” Do we ask enough questions? Questions play different roles. Questions investigate, inquire, interrogate. Questions expose need, attitudes, understanding, misunderstanding, interpretation and inconsistencies. Questions can challenge, express frustration or curiosity, create agreement, or show disagreement. Questions create interaction, discussion, relationships. Good questions invite. Do…

Patterns

Patterns

“Time keeps on slipping . . . into the future” (“Fly Like an Eagle,” Steve Miller Band, 1976). Have we lost a year? The pandemic has disturbed our patterns and sense of time. Immanuel Kant argued that the human mind imposes structures of time and space. The Biblical creation account depicts time and space as…

Lectio Divina
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Lectio Divina

The elder googled it, thought it sounded like a new age mystical practice and suggested I not choose the topic of lectio divina for their adult education. That response was reason enough, so I introduced them to this way of reading Scripture, which the church has practiced for 1500 years with the encouragement of monks,…

Why?
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Why?

I imagine setting up a table in the student union with a sign that just asks “Why?” Part of the mission of Geneva Campus Ministry at the University of Iowa is to help students explore this question. The university gives the students knowledge and helps them develop skills but often ignores the fundamental question of…

Come hungry
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Come hungry

We’re all hungry. Some are hungry for literal food. We might be hungry for the social engagement of eating together. COVID has prompted hunger for many aspects of life. We hunger for communion – with people and with God. God promises a banquet. In my high school we had Junior/Senior Banquets, not proms. We could…

The resting place
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The resting place

Rabbis point out that creation’s seventh day had no end, no “evening and morning.” It is the context for life, the whole story to come. Key words in Biblical passages help us make connections. The parallel words and days in Genesis 1 show the construction and populating of God’s creation temple. We miss out because…