“are met in Thee tonight.” Our Christmas Eve preparations are almost complete. Our sanctuary will be filled with our hopes and fears, our peace and hope and joy and love. Incredible music and a faith-full Word and a welcoming Table. Lighting candles (anyway!), we’ll worship in the reality of this Day. The reality that “Jesus…
I am meditating on the love alive in this place due to the grace of Jesus Christ. I am meditating on the holy days unfolding, all of our respective burdens and the need for comfort and courage (the gifts of the Christ Child we’ve been remembering this season). I am savoring the “deeper joy” of…
That provocative quote has been circling around my heart and mind this week, including in conversations on true vs false peace (with Laurel and Sarah in Revelation book study) and worship planning on “comfort” of peace for this Sunday (with Linda and Laurel). Attributed to an early 20th-century journalist, Dunne, in his columns of Peter…
“God with us” in the mess. This season we will focus on the comfort and courage found in the presence of the Christ child. We focus in Advent on this presence by remembering the Biblical name for him – Emmanuel. This season we’ll remember and practice the gifts of comfort and courage through Advent’s weeks of…
Dear Eden Family and Friends, I write tonight to express my care for you and for all of our extended family and community as we process last night’s election of Donald J. Trump to be our 47th President. On Sunday I opened our “Joys and Concerns” time with this excerpt from Carrie Newcomer, a wonderful…
Between this Echo and our subsequent Annual Holiday Letter, we will experience our November elections. I urge you to take your duty to vote seriously. Be radically and holistically informed on the issues and steeped in prayer. In this divided time there are many attempts to ignite fear, indulge in grievances and create enmity. So,…
Many weeks ago I committed that we’d join others across the nation in a dedicated opportunity to acknowledge and pray for First Responders on this Sunday. It’s part of what’s become “Faith and Blue” Weekend across the country. We’ll include some special prayer time and name some of our members and others in our spiritual…
I come to this mantra and ponder for hours at a time frequently. It’s a lovely morsel of devotion and faith I caught from Dorothy Dahmer (Daryl’s mom, Fritzi’s sister) in the spring of 2017. In her last weeks with us I heard her say it so often. It perfect captures what I believe is ALWAYS…
Headed back to Chicago, with this on my mind and heart. Let there be light. It echoes from Genesis 1, and begs me believe that a Loving Creator is creating light still. It reminds of a glorious word spoken often by President Obama — a call for there to be “more light than heat.” Or,…
“Do you have a helpful word for the messed up world?” I randomly ask my coffee baristas this question, especially when I’m thinking about what I and you might need to hear:) Daryl at a local coffee shop says “Stay positive. Stay engaged. Stay local. Stay focused at whatever level does not make you insane.”…
