Wakefulness

Hello partners- It’s back to the news and the news is kind of hard these days.  Like many folks, I’m working to strike a balance between avoidance (or one could say head completely in the sand) and engagement that leaves me feeling committed to the work before us and not helpless or overwhelmed.  It’s not…

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Anointing with Oil

Hello Travelers- Greetings from my Thursday night newsletter on Saturday night!  I began piecing this together Thursday evening still feeling jostled and unsettled by the debate, only to wake up Friday to even more surprising news.  Perhaps the one thing on which we can all agree is that last week was not what we expected. …

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Consider: Nourishment

Oh friends!  So much change is loose in the world, and it’s been too long since we last wrote.  The effect of this change, and how it feels to each of us in our individual lives on any given day, is rife with both difference and similarity.  I’ve taken heart in some of our recent…

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Universal Needs In Time of COVID-19 : Connection

Sopphey Vance is an MDiv student at Austin Seminary. Throughout this year he will be writing some of his reflections about universal human needs. Preface In the narration of the creation story in chapter two of Genesis, the Lord God says that “it is not good that the man should be alone;”. [1] While, the…

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A Scattering Journey

Hello fellow travelers! What a journey we are on.  It’s almost Friday, and the night sky is clear and beautiful in Austin.  It’s hard to believe that the same natural world renders things like hurricanes, or a deadly virus, into being. As the fall approaches, I feel and observe the accumulated fatigue in my own…

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We’re baaaaaaaaaack!

Dear 787 Friends, On this last day of July, I’m happy to say we’re slowly getting back in the groove of our newsletter as we all make the turn toward August and whatever the fall holds.  To this end, it would mean a lot to us if you would take a hot minute or two…

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Considering our Brokenness

Hello fellow travelers- What a time to be together, traveling forward towards what we hope will be a changed and more just world.  So much is afoot it’s hard to keep up, and know what to share, as the rate of change is rapid and our place on the curve always moving.  As the world…

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The Healing after a Riot

A short biblical reflection on Matthew 21: 12-17  During these times of injustice and unrest, I have found the cleansing of the temple as a rich story with a lot of imagery for our chaotic times. It begins with nothing short of what you could call Jesus causing a riot against people who performed a…

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A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

Dear friends- The original material I had planned for this week’s blog just doesn’t seem to fit anymore.  So much has changed since last week.  So much is afoot and, literally, ablaze in our world.  So I’ll leave those ideas for another week.  Here are some thoughts: Contemplation in and for SolidarityWe’ve discussed Lectio Divina in these…

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From Around the Web

Dear Ones, Even as we hit a giant marker nationally in the number of known COVID-related deaths, our local officials in Austin, where COVID has disproportionately impacted the Latino community, warn that for many of us the virus seems “not yet real.”  It’s hard to wrap my head around both realities, though in the world of this…

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