All posts in The Messy Table

This week, I was going to write about my current lectionary kick, but I got derailed by the cover-girls. I certainly didn’t mean to. When I first saw...

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love." Again this week, we read Jesus’ call to stay close to the Father. Then,...

When the Spouse and I got married, we received a huge pile of cards. It’s a beautiful practise, writing out blessings and giving them, tangibly, to a new...

I added a new book to my library this week, and thought I should share it. So first, I took it to church yesterday to share with the...

The road to Emmaus again. Sometimes, I think the church never leaves that road. We are forever walking away from Christ crucified and buried, only to be met...

John 20: 19-31  Jesus alive. And Jesus with his disciples. Creation could breathe again. This passage bridges a week from the first evening of the good news into the...

The week begins and we see the end of Lent. This week is the centre of our faith story, the middle of everything. Yesterday, we sang hosannas loud and...

I’m having a tricky time stepping into this week’s readings. (I've posted them at the bottom this week so you can find them there.) I'm finding that I...

This week’s readings from the Gospel of Matthew 25. Approach to Jerusalem – Matthew 20:17-34 26. The Kingdom Claimed – Matthew 21: 1-22 27. 'What right have you? - Matthew 21:23-22:14 28....

How are you? We have passed the half-way point in Matthew now. How has the reading been for you? Are you finding what you expected? And any surprises?...

“The twelve have been called both ‘disciples, mathetes, ‘learners’, and ‘apostles’, apostoloi, ‘sent-out ones’… Learning is done on the way; action and learning belong together.” Leith Fisher, But...

Monday morning and baking bread. I just got the loaves out of the pans and the house smells like home. But it was a bit of a wrestle. I...

Lent begins and, with it, an emphasis on spiritual disciplines. The big ones:  fasting, meditation, silence. And storytelling. Because reading stories is a spiritual discipline, too.  We don’t label...

This week, we get to the story that everyone wants to act out. The paralyzed man, his four visionary friends, and going through the roof. I haven’t yet...

  It happened on the way home from church yesterday. We were most of the way home, and maybe beginning to feel a little tired and grumpy. Then we...

Lent begins on February 22nd this year – close enough that we might start thinking about it and far enough away that planning is still possible. Last year,...

Society is really good at making us worry. And stressed and depressed and all-over anxious. And, of course, by society I mean all of us. Because we participate in,...

    Sometimes lectionary floors me. The juxtaposition of passages can be brilliant or bizarre – and when I saw what was slotted for this coming week, I had to...

I’ve been getting a lot of donations recently from the congregation – crafty things for the Sunday School. Each Sunday, I seem to come home with more plastic...