Category: Eucharist

Protest of Praise: 50 Hymn Texts

At a time when there is much to lament and confess—the idolatry of wealth and status, the atrocities of warfare and mass shootings, the devastating effects of climate change, the exclusion of beloved children of God—the church’s song is an act of resistance against evil, a sign of solidarity with the oppressed, an affirmation of faith in God’s future. This idea inspires the title and infuses the contents of David Bjorlin’s hymn collection, Protest of Praise.

Inviting God to Dinner: Tips for Families

56.3, Eucharist, Idea

Connecting your family meals more intentionally to your faith can be as simple as lighting a candle or as involved as a mini-Bible study. Check out these tips for making sure God stays at your table beyond the Amen.

An Invitation to the Table

56.3, Eucharist, Idea, Liturgy

Spoken from the table in Anderson Auditorium at Wednesday’s worship service, Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship & Music Conference, 2022.

On the Arts: Community

56.3, Column, Eucharist, The Arts

To begin to explore the visual arts in relationship to the Eucharist for this column I again turned to Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, the summary report of the World Council of Churches in its effort to work toward church unity, published in 1982. This was also the year I began my own full-time service in the church.

On Preaching – 56.3

56.3, Column, Eucharist, Preaching

I preach every Sunday, but somehow on the first Sunday of the month, preaching takes a back seat to the proclamation that is the Eucharist. Yes, the Eucharist is a response to the Word, but the Eucharist reshapes the service, pulling itself to the center, even though it takes place nearly at the end. I have always had a sense that the saints who have gone before us come to partake with us at the table.

On Music: Singing Our Way to the Table

56.3, Column, Eucharist, Music

In my household, everyone has a different opinion about how best to set the table for a meal with special guests. Should we use our everyday plates, showing an authentic (and perhaps more intimate) side of ourselves? Or should we use our special occasion plates to honor our guests? Should we use our clean, formal tablecloth or the much-loved and much-stained tablecloth? Should we decorate with store-bought flower arrangements or collect wildflowers from our yard and make hand-crafted art for the table?

On Liturgy: Improvisatory Hope

56.3, Column, Eucharist, Liturgy

This past July, I accompanied a group of twenty high school youth and seven other adult leaders on a service trip to Breathitt County, Kentucky, where we spent a week of learning and service alongside the good folks at Appalachia Service Project. We worked together all week to contribute to ASP’s home repair projects, and we learned about the culture and history of a region vastly different from our own urban midwestern context.

Total Re-call

56.3, Eucharist, Preaching, Sermon

It doesn’t seem that Peter is handling the aftershocks of Easter particularly well. It is never a good sign to be found naked in a boat. Your reaction may be like mine—this is risky content for the Bible, and this is not even the first story in the Good Friday/Easter narrative to mention someone without clothes! In Mark’s Good Friday account there is a “certain young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth” who, while fleeing the Gethsemane garden, “left the linen cloth and ran off naked.”

That Night and the Twelve

56.3, Eucharist, Preaching, Sermon

Jesus knew exactly who was going to betray him. Yet he acted out of love to provide a foot washing for each of the disciples. In a sense, Jesus knows that we are going to be tempted to betray God in our words, actions, and deeds, and yet God acts out of love to provide for us a cleansing, called baptism. Remember your baptism.