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Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening

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Mike Willock writes: At Second Church earlier this month the preaching text came from 1 Samuel 3, the call of Samuel. It’s a good story: The boy Samuel is serving in the house of the Lord under the old priest Eli at a time when the word of the Lord is rare in the land of Israel. When the lamp of God had not yet gone out, the Lord calls Samuel by name. Samuel runs to Eli, who says, “I did not call you. Go lie down.” When the call comes a third time, Eli realizes God is calling Samuel and tells Samuel to respond, “Speak, Lord . Your servant is listening.” “Speak, Lord . Your servant is listening”. Just six words, but they 1) confirm the relationship between God and Samuel, 2) affirm with conviction that God is still speaking, and 3) that Samuel is ready and willing and waiting to receive and do the word of God. As reformed Presbyterians we know that God still speaks to those who have ears to hear by the power of Holy Spirit, and that God calls us to live out God’s word in love among
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Poetry: Refreshes the Parts Other Words Cannot Reach

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It’s all poetry all the time at Second. This Sunday and the following Sunday, Ann Wilson will lead a discussion about poetry in a popular Christian Forum discussion before church that has taken place several times over the years – but each time with a different lens and a new set of poems. And if you’ve not seen it already, please take a look at Mike Willock’s beautiful reflection written in National Poetry Month about poems that he has found especially meaningful over the years, published on Second’s blog a couple of weeks ago. While “Poetry Sunday” is not something that is exists on any liturgical calendar, Second dubbed last Sunday’s story as its “Poetry Sunday” with the entirety of the service restructured to link sentiments from ancient Jewish scriptures to a huge variety of poems -   some very well known, some less so; some contemporary, some more traditional; all worth rereading beyond the service itself. The booklet can be found here . The service, coordinated by Kendal Ac
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Meditations on Mortality

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Mike Willock writes: I love poetry – I always have. In this poetry month at Second, three poems come to mind – all of them old, like me. As aches and pains come and go each day and my mobility decreases, I recall “The One Hoss Shay” (1858) by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The poem is much too long to print here, but the gist is that the Deacon built the shay for the Parson in 1755 so it wouldn’t break down. It had no weak spot – each part was just as strong as the rest. He found the strongest oak and lancewood and ash and whitewood and elm and steel and leather to build it. In 1800 it was good as new and so it stayed until November 1, 1855 when it began to show traces of age. While the Parson was on the way to the meeting house that Sunday morning working on the fifth point of his sermon text he found himself sitting on the ground behind the horse with the shay in bits and pieces all around him.  …It went to pieces all at once, All at once, and nothing first, Just as bubbles do wh
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How Then Shall We Live?

A poem by Ellie Stock , appropriate for the Easter season, Earth Day and National Poetry Month in April. The poem will be included in the liturgy at Second as part of one of the upcoming services this month.     HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?   What do we call What calls from the deeps, that pulses through stars and quickens heart’s beat, that surges through waves and cleanses with fire, emerges from dust and breathes soul’s desire? What do we name What mocks human pride, that bends the Tree of Life, sustaining being’s tide?   How do we greet What calls to our deeps, that lasers vulnerabilities and loves us into being, that mourns lost illusions and leaves us defenseless, transforms the present moment and awakens all senses? How do we embrace What eternalizes finitude, that opens wide portals, flooding tears of gratitude?   How do we know What calls us to decide, that gives no guarantee and provides no place to hide, that beckons all our care and trumps the
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"A God-bathed world"

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 A shout out to Kendal Ackerman who each week in Lent has been placing one or two framed posters of paintings by Van Gogh in the sanctuary, accompanied by devotional writing to tease out the connections between Van Gogh’s artistic vision of the world and the season of Lent. This Sunday – Easter Sunday – the culminating image was “The Raising of Lazarus.” Others images on display include “The Starry Night,” “Worn Out/At Eternity’s Gate” and “Still Life with Bible.” This quote on the leaflet to do with “The Starry Night” particularly caught my eye: “[Van Gogh’s] paintings reveal a more biblical vision of reality – one in which heaven and earth intersect to form what Dallas Willard called a ‘God-bathed world.’ We occupy a cosmos filled with God’s presence the way liquid fills a sponge.” (Quote from author and podcaster Skye Jethani) All of the write ups coordinated by Kendal can be found here .
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A Spruced Up Entrance

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  Janet Hill works to make the church inviting and beautiful.  (Photo by Mike Willock)
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Signs of Spring

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  A photo from Mike Willock with a note: “At the entrance to the Memorial Garden at the church. A lovely offering.” I’m sure by the time anyone is at church later in the week or next Sunday, there will be even more “lovely offerings.” Tim Woodcock writes: Over the weekend, we drove from St. Louis down to northern Arkansas for a short Spring Break trip. In the three-and-half-hour drive, we saw the familiar signs of early spring that you might expect – the pink blossoms of magnolia trees blossoming in Tower Grove Park and whites of Bradford pear trees, lining the many roads, both major and minor, when all the other trees appeared to be still dormant. Given the long drive and the sheer number of Bradford pears, we noticed an interesting phenomenon – given it’s so early, many trees were actually only half in bloom, prodigiously blooming on their south-facing sides, while still looking quite wintry on their north side. And an even more marked phenomenon in our springtime journey (which
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