"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

 


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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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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 d...
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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 Kenda...
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