Annamarie Torpey – March 8, 2009
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room
When I was a little girl I loved going to church. Every Sunday I’d get dressed up in my fancy church dress and wear my buckle shoes and get ready to go into San Francisco to Sunday School. First, my dad would give us our allowance, a whole dollar! Of which ten cents had to go into the offertory basket. Then we’d get on BART and ride into the city. Sometimes on the bus ride we got pieces of gum to chew to keep us from squabbling, which was a real treat. When we got to church there were friends to play with and coffee hour cookies to devour. Read more…
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room
When I was a little girl I loved going to church. Every Sunday I’d get dressed up in my fancy church dress and wear my buckle shoes and get ready to go into San Francisco to Sunday School. First, my dad would give us our allowance, a whole dollar! Of which ten cents had to go into the offertory basket. Then we’d get on BART and ride into the city. Sometimes on the bus ride we got pieces of gum to chew to keep us from squabbling, which was a real treat. When we got to church there were friends to play with and coffee hour cookies to devour. Read more…
Rev. Jim Lawrence – June 14, 2009
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Being There
Hillside Community Church
June 14, 2009
Rev. Jim Lawrence
Luke 10:38-42
A stitch in time saves nine!
God helps those who help themselves.
Know where you want to go and get up and go!
Doing nothing is not an option.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Just do it!
American culture reveres doers, and lots of us are profoundly programmed to do. Doing gets you to your goals: that big checklist for success which tends to program ours days with non-stop doing. But this hallowed gospel scene of when Jesus came to the home of Martha and Mary appears to crash headlong into such logic. Read more…
Being There
Hillside Community Church
June 14, 2009
Rev. Jim Lawrence
Luke 10:38-42
A stitch in time saves nine!
God helps those who help themselves.
Know where you want to go and get up and go!
Doing nothing is not an option.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Just do it!
American culture reveres doers, and lots of us are profoundly programmed to do. Doing gets you to your goals: that big checklist for success which tends to program ours days with non-stop doing. But this hallowed gospel scene of when Jesus came to the home of Martha and Mary appears to crash headlong into such logic. Read more…
Amy Bingham Kang – June 7, 2009
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
In the past few weeks we have had heard two talks, by Kim Hinrichs and Sean Maddox, about how we can better understand the bible through a more modern, and some might say feminist, lens. So it feels appropriate to share with you today how my own spiritual journey was shaped by an important Christian woman. Read more…
In the past few weeks we have had heard two talks, by Kim Hinrichs and Sean Maddox, about how we can better understand the bible through a more modern, and some might say feminist, lens. So it feels appropriate to share with you today how my own spiritual journey was shaped by an important Christian woman. Read more…
Eileen Andrade – November 2, 2008
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
Suffer the little children to come unto me and as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Next to the 23rd Psalm these are my favorite readings from the Bible. Read more…
Suffer the little children to come unto me and as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Next to the 23rd Psalm these are my favorite readings from the Bible. Read more…
Annamarie Torpey – June 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Things Fall Apart
It is a basic fact of life. Things fall apart. THINGS—material items, situations, jobs, status, possessions, relationships—they fall apart. But there is something greater, and it lasts. You can call that greater thing what you want to, God, Allah, Enlightenment, Yahweh, Brahmin, Love, but whatever you call it, it is a universal concept of something greater, a truth that holds us together and that will go on forever. It is only when we base our lives around things, rather than this greater truth that we too will fall apart when things do.
William Butler Yeats began his poem “The Second Coming” with an image that I think presents this idea very well:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The falcon, which has lost touch with the voice of his falconer, cannot hear the directions he is being given as he begins to circle. There is nothing of substance in the center of his spiral, no tether to rein him in, nothing solid to cling to, so he continues to spin out of control until the force created by his pointless turning causes him to crash. Read more…
Things Fall Apart
It is a basic fact of life. Things fall apart. THINGS—material items, situations, jobs, status, possessions, relationships—they fall apart. But there is something greater, and it lasts. You can call that greater thing what you want to, God, Allah, Enlightenment, Yahweh, Brahmin, Love, but whatever you call it, it is a universal concept of something greater, a truth that holds us together and that will go on forever. It is only when we base our lives around things, rather than this greater truth that we too will fall apart when things do.
William Butler Yeats began his poem “The Second Coming” with an image that I think presents this idea very well:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The falcon, which has lost touch with the voice of his falconer, cannot hear the directions he is being given as he begins to circle. There is nothing of substance in the center of his spiral, no tether to rein him in, nothing solid to cling to, so he continues to spin out of control until the force created by his pointless turning causes him to crash. Read more…
