by Mathew Swora | Jan 30, 2015
One of my objectives this year (and that of our Worship Commission) is to explore three new sources of worship music, by which I mean “new” to us, personally. Gregorian chant could fit the bill, if we haven’t been exposed to it before. By circumstance, or more likely,...
by Mathew Swora | Jan 21, 2015
I have an email subscription to a daily delivery of quotations from the writings and sermons of Henry Nouwen, a priest, theologian, author and speaker. You can sign up for them too. They come pastor-recommended. Yesterday’s quote still has me in its grip and...
by Mathew Swora | Jan 14, 2015
For as far back as we have sermons and commentaries on today’s Gospel passage, there are at least two things that people have struggled with and found mysterious, even scandalous. First: Why would so many life-long, card-carrying Jews, directly descended from Abraham...
by Mathew Swora | Jan 8, 2015
…after the terrorist attack yesterday (January 7, 2015) on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, the weekly French language satirical magazine. The gunmen, who claimed to be allied with Al Quaeda of Yemen, were enforcing their vigilante version of Sharia law and avenging...
by Mathew Swora | Jan 6, 2015
The inspiration for the drama that follows came 25 years ago, when a woman slapped a perfect stranger in the face in a convenience store one day in Detroit. Becky and I and our daughters were living in that area then, when American soldiers were being sent to the...
