pastor || writer || speaker
I've enjoyed posting poetry series themed around the Christian year in the past couple of years (see "Poetry for Lent" and "Poetry for Easter"). I will continue that with a series called "Poetry for Ordinary Time." Ordinary time includes two sections of the church year between Christmastide and Lent and Easter and Advent. The word …
Continue reading "Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things” [Poetry for Ordinary Time]"
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Here we …
A number of people reached out to me about the exhortation and prayer for our nation that I shared in services yesterday at Eastbrook Church. I have included it below. The exhortation was a slightly abbreviated and revised form of something I posted here on my blog on Friday. The prayer portion was a combination …
Continue reading "An Exhortation and Prayer from Yesterday’s Worship Services (January 10, 2021)"
Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,to love what I ought to love,to praise what delights Thee most,to value what is precious in Thy sight,to hate what is offensive to Thee.Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of …
Continue reading "A Prayer for Stillness (with a word from Thomas à Kempis)"
As we walk through a series on unity, I was reminded of a message I gave several years ago about working through conflict in relationships. I utilized a resource developed by Ken Sande, author of The Peacemaker and Resolving Everyday Conflict, called "the slippery slope of peacemaking." I still find this to be a helpful resource, …
Matthew Erickson 