Category: Spirituality
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To Be Leaven For the Future
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ Matthew 13:33, NRSV The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the…
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A Wonky Advent Wreath
We recently took our Advent/Christmas decorations down from the attic. The tree went up, we fought with the lights (as we always do), our two-year-old almost destroyed the ornaments, and we began the annual adventure of rediscovering what we actually have in the Advent/Christmas bins. One thing I knew that we had, however, was our…
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The Hidden Life
Those who know me know that I have been called to a new place. No longer in the Midwest, I make my home in the East, in a place also settled by the Dutch, only this place was settled over a hundred years earlier than in my home. Though, the traces of Dutch settlement lie…
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To Our Home’s New Owner
Welcome to your new home! We are so happy that you were interested and even happier that you’ll be staying a while. We are very sad to leave, perhaps it’s good for you to know that. We’re not leaving here to get away from here, but because we’ve been called elsewhere. We intended to stay…
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Blessed are the Autumn Daisies
Long after the trees have dropped their leaves, and the canopy of green becomes a jagged collection of branches reaching upward toward the disappearing sun, long after the geese have ceased honking and the birds have stopped their morning songs, long after the bushes begin to blaze but are not yet consumed, long after the…
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When you can’t find the words
My calling is centered around language, as language is the way to communicate, to express. In my pastoral role, it is my charge to speak to the community and for the community — to express the experiences and life of the community and to help us all find meaning in our individual and shared experiences.…
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When God sits at your bedside
I am a pastor. I spend time with people, not only preaching and teaching, but also checking in on them, visiting them in the hospital, praying with them and talking with them before operations about which anxieties are high. But in March, the day after Ash Wednesday, the tables were turned. I spent almost three…
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In the Bleak Midwinter
Sitting at my window, I cannot make out what exists outside. The view is obstructed by the coat of ice on the interior of the century old windows in my century old flat. It is winter, I am not complaining. I am from Michigan and live in Wisconsin, long and cold winters are simply part…
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Deep seated pieties
As I closed my eyes, I felt moved to a different time, and a different space. In becoming familiar with our denomination’s new hymnal, Lift Up Your Hearts, there was a hymn sing at the annual gathering of delegated Ministers of Word and Sacrament and Elders from the entire denomination from around the United States and Canada.…
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Curiosity on a Sunny Saturday Morning
The sun is warm and the birds are chirping. It is finally a spring-like day during this unseasonably cold spring. The front window is open and I hear a group of boys talking. The city is doing utility work on our street and there is a square of concrete which is removed surrounded by sawhorse…
Matthew van Maastricht 