Over the forty days of Lent, many Christian churches refrain from saying “alleluia.” The word, along with its variant “halleluja,” is the transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “Praise Yahweh” (or simply “Praise God”). “Alleluia” and “hallelujah” imagine a worshiper erupting in joyful praise. The more penitential character of Lent can make such celebratory… Read More
Posts by Matt (Page 3)
As the pandemic approaches the two-year mark, many of us are feeling exhausted. What we hoped might be a brief ordeal of a few months or weeks is stretching into years. An anticipated 10k race turned into a marathon. Then as 2021 neared its end, we thought we might be glimpsing the 26-mile mark just… Read More
Online connection can be an extraordinary gift. At the last Knox missions committee meeting, we met with Rev. Cheryl Barnes while she was in Malawi and we were in California. The Zoom conversation felt miraculous. Neither a ten-hour time difference nor the Pacific Ocean prevented us from getting to know one another that night. Our… Read More
This past summer, I learned a new acronym. VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. I first heard the term at my niece Olivia’s high school graduation ceremony in June. The speaker had worked in the field of socially responsible investing and was accustomed to a close analysis of the future based on current… Read More
Starting May 9th, Knox will be opening our doors for in-person worship again. This marks the first time since March of 2020 that we will host indoor services. The pandemic forced congregations like Knox to close our sanctuary doors. We set our minds and hearts to worshiping God online. We found powerful ways to connect… Read More
There is a great awakening taking place in the church today. Christians around the world are recognizing two inter-connected truths: (1) we are in the midst of an enormous ecological crisis that calls for individual and collective action; (2) the Bible and Christian theology have a great deal to say about the value of all… Read More
Someday, you may get asked this question: how did you carry on through COVID-19? With all those months of home quarantine, social isolation, and mounting death tolls, what kept your soul and sanity intact? Did you lean hard on family, friends, or neighbors? Was your church a lifeline? Was there a particular prayer practice you… Read More
In some ways, this Advent and Christmas will be like every other year. Advent will begin four Sundays before Christmas. We will light Advent wreaths, and remember how the light of God came to be with us in Jesus Christ. We will look forward to our Lord’s advent, anticipating that great day when we will… Read More
We have never seen a year like 2020. Unless you were around at the outbreak of the Spanish Flu, you have not lived through a global pandemic like COVID-19. And if you were alive in 1918, you don’t remember it today. 2020 brought the largest wildfire season in California history, burning more than 4% of… Read More