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Sunday, December 04, 2011
How Do We Cry Peace?
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 40: 1-31, Mark 1: 1-8 Although I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about this weekend, the four of them: Felipe from Brazil, Aki and Yu from Japan, Jigsoon from Korea are not only utterly delightful, but they are committed to building peace one project at a time through the Institute for International Cooperation and Development, known as IICD. They are college students who are giving a year of their lives to eradicating poverty in the Third World through sharing their skills in manual labor, teaching, health services, and caring for the world's poorest people. This weekend they are camped out at my house and spend their days raising money for IICD programs. Building peace is more than just the absence of war. The seventeenth century Jewish philosopher Baruch de Spinoza once wrote that peace is no...
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AT: 12/04/2011 08:30:07 AM
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Fantasies Beyond Our Wildest Dreams
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 64: 1-9; Mark 13: 33-37 "And when I looked and saw these four princes of punishment, Desolation and Despoiler and Ruin and Destruction, they were casting lots for the land … and they will have no mercy on the poor and the old....and the veil of silence will sit upon all men, and the earth will sit in surprise and consternation … And they will be cruel and murderers and bloodthirsty and destroyers and a testing furnace for all Christians..." So wrote the Pseudo-Methodius in the early seventh century, one of a number of apocalypses composed during a period of intense political and social upheaval. Although Gog and Magog figure heavily in this response to the Arab conquests of that time, unlike the LaHaye-Jenkins series, there is no "rapture," only destruction, mayhem and a final judgment. Apocaly...
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AT: 11/27/2011 08:30:06 AM
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Sunday, January 16, 2011
Rise and Go
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Amos 5: 14-24; Matthew 2: 13-23Back in the old days, whatever those were, children were supposed to be seen and not heard, but I remember a conversation at my Aunt Ruby’s dinner table when I was about fourteen or so when I put my two cents in and was so advised: Nobody wanted my opinion, least of all my southern relatives. The conversation was about the young people who were leaving the white-owned family farms in the 1950s, a fact that my Aunt Ruby was bemoaning. Uncle Evans, her absolutely terrible husband -- I never understood why she ever married that man -- was telling her that the “nigras” -- the way he referred to African Americans when he was being polite -- just weren’t grateful for all the good stuff that they had: shacks without paved roads, running water or bathroom facilities, ...
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AT: 01/16/2011 08:30:14 AM
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Sunday, January 09, 2011
What Are We Looking For?
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 60: 1-22; Matthew 2: 1-12 Last weekend was New Year’s and, as usual, I spent my day trying to put together all the stuff that needs to get organized. The problem was, of course, I needed to find the stuff. Many of us have a junk room; you know, the room where we put stuff that we don’t need immediately and that we’ll get to later. But if any of you are like me, we forget what we put where and spend time looking for things that we need, or at least think we need to get organized. I was feeling pretty good by 10:30 since I had gotten up at 5 and started with my busy bee New Year’s Day organizing. But the best laid plans…. Well, they get waylaid when you can’t find certain items you need. The night before, while much of the rest of the world was either partyi...
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AT: 01/09/2011 08:30:21 AM
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
What Are We Hoping For?
by Rev. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Matthew 24: 35-46 Well. Thanksgiving is over; there is still turkey in the fridge and Christmas is around the corner. Retail stores were ecstatic over the surge in spending on Black Friday, America’s national equivalent to binge drinking. It was even more than they had hoped for, one of the biggest binge shopping days -- ever! Plastic is fueling the economy again. Oh, boy. The Dillon County, South Carolina, Herald newspaper took an informal poll and found that almost 60% of its readership was planning to shop the Black Friday sales. How can you do without that whatever-it-is made in China for only $179? The hopes of retailers have been fulfilled. Economic recovery may be just around the corner. We all hope for economic recovery of course, but at what cost? Some people citing Thoreau...
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AT: 11/28/2010 08:30:15 AM
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