Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

We have entered into the season of the Church Year called "Lent." The name Lent comes from an old word, "Lencten," which originally referred to that time of year in the Northern Hemisphere when the days began to lengthen. This corresponded with the liturgical season after Epiphany and before Holy Week and Easter. And so, the season of "Lengthening" became simply the season of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days of fasting before Holy Week, not counting Sundays, which are Feast days always, celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. The period of 40 days of fasting corresponds to the 40 days Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. This year during Lent, our church will begin the day with a short service of Morning Prayer in the main Sanctuary, at 8:00 a.m. The service is derived from what is traditionally called St. Patrick's Lorica, a very lyrical and powerful prayer summoning the basic tenets of Christian faith and the...

The story is told concerning a man who was celebrating his 100th birthday. He was approached by a news reporter, "I suppose you've seen a lot of changes in your day?" "Yes," said the centenarian, "and I've been against everyone of them."  Ah yes, Change : that ever-present force of reality as guaranteed as death and taxes. the one thing we can't change in life is the inevitability of change itself. And yet, even though we know this at some level of recognition, don't we all go through life acting as if things aren't going to change, or that what change comes our way is insignificant? Take for instance the fact that we all expect the sun to rise each day, and that the ground beneath us will support our weight and hold up our homes? And then along comes an earthquake, like in Haiti or Afghanistan or Indonesia or Southern California, and suddenly even that in which we had placed so much trust is no longer so trustworthy. Terra Firma ...

Rev. Brett C. Blair shares the following story: Many years ago the great explorer,  Sir Francis Drake , was attempting to   recruit a number of young men for an upcoming exploration. He gathered them around and told the group that if they came with him they would see   some of the most marvelous things their eyes could ever behold. Sandy   white beaches, juicy fruits, foreign peoples, priceless treasures, and   gorgeous landscapes. And he told them that this wild adventure could be theirs if they came with him. Not one of them enlisted for the journey. The next day a different group came out. Drake told them that if they came   with him they would encounter storms that would terrify them into tears.   Tiger winds would hammer them and blow them off course for months. Water   would frequently be scarce. At times they will be so thirsty that their   very souls would cry out for simply one drop of water. In short, danger   would...

Egads, has it really been 3 weeks since I last published?  Greatest apologies all around.  The big a nnouncement is that I have been working all week on a new website for Pocatello First United Methodist Church . The beta version is ready for publishing and testing on various servers. Some features such as the dynamic calendar and finished video, plus slide shows on several pages, have yet to be composed and added. But the basics are there, including.... ......Drumroll .......... ... A FULL ARCHIVE OF SERMONS! Yes, all the sermons I have preached at PFUMC will be available for your reading pleasure and edification. The website is found at www.pocatelloumc.org (if you didn't already click on the blue link above.) But, on to this week's sermon. I begin with this question: Take a walk around your memory banks and tell me - what was the most overwhelming experience in your life? What was it that happened to you that seemed totally beyond your ability to handl...

Shortly after the election of Barack Obama as the first person of both African and European descent to the Presidency of the United States of America, a news item circulated across the country that exposed an ugly vein of incipient violence lurking in Eastern Idaho. Apparently schoolchildren on a public school bus in Rexburg, Idaho , began chanting "Assassinate Obama, Assassinate Obama." It's quite possible that the students didn't understand the full meaning of "assassinate," nor comprehended the full implications of what they were saying. However, those who started the chant had heard those words put together some place and decided it was acceptable to publicly broadcast them. Raw Story carried a story , as well as KIDK .  Even though Rexburg is politically very conservative, with 93 percent of the voters voting for McCain and Palin in the 2008 election, and with an overwhelming Mormon influence, that neither excuses nor explains such frankly anti-A...

The King Center Website page on the Beloved Community Network says this about Dr. King's work: “The Beloved Community” is a term that was first coined in the early days of the 20th century by the philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, who founded the Fellowship of Reconciliation. However, it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who popularized the term and invested it with a deeper meaning which has captured the imagination of people of good will all over the world. For Dr. King, The Beloved Community was not a lofty utopian goal to be confused with the rapturous image of the Peaceable Kingdom, in which lions and lambs coexist in idyllic harmony. Rather, The Beloved Community was for him a realistic, achievable goal that could be attained by a critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.  Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth ...

Over the course of the next three Sundays, January 10, 17 and 24, I will be preaching on The Beloved Community. Creating the Beloved Community was an idea that was central to the thinking and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Accordingly, my blogs for the next three weeks will explore aspects of Dr. King's thought and practice that relate to this idea. In addition, I'm going to explore how Dr. King's religious faith found expression in political and social action, all of it filtered through the lens of the Beloved Community. A good overview of Dr. King's concept is found in an article by Kenneth  L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp, Jr. entitled "Martin Luther King's Vision of the Beloved Community."  The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia is also an excellent place to find out about Dr. King's ideas and work. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service has extensive information concerning the 40 Day Pledge of Nonviolence .  These are all good ...