Prairie Musings

The holidays are wonderful, joyous times—that can also be difficult and lonely. This year, especially, might be more challenging than in the past. Here are some ideas and resources to help us all share, reach out, and connect even when we can’t be together in the same place. As I think about what celebrating Thanksgiving and  Christmas will look like this year, and some of the changes and sacrifices we’ll have to make, I am reminded of our ancestors. I think about the simple family celebrations Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her “Little House” books, and I wonder if this year gives us—forces us perhaps—to have a simpler holiday too. We’ve been saying to each other for a long time now that Christmas has become too commercialized and too busy—maybe we can all take a lesson from our prairie forebears! Read a book together out loud, taking turns or having grandparents read. If you haven’t read A Christmas Carol in a long time, I recommend it. It is a beautiful story was actual...

  For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance (Matt 25:29a). (Proper 28A readings here .)   Today’s sermon starts with a trivia lesson: Our English word “talent” comes to us from this parable of Jesus. In his time, a “talent” was about 75 pounds of silver. This was its only meaning until about the 14 th century. After that time, the definition slowly expanded and eventually came to mean “natural ability,” the way we use it today. This passage is clearly appointed for this last Ordinary Sunday, the Sunday before Christ the King and then Advent 1, because this is the end not just of autumn, but of “pledging season.” It’s a natural fit, don’t you think—faithful servants rewarded for investing their master’s gift and giving back double, and an unfaithful servant who does nothing and is cast away with weeping and gnashing of teeth. The typical message from this is pretty straightforward: fill out your pledge cards generously! However, I’m ...