Rev. Ellen Jennings

~ Psalm 133; Colossians 3:12-17 ~

Hine ma tov uma nyim shevet achim gam yachad (2x)
Hine ma tov shevet achim gam yachad (2x)

I love Jewish, or, more accurately, Semitic, music. Even when the words of a song are joyful, the tune is often sorrowful—as if the author knows pleasure and pain are not opposites, but, rather, held in the same heart.

These Hebrew lyrics are, of course, the first verse of today’s Psalm 133: How

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Rev. Dan Sack

~ Job 38:1-­11: Mark 4:35-­41 ~

As some of you may know, I am a sailor. When I was seven my dad bought a nine foot long styrofoam boat­­—it was kind of like sailing a big beer cooler. We moved on to bigger boats in my junior high years. His was fourteen feet long and mine was ten. When William and I lived in Chicago I joined a club that sailed on Lake Michigan. I am now

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Rev. Ellen Jennings

~ Psalm 92 ~

Even if I knew tomorrow the world would end,
I would plant an apple tree today!

So said the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, six hundred years ago… Maybe! The truth is, we have no idea where this quotation originated. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been referenced, the Dalai Lama quoted, Mohammad credited, and different versions can be found in a variety of religious traditions. So who knows? Perhaps it originated with this

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Rev. Ellen Jennings

~ Acts 2:1-11; Mark 12:28-31 ~

Four years ago this week I began my work here at Cleveland Park Church. That first Sunday I participated in the Children’s Service (which, this year, will take place next weekend), and my first sermon (the Sunday following) celebrated Pentecost.

Just to highlight how much can happen in four years, I’m going to share a short section from that sermon, which focused on endings, beginnings, and change:

On the home front,

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by Rev. Ellen Jennings

~ Psalm 104:1-26 (Psalms for Praying) ~

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
love lives again, that with the dead has been;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.

— John M. C. Crum

Green. Verdant. Lush. Living. Breathing. Resurrecting. Life. Not just parable or metaphor but quite literally true. The green blade does rise from the buried grain; the wheat arises green.

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