Family Library
The family library is located in the common area of the lower level. Please
feel free to check books out to enjoy. Directions on how to do so are
located on the top of the book-shelf with the
card box.
Highlighted Book:
Wrestling the Word: "The
Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Believer"
by Carolyn J. Sharp. To be honest, I chose to read this book in December
because it was short (140 pages) and sounded interesting to me. However, it
did not take long to realize that this was not going to be an easy read.
Truthfully, I suspect it is on the reading lists of some seminaries' courses
(and not the 100-level ones). And, to be fair, as the newsletter goes to
press I have not finished reading it. In fact, I may not finish it at this
point in the year. I made a poor choice for a busy month.
However, if you are familiar with, and excited by terms like "exegesis,"
"hermeneutics," and other two-dollar words, this may well be a book that you
could pick up and read easily. If my cursory understanding of the premise of
the book is accurate, Sharp seeks to raise self-awareness of the ways people
- from biblical scholars to laypeople - approach reading the Bible. Being
aware of how we approach reading and studying scripture, the approaches
others have to this endeavor, and the strengths, weaknesses, and value of
these various approaches can help us to have a deeper and fuller experience
reading scripture. This can be particularly helpful when approaching the
Hebrew scriptures ("Old Testament").
Accidental Saints, Finding God in All the
Wrong People
by author Nadia Bolz-Weber
Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former
standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the
God she feels called to serve.
Nadia is the founding
pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. She is
author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Pastrix. Nadia has been
featured on CNN, the BBC World Service, and NPR’s Morning Edition, and in
the Washington Post ...
In Accidental Saints, Nadia invites readers
into a surprising encounter with what she calls “a religious but
not-so-spiritual life.” Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former standup
comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she
feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely people—a
church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop, and a gun-toting
member of the NRA.
As she lives and worships
alongside these “accidental saints,” Nadia is swept into firsthand
encounters with grace—a gift that often feels less like being wrapped in a
warm blanket and more like being hit by a blunt instrument. But by this
grace, people are transformed in ways they couldn’t have been on their own.
In a time when many have rightly become
disillusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints demonstrates what happens
when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together,
and tell each other the truth about their real lives. This unforgettable
account of their faltering steps toward wholeness will ring true for
believer and skeptic alike.
Told in Nadia’s trademark
confessional style, Accidental Saints is the stunning next work from one of
today’s most important religious voices.
Note from David Keesey-Berg on
Accidental Saints
The GEMS have begun reading and discussing this book and the initial
impression has been very positive. Chapter five is particularly interesting
to us because it describes the close friendship that developed between Nadia
and our former Bishop Bruce Burnside. In chapter sixteen we hear of her
contacts with our own Pastor Nick, who was a colleague of Bruce’s at St.
Stephen’s Lutheran in Monona.
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