Liz Cooledge Jenkins

Tag: community

  • Keep listening and don’t give up (a sermon on the Transfiguration, Luke 9:28-36)

    Hi friends, I wanted to share with y’all a sermon I got to guest preach last weekend. It’s on the biblical story of the Transfiguration, with the current U.S. political context very much in mind. Working through this text helped me see some glimmers of hope in a difficult time, and I hope it might…

  • Who’s turning over some tables already? A sermon on John 2:13-22 (part 2)

    Hi friends, Last week I shared the first half of a sermon on John 2:13-22, imagining what it might have been like to be among the crowd of folks coming to the temple to worship, when all of a sudden, Jesus starts turning over tables.  Here’s part 2! ____ I wonder what kinds of perspectives…

  • What’s this dude doing? A sermon on John 2:13-22 and Jesus turning over the tables (part 1)

    Hi friends, I recently had the chance to preach a guest sermon on John 2:13-22, the passage where Jesus flips over some flippin’ tables.  Here’s the story, as the NRSV translation tells it: 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling…

  • Where We Meet (A Lenten Devotional)

    Hi friends, Who knew that The Upper Room had a progressive side? Maybe you did; I sure didn’t.  So I was delighted when one of their folks reached out and asked if I’d like to take a look at their new Lenten devotional book: Where We Meet: A Lenten Study of Systems, Stories, and Hope.…

  • New year, new Substack

    Hi friends, Here we are, with January almost gone, and I’m not sure I’ve quite wrapped my mind around 2024 yet. But I wanted to share with you something I’m starting in this new(ish) year: a Substack! I feel like Substack is the kind of thing that’s old news to a very particular kind of…

  • The directions God is always moving (still more of a sermon on Acts 10:1-23)

    Hi friends, For a couple weeks now, with the exception of a book launch announcement (woohoo!), I’ve been sharing parts of a sermon I got to preach recently on Acts 10:1-23. The first part is here, and it’s about being open to growth and learning, even after we’ve been on a journey for a while…

  • What are you currently learning? (Part of) a sermon on Acts 10:1-23

    Hi friends, I recently got to preach at my church on Acts 10:1-23. Peter and Cornelius, what a story. I’d encourage you to take a look at the passage here. The church service is also recorded here (and the sermon starts here around 56:53). The way I see it, there are three main thoughts that…

  • What exactly broke the world? Reflections on Fortune by Lisa Sharon Harper

    Hi friends, Something I love about Lisa Sharon Harper’s recent-ish book Fortune is that it raises—and then unpacks—this question: What exactly broke our world? I think this is a crucial question. But it’s not always one that we talk about—at least not with nearly enough specificity. In my experience in Christian circles, in particular, people…

  • ISO worship music that doesn’t make me cranky

    Hi friends, I have a confession: Christian worship music often makes me cranky.  I don’t know if this is actually a confession. As in, I don’t know that I’m really ashamed of it or feel like it’s a bad thing. After all, there are plenty of good reasons to feel cranky about Christian music. For…

  • Calling all with a “Grand Mother spirit”

    Hi friends, This week I want to offer you two poems. (Well, one’s definitely a poem; the other is debatable, but it’s not not a poem. So I’ll just be calling them “two poems” for short.) We talked about both of them in the “God, Gender, Power” class I’ve been facilitating at my church for…