Alan Rudnick

[https://i2.wp.com/www.alanrudnick.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/kidstable.jpg?fit=940%2C529]Living Life at the Kid’s TableAs adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we? Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving? The truth is centered in this: God wants us to live life at the kid’s table of life. Life is happening at the low, humble, and least-of-these places that require our love, grace, hospitality, and attention. We can be the presence of God to another when we place ourselves at the little tables of life.  These moments are holy moments. Lives can be changed when we humble ourselves and place ourselves at the place where we are needed most – not where we most want to be. > I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting Shauna Niequist,Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life [https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Tangerines-Celebrating-Extraordinary-Everyday/dp/0310329302]

As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we? Have you ever went to…

Rev. Alan R. Rudnick – Journeying Through James: Do Words Have Power? James 3: Not many of you should…

[https://i0.wp.com/alanrudnick.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/words.jpg?resize=940%2C274&ssl=1]Journeying Through James: Do Words Have Power? Rev. Alan R. Rudnick – Journeying Through James: Do Words Have Power? James 3: Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.2We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. 3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.5Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?12My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

[https://i1.wp.com/www.alanrudnick.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/temptation12.jpg?fit=940%2C628]Question of the day: Journeying Through James: Does God tempt me? Rev. Alan R. Rudnick