Rev. Danielle K. Bartz                                                                                    September 17, 2023 Genesis 50:15-21                                                                    ‘A Few Thoughts On Forgiveness’ All the lectionary texts for today revolve around one very important topic: forgiveness.  As I begin my reflection, I want to acknowledge that the Church universal, over its long history, has often abused the idea of forgiveness, and much […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                     September 10, 2023 Exodus 3:1-15                                                                                                          “Oh Look…!”             Earlier this week I read an article about fire lookouts in the mountain west.  Once a huge industry, there are only a few hundred left in the United States.  These folks spend the summers living in extremely remote cabins, often […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                       September 3, 2023 Romans 12:9-21                                                                                    “Practice Makes Perfect”             In his popular book “Outliers”, Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell examined psychological and sociological data to help us understand why some people are able to master a skill.  These ‘outliers’ on the bell curve of humanity, Gladwell posited, didn’t reach […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                           August 27, 2023 Romans 12:1-8             I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology, which qualifies me to do absolutely nothing.  I like to tell people, in reference to that degree, I know just enough to be dangerous.  So, with that caveat in place, I want to talk about a few […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                             August 6, 2023 Matthew 14:13-21                                                                       “A Few Thoughts on Miracles”             The third sentence in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” reads as this: “This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come from the story I am going to relate.”  I actually prefer the way this line is […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                               July 23, 2023 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43                                                                           “Don’t Light the Fire”             “It is an heretic that makes the fire not she which burns in it.”  I heard that line, penned by William Shakespeare, last week when I went to see ‘A Winter’s Tale’ which is a part of the Great […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                               July 16, 2023 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23                                                                                 “The Bad Gardener”             It looks like God is a pretty bad gardener, if this lesson of Jesus is any evidence.  We don’t have a parable of a sower finding the good soil, adding fertilizer and compost, making sure the moisture levels are right, […]

Rev. Danielle K Bartz                                                                                                  July 2, 2023 Genesis 1:1-5                                                                                         “On Being Co-Creators”             Ancient Jewish scholars doing Midrash – or scriptural interpretation – have suggested the following: they imagine that the act of creation that led to the formation of everything we know, including our very selves, was not God’s first attempt at […]

Rev. Danielle K. Bartz                                                                                              June 25, 2023 Exodus 19:1-6                                                                                                  “The Road Ahead” In the archives of our church, as well as the archives of any church that has been around for at least 50 years, there are reports of a time when the church pews were brimming with people.  Dozens of children were […]