03/15/2026

Jesus in the psych ward

by Rev. Sarah Speed

He’s in group therapy, plastic chairs in a circle.

Paper cups with weak coffee. Everyone in the room has seeking eyes.

The Pharisees admitted him. They said things like,

He’s more than we can handle.

They let the rumors fly.

The other patients like him. They say, He listens to me.

He calls them by name.

And when one of them asks,

Is this our fault? Are we here because we sinned?

Jesus does not wait for the facilitator to speak.

He crosses the circle. He kneels down. He grabs their hands in his and says,

Child of the covenant, God loves you too much to ever wish you pain.

Bodies and minds crumble sometimes, but God’s love for you does not.

And after that

there were happy tears and the group was dismissed to lunch,

where they broke bread and no one talked of sin.

**A note from the author: “I placed Jesus in a hospital setting to reflect the text’s (John 9:1-41) focus around healing. In particular, I chose a psychiatric setting to continue dismantling unfair stigmas around mental health. Once again, in this modern-day context, Jesus offers words of comfort and belonging.”**

03/08/2026

anything & everything

by Rev. Sarah Speed

I’d give you a drink,

a warm cup of tea with lemon and mint,

a confetti cannon, roses from the garden,

my favorite sweatshirt, a bed to lay in,

homemade bread, a hand to hold.

I’d give you my full attention.

I’d give you my phone,

and say, put your number in.

I’d give you the melody line,

a standing ovation,

a sense of security.

I’d give you anything and everything

if it made you believe

that you were enough.

03/01/2026

How Do We Begin Again?

by Rev. Sarah Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC

Do we slide into something new?

Do we make a formal announcement? Dearest reader,

I have decided to begin again. Do we turn gradually,

a gentle yield

in a new direction; or like a wave,

do we crash onto the shore of a new day?

Do we grieve the change? Are there breadcrumbs

on the path?

Will Nicodemus be there?

Will it ever be easy?

I’m not sure exactly how we begin again,

but I know that moths wrap themselves in silk,

and after quite some time,

after many long nights,

after days spent alone,

they break out of their shell.

They pull themselves out under open sky,

and they spend the rest of their days chasing the light.

Maybe it’s always that way with beginnings.

Maybe it feels like the protective layer falling away.

Maybe we have to go it alone at first.

Maybe it feels like pulling and dragging yourself into something new.

Maybe there’s always open sky at the other end.

02/22/2026

At the Start

by Rev. Sarah Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC

Is this the fast I choose?

Will I wake with the sun each morning?

Will I start with thank you?

Will I peel back the cage around my frame to let you in

or will I get too busy? Will my Bible collect dust on the shelf,

along with my journal, along with my sense of self,

or will I roll back the stone and wade in?

Every new season beckons something of us—

attention, beauty, the chance to create.

This season is no different.

So, like moths to the light, will we find our way toward God,

or will we hover, circling fake suns?

I am seeking something deeper.

I am kicking off my shoes.

I am starting this season on holy ground.

02/15/2026

Transfiguration    by Malcom Guite

For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.

02/08/2026

It’s hard to imagine that we are only a few weeks from another Lenten season. This year during our season of Lent we will be guided by the theme Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith. The lectionary for Year A offers us many stories of Jesus encountering people who are seeking: Nicodemus comes to him in the veil of night, he approaches a Samaritan woman at a well, he heals a man born without sight. In these stories, each person is seeking a new beginning, a different life, a deeper faith. What unfolds is an exchange filled with questions and exploration. Often, an unveiling occurs—assumptions are disrupted, a new perspective is revealed, mystery grows.

I chose this theme because I know that this congregation is in the midst of a time of seeking, a time of discernment regarding what God may be faithfully calling us to next and who we are to become as a community of faith going forward. Anderson CoB doesn’t look like it once did, and we are unsure of what comes next for us. It is a difficult liminal space for communities of faith to find themselves in. Such seeking requires hard questions and conversations, a willingness to sincerely reflect on and consider initially uncomfortable answers, and the courage to be honest with ourselves about what faithful risks we are (or are not) willing to take. All of this must be engaged in with a spirit of love, care, and compassion, both for ourselves as individuals and for one another. 

To that end, I would encourage each of us to think a bit differently as we approach Lent. It is a common practice to give something up for 40 days of Lent as a form of fasting and preparing our hearts for the resurrection of Christ. Alternatively, I suggest we consider what it would look like to commit to a new spiritual discipline for Lent, focused on Seeking. Such disciplines could include Openness, Generosity, Radical Visioning, Prayerful Reflection, Honest Assessment, Deep Listening, and Risk Taking. As we pursue these practices to engage more fully with the Holy Spirit and how it is moving in our congregation, we are faithfully moving toward the threshold of God’s vision for us.

02/01/2026

Beatitude Prayer

(inspired by Matthew 5:3-12, from Catholic Online website)

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Keep us from being preoccupied with money and worldly goods, and with trying to increase them at the expense of justice.

 Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth."

Help us not to be ruthless with one another, and to eliminate the discord and violence that exists in the world around us.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Let us not be impatient under our own burdens and unconcerned about the burdens of others.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled."

Make us thirst for you, the fountain of all holiness, and actively spread your influence in our private lives and in society.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

Grant that we may be quick to forgive and slow to condemn.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

Free us from our senses and our evil desires, and fix our eyes on you.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

Aid us to make peace in our families, in our country, and in the world.

Lord Jesus, you said,

    "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for the kingdom of heaven in theirs." 

Make us willing to suffer for the sake of right rather than to practice injustice; and do not let us discriminate against our neighbors and oppress and persecute them.

01/25/2026

    I would like to take a moment this week to express my deep appreciation for the extended time away that the congregation was willing to offer me following the death of my grandmother, which allowed me to travel down to Virginia for her funeral. Many thanks to Jaye Lee and John for delivering the messages on Sundays I was absent, and to all of the members of the congregation who sent cards and texts and prayers. All the support you have shown during this difficult time of grieving has been a meaningful demonstration of support.

    As we begin to enter the next phase of getting to know each other, please know that I am greatly looking forward to learning about each of you as individuals, and to learning about the hopes you have for the future of this congregation and the challenges you perceive the church is facing. Over the coming months, I would ask each member of the congregation to reflect on how they would answer the following questions:

    1. What do you love about the Anderson Church of the Brethren?

    2. What are the values of the Anderson congregation? (How would you describe the congregation to your neighbor on an airplane?)

    3. If you were granted one wish and could change anything about the congregation, what would you do with that wish?

    As we move forward together in discernment for what God may be calling Anderson to next, may we do so with open hearts and listening ears, knowing that God walks with us.

01/18/2026

~ PARISHONER’S NOTE ~

Provided by Jaye Rogers

Mary Oliver (1935-2019), during her lifetime, was the best-selling poet in the United States. Her poems combine her deep and welcoming faith with nature, where she found beauty in all of God's creation. 

"Making the House Ready

for the Lord"

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but

still nothing is as shining as it should be

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an

uproar of mice -- it is the season of their

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves and through the walls the squirrels

have gnawed their ragged entrances -- but it is the season when they need shelter,

so what shall I do? And

the raccoon limps into the kitchen

and opens the cupboard

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard,

and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe

you will come, Lord:   

you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering

sea-goose, know

that really I am speaking to you

whenever I say,

as I do all morning and afternoon:

Come in, Come in.

01/11/2026

~ PARISHONER’S NOTE ~

Mary Oliver (1935-2019), during her lifetime, was the best-selling poet in the United States. Her poems combine her deep and welcoming faith with nature, where she found beauty in all of God's creation. 

"Making the House Ready

for the Lord"

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but

still nothing is as shining as it should be

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an

uproar of mice -- it is the season of their

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves and through the walls the squirrels

have gnawed their ragged entrances -- but it is the season when they need shelter,

so what shall I do? And

the raccoon limps into the kitchen

and opens the cupboard

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard,

and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe

you will come, Lord:   

you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering

sea-goose, know

that really I am speaking to you

whenever I say,

as I do all morning and afternoon:

Come in, Come in.

01/04/2026

The Magi              by Malcolm Guite

It might have been just someone else's story;

Some chosen people get a special king,

We leave them to their own peculiar glory, 

We don't belong, it doesn't mean a thing.

But when these three arrive

they bring us with them,

Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours; 

A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,

A pilgrim's eye that sees beyond the stars.

They did not know his name

but still they sought him

They came from otherwhere

but still they found;

In palaces they found those

who sold and bought him,

But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.

Their courage gives our

questing hearts a voice

To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.

It could have so easily been a gift for a chosen few, the wondrous gift of God’s embodied self. Only for a select group of people, the VIPs. However, the love of God turned out to be far more radical than that. It included everyone, even the people we’d rather it didn’t, and most shockingly it included us. In the magi we can see ourselves, in our own long and often unexpected search for God. It is not surprising to us that we are forever reaching out toward God, but every year, every week, every hour, this very moment, I continue to be blown away by the fact that God is reaching out to us, too.

Happy Epiphany Everyone!

12/28/2025

A New Year's Prayer  by Joyce Rupp

God, surprise us again.

When we miss the beauty and the joy of earth's goodness.
When we grow too accustomed to life's busyness.
When the goodness of others gets lost in the rush.
When our frailty outruns our strength.
When the hope in our heart fades away.
When the call to serve others loses its flavor.
When we search for the way home to you.
When loneliness pursues us.
When it seems the darkness will never give way to

the light.

 
When the ache of the world wears our compassion thin. 

When the troubles of others seem more than we can carry.       

When even you seem far away from us. 

Walk closely with us, God.
As we strive to live our lives well.
As we enjoy the treasures we've found in the field

of faith.  

As we continue to surrender ourselves to you.
As we journey into the unknown territory of a new year.
As we hurt in the process of loving our enemies.
As we learn to accept our weaknesses and our strengths.
As we open our hearts to the messengers you

send to us.

1As we give ourselves to the poor and the powerless.
As we keep searching for the truth.
As we try to live in the heart of the scriptures.
As we accept your constant love for us. seeks us out no matter where we are, how prepared we are, and what kind of headspace we are in. Merry Christmas!

12/21/2025

Sometimes, the Advent & Christmas season arrives with joy and singing. We feel prepared and are excited about the prospect of seeing family and spending time with friends. Our homes look festive and welcoming, and our hearts are open and ready to receive all the blessing this season has to offer us. Other times, though, we arrive at this season with little enthusiasm. We are frustrated by the holiday disruptions to the regular patterns of our lives, knowing by the end of it all we will be even more behind on things than we were before. All we can see before us is endless to-do lists and the overwhelming crush of expectations we can never live up to.

    The flawless image of the nativity scene at the center of our imaginations is often where we go wrong in our expectant thinking. That perfect image of a calm and bright Christmas. It sounds great on the page and in our imaginations, but let’s be honest, Christ’s arrival was pure chaos. A dung-smelling, filthy birthing room after an exhausting journey to a place Joseph and Mary were forced by governmental decree to go to, followed by playing host to strangers arriving with tales of terrifying angels and thrusting expectations on a child only hours old. There was no order, limited preparedness, and everybody was just doing the best they could with what was in front of them.

    And yet, the in-breaking of God’s love arrived anyway, just as it does today. A love that doesn’t wait for the perfect time and setting. A love that seeks us out no matter where we are, how prepared we are, and what kind of headspace we are in. Merry Christmas!

12/14/2025

After Annunciation 

by Madeleine L’Engle

“This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there’d have been no room for the child.”

    Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, was not a rational solution to the world’s problems in the 1st century Roman empire. Today, in our own time of struggles for power and crushing inequity, it is just as irrational. Everything about God’s love for us and this world defies all rationality. We cannot comprehend such a love. We fail at every attempt to wrap our minds around it, and in our clumsy efforts to do so, we often find ourselves trying to make it smaller than it really is. We want to define it, to categorize it, to place boundaries on it so that it won’t expand beyond the grasp of our understanding or the limits of our comfort concerning who we think should receive it. 

    But Mary recognized God’s love for exactly what it was. Why else would she risk such scandal as a teenage woman, in a time when it would likely have cost her own life? It seems to be the irrationality and joy of deep faith rather than the rationality of a “what might this cost me” mindset. Mary seems to understand L’Engle’s poem. She understands about love blooming “bright and wild.” And so she makes room for God’s wild and uncontainable love, no matter the risk. 

    How will you risk being the bearer of God’s wild, irrational love this week?

12/07/2025

Remembering the Sacred Presence of

the One Who Dwells Among Us

by Joyce Rupp

May we look for your goodness in people who seem least likely to carry your love.

May we behold your radiance in ones we quickly pass by at home or work.

May we discover your love in our deeper self when we feel unloving and irritable.

May we embrace you in the persons whose faithfulness we take for granted.

May we see your empathy and those serving the wounded of the world.

May we recognize your courage in the valiant people who speak out for justice. 

May we notice your non-judgmental acceptance of those who keep an open mind.

May we search for your gentleness when it is covered with harshness in another.

May we observe your generosity in every gift we receive, no matter how small it is.

May we reveal your mercy when we pardon someone for having turned against us.

May we welcome your joy in the delightful voices and happy play of children.

May we convey your compassion when we visit those with illness and poor health.

May we detect your patience in those who put up with our impatience and hurry.

May we unite with your peace hidden beneath the layers of the world’s disharmony.

11/30/2025

Wishing everyone a wonderful and warm Thanksgiving this week. May you and your families feel surrounded by the love of God as you gather around whatever table you find yourself a part of this year.

Blessings #29

by Sharon Bridgforth

Remember

you are not poor.

Your wealth is Infinite.

It is ever present.

It cycles and circles and ebbs and flows

and shows itself in traditions

in food

in music

in health

in relationships

in creativity

in passion

in curiosity

in laughter

in your finances

in the children

in animals

in learnings

in Spirit

in Nature

in the prayers paving the road you walk.

Relish the Journey

11/23/2025

     My life has always had a lot of transition. It’s one of the things that pastor’s kids and military kids have in common. Moving from place to place, meeting new people (and losing them too), and constantly having to learn the new procedures and expectations of new schools, neighborhoods, and even churches. As a kid, I dreamed of a day when I could grow up and choose my own home and pattern of living. I was going to buy a big house with a bunch of land in a community I loved, and I was just going to stay there forever and never move again! I just wanted to find that perfect place where I belonged. A place that God would pronounce as my forever home. However, life, as they say, is what happens when you are making other plans, and it is clear by the fact that in the last 5 years (well into my adulthood) we have moved 3 times that God had other ideas for my life. 

     Over the years, I have instead found myself learning about the practice of making home wherever I find myself. Of practicing hospitality even when I am the stranger and the newbie. It is an act of faith on my part. A faith that even as I am making a home for myself in a new place, I am also making a home for God there, too. It is a spiritual practice of attempting to embody the face of God for others who might also find themselves in a season, or lifetime, of wandering. To be the hands and feet of Christ in whatever neighborhood or community I find myself.

11/16/2025

On Dunino’s Kirk

A path leads to Dunino’s Kirk,

Overgrown with branches

       trying to pull you back,

You can travel by the main road, of course,

But it seems harder to reach the Kirk that way.

It is a wee place of piled stones

On foundations laid eight hundred years ago,

Before we were even conceived.

The stones are still older.

A Druid site was here I’m told

Before the Christians came

The Stones remember them still

Those cruel sons of nature.

Their stones stand now in the Kirk wall

Incised with Celtic crosses,

Sanctified with baptismal water,

Long since returned to the earth.

The sanctuary remembers its lost saints

With broken notches in the facing wall

Opposite the prayer desk

Knox’s faithful sons stand in inscribed rows.

Its current son goes about in kilt and sporran

With a dirk in his sock.

He is a Scot to the skin

Even under his ministerial robes.

It is now past four hundred years

Since men first drank at the Reformer’s Well.

The Kirk has stood and spoke its gospel

To those rude farmers.

It is the village Kirk.

It will not grow.

It will not die.

It is content to be faithful.

                       ~ L. Spencer Spaulding

11/09/2025

I use my various coffee mugs as memory prompts. Every morning, I choose one that brings a memory of a person, place and time, or an idea I need to reflect upon. Some are funny and cheer up my day. One reads, “Happiness is a cup of coffee and a good book”. I am looking for one that says,  
“All I need is a book and a good cup of coffee.” Silly, I know, but it makes me chuckle.

   One says, “Blessed” and another reads “Let it go.” When I first saw it, I imagined that it meant let go of things like anger, or past hurts, or revenge. I was thinking that the phrase “let it go” was about releasing all the pain and problems of the past. But lately as I have contemplated my retirement, which is fast approaching, I have thought about “Let it go” from a different vantage point. Now I know that I must let go of a role in a congregation I have come to love. My wonderful experience of working as your pastor is the opposite of any painful experience of the past. It is rather a treasured, even sacred time which is among the treasures of my life.

   The future for me and for all of you is in the loving hands of God and we can rejoice at what has been and rejoice at what will yet be.  The path of God’s blessing is still before us as it always will be.

11/02/2025

This is the month of Thanksgiving. It is Harvest-time’s end.  As the hymn, Come Ye Thankful People, Come states it, “All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin.” Many of the leaves have fallen, and the corn and grain have been harvested.  “Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.”  For some this is a time that can seem a depressing end of the year.  So a time of expressing the goodness of the preceding year and celebrating the abundance of God’s blessing with the savory and sweet tastes of that abundance is quite appropriate, even if the table is groaning from that abundance as we ourselves may also be. 

     Celebration is a gift from God which we share with each other reminding us we need not fear the winter’s blast in the warmth of the Heavenly Father’s love. It is a time of sharing, an opportunity to care for those who may be in need, and to plan to help beyond this season when the real needs may be manifest.  This year with rising cost of groceries and other necessities there will be more hungry people among us than perhaps in recent memory. The richest among us will fare alright while Jesus’ words, “the poor will always be among you,” are going to  be proven yet again. The gospel of Jesus Christ is aimed at the whole person with the goal that all persons may be fully whole.

     I am thankful when I am able to share even a cup of water in the name of Jesus. I remember, “I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.” I have never done as much of this as I should have, but every year Thanksgiving reminds me to consider deeply what I have done for others.