By Erin Martin

• I Do Choose… by Erin Martin (2/11/2009)
  ...persons in considerable pain—a woman bent low, a man born blind, a father pleading on behalf of his ailing daughter—coming to Jesus in desperation and placing all their hopes upon Jesus’ willingness to make them well. Jesus never disappoints, either. He always meets their desperation with compassion, their suffering with relief, their isolation with restoration. In this week’s gospel lesson, the...
• Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful by Erin Martin (1/6/2009)
  ...I had died and been raised with Christ.<!--more--> Years later as an ordained Methodist minister the majority of the baptisms I perform look nothing like my own. Mostly I hold infants in my arms and pour water on their heads. Their rebirth in Christ will be far less tangible to them, but by no means less real. I have come to understand that remembering one’s baptism has less to do with remem...
• The End is our Beginning by Erin Martin (12/3/2008)
  ...ritten on it" width="200" height="133" /></a><em>Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8</em> Everyone knows that Advent is about beginnings. The season marks the start of a new Christian year. It heralds the beginning of the “good news” of Jesus Christ, and it points to the origin of the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus. Every year in Advent we begin the preparations for Jesus’ coming only to do it all agai...
• Blessed Are They by Erin Martin (10/29/2008)
  ...imply called to follow their example, to cultivate within us the attitudes these saints so courageously exhibit, and we too shall be called blessed. This year, however, I am hearing Jesus differently.<!--more--> When Jesus teaches the disciples on the mountain who receives the favor of God and by implication who does not, Jesus isn’t so much urging the disciples to “go and do likewise.” Inste...
• How Can We Know the Way? by Erin Martin (8/1/2008)
  ... our routine. No sooner have I strapped my two year-old son, Elijah, into his car seat and started driving us on our way than my son pipes up from the back seat, “Hey mom, where are we going?” I always answer him very clearly. “We are going to the grocery store,” I say, or “We are going to the library.” To which Elijah always responds, “Hey mom, where are we going?” This kind of back and forth, re...
• Coming To Our Senses by Erin Martin (8/1/2008)
  ...John on the Sundays in Lent are our traveling companions. Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, Mary, Martha, even Lazarus, all have a place on our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem. From Sunday to Sunday while each of these persons experiences Jesus in individual ways, collectively they reveal to us the fullness of who we are as well as our total emptiness before Jesus.<!--more--><spa...