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A winter storm closed our doors, but not our hearts. We met from living rooms and kitchen tables, lit by lamps and laptop screens, to breathe, pray, and remember what steadies us when the world feels heavy. Guided by Mary Oliver’s poetry and the strength of Psalm 27, we explored how attention can become a kind of prayer—and how wonder can reshape the way we move through news, social media, and the long gray of cold days.

We began with “The Summer Day,” letting that final question—what will you do with your one wild and precious life—land in real time. From there, “Wild Geese” loosened the grip of striving and shame, reminding us that belonging does not hinge on perfection. “When Death Comes” turned our faces toward urgency and tenderness, asking us to be married to amazement rather than merely visiting this world. Along the way, we named gratitude for first responders, utility crews, shelter teams, and neighbors who keep one another warm and fed. Psalm 27 anchored us: fear is loud, but the Holy shelters, lifts, and teaches us to sing.

We prayed by name for those facing illness, grief, and job loss, making intercession a counter to doomscrolling. Oliver’s “I Worried” helped us set down anxiety and take our old bodies into the morning to sing. And we closed with a charge many of you know by heart: do justice now, love kindness now, walk humbly now. If you need a pocket of quiet courage, this is a warm cup for the cold. Press play, breathe with us, and consider one small way you might answer that wild and precious question today.

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Preacher: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

Texts: Jeremiah 6:16 & Matthew 11:28-30

When the world shouts from every screen, how do we stay awake to suffering without burning out our souls? We open with Jeremiah’s call to “stand at the crossroads” and pair it with Jesus’ invitation to the weary, building a roadmap for people who want to be engaged, faithful, and sane in a noisy age. The result is a practice-based approach to balance: hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, but add Sabbath so your heart can hold both.

We trace how notifications, social media, and AI-driven feeds hijack attention and push our threat-biased brains into overdrive. Drawing on psychological insights about doomscrolling, anxiety, and decision fatigue, we explain why information overload makes everything feel urgent and trivial at the same time. Then we pivot to hope: ancient rhythms that protect empathy, restore nuance, and make our activism more effective. Rest is not retreat; it is training. Limits are not laziness; they are wisdom.

Along the way we share two sticky models for daily life. First, Brene Brown’s household check-ins—How much do you have today?—which turn love into logistics and prevent resentment. Second, the sentinel meerkat, a simple picture of rotating vigilance so everyone gets to eat, sleep, and play. Apply those patterns to families, teams, and congregations: share the watch, schedule digital sabbath windows, and trust your circle to tap you only when it truly matters. We close by reclaiming rest as a spiritual discipline that honors our design and fuels sustained, compassionate action.

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Presenter: Rev. Dr. Kit Schooley

A vineyard without hedges. An angel who sounds like Christ. A slave who weeds beyond the brief and is named co‑heir with the son. We dive into The Shepherd of Hermas, a wildly popular early Christian text from Rome that many congregations cherished but the canon ultimately set aside. Across visions, mandates, and parables, Hermas wrestles with a problem the young church felt in its bones: how do ordinary people live free of sin after adult baptism is treated as a final crossing?

We start with the history—how the text spread in Greek, why its silence on Jesus’ name and the resurrection puzzled later readers, and what that reveals about the concerns of communities between 100 and 150 CE. Then we unpack the famous vineyard story, mapping its characters and symbols: the master’s absence, the faithful slave, angels as stakes, sins as weeds, commandments as dishes sent from the feast. By setting Hermas beside Isaiah’s lamenting vineyard and Mark’s violent tenants, we trace a striking evolution from failure and rejection to formation and hope. No tower. No hedge. The field lies open, and holiness looks like patient work that blesses others.

Along the way, we explore why Hermas nearly made it into the New Testament, how Eusebius and Athanasius shaped the canon and the Trinity debate, and why this “wordy” book kept winning hearts anyway. The payoff is both historical and practical: a window into Rome’s pro‑Israel posture and a template for spiritual growth where obedience, initiative, and generosity confirm our calling. If you’re curious about early Christian literature, canon history, or how moral life takes root in community, you’ll find a rich guide here.

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