by James Melson | Oct 1, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
Yesterday’s lectionary gospel passage was Mark 9: 38-50. It included the following challenging words of Jesus, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung...
by James Melson | Sep 24, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
This week we are trying a new feature. You can listen to the sermon that Jim preached at New Community Church on September 16, 2018 titled “Knowing Is Not Enough.” This message focuses on God’s call to transformation rather than just learning more...
by James Melson | Sep 18, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
A few days ago on September 15 was the 55th anniversary of one of the great tragedies of the modern civil rights movement. On that Sunday morning in 1963, a bomb planted by KKK members exploded beneath a stairway in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL...
by James Melson | Sep 10, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
Seventeen years ago tomorrow, our nation suffered one of the greatest tragedies in our history – the 911 attacks. Shortly after the initial horror of those days, I purchased a book titled From the Ashes: A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America. It...
by James Melson | Sep 3, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
As this new school year begins, I want to share a prayer by Marian Wright Edelman, the founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund. In the 1960’s, she was a young lawyer and civil rights leader who led Robert Kennedy on a tour through rural...
by James Melson | Aug 27, 2018 | 2018, Weekly Reflection
Tomorrow is August 28, a date that holds deep significance in the history of the modern civil rights movement. On that date in 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till of Chicago was lynched in Money, MS. An all white jury failed to convict the men accused of his murder....
