Ekkesia determined after its first year that it could pay the local matching portion to bring AmeriCorps tutors to Hawkins Elementary. Neighbors at Hawkins’ longstanding work bringing daily activity into the school from local volunteers combined with the work of AmeriCorps members has shown great and quantifiable results.
Jesus is not the Christ of Black Friday. He is the Christ of Good Friday. His truth cannot be purchased, only received, and received only on its own terms. It comes not to those who have enough to pay for it, but to those who know they cannot afford it, that there is nothing of equal value to it. It comes to those who are simply willing to bow to receive.
It was here, in Holy Communion, that the Church saw fully and completely what the potential cost of discipleship entailed: death. And yet it was literal good news, because despite his death, Jesus Christ was currently present with them in this very act of Holy Communion. Read more from Steve Bruns’ series on the early church and discipleship.
December 2 Genesis 3:1-8 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from
