Peace United Church of Christ - Elkader

09/07/2026

Monday, September 7, 2026

09/06/2026

Sunday, September 6, 2026

Peace Chancel Choir "Create in me, a clean heart, O God" by Carl Mueller in great form this morning.

Videographer confession: Forgot to press video!! 🤭😏😳

Join https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X92j2T6a5cYYouTube at the 10:20 minute mark to listen and enjoy.

09/06/2026

Sunday, September 6, 2026

A Blank Page Ago
Phiwa Langeni

I thank my God always when I mention you in my prayers. I pray that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ.
- Philemon 1:4, 6 (NRSVUE)



By the time you read these words, days, weeks, months, or even years have passed since I wrote them. Today, it’s just me and what was a blank page a sentence ago. When I first started writing for the UCC Daily Devotional, it was daunting to figure out what I could possibly say to the invisible audience with a diversity of identities, beliefs, and experiences with some level of coherence and meaning. All these years later, it’s still daunting considering how, realistically, I may never meet most of you.



Taking my cue from Paul who wrote to people in this manner constantly, I want to shift that reality a smidge and write to you directly on purpose. Whether we’ve met before or not, whether we know of each other or not, whether we’ll meet in this lifetime or not, know that I thank God for you.



To the self-proclaimed fangirls who read scripture together, I thank God for you. To the theologians turned politicians, I thank God for you. To the liminal space dwellers who grasp the worlds behind my words, I thank God for you. To the grieving who’ve shared tender stories of loss, I thank God for you. To the spiritually curious who remain open to new perspectives, I thank God for you. To the humans of animals who’ve kept faithful company, including 35-year-old Croaker the frog, I thank God for you.



Whoever you are, wherever this finds you, however long it’s been since I wrote it, I thank God for you and I pray…



Prayer

“…that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ.”

09/06/2026

Sunday blessings and 'findings'.

09/05/2026

09/05/2026

September 5, 2026

Pecked to Death by Ducks
Vince Amlin

[Jesus said,] “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Parent feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” - Matthew 6:26-29 (NRSV, adapted)



There are times when I find myself playing Adele’s song, “I Drink Wine,” on repeat. The whole thing is a masterpiece, but mostly I sing the last line of the chorus like a Taizé chant:



“Everybody wants something, you just want me.”



My friend Sandy calls it being “pecked to death by ducks,” that feeling that everyone wants a piece of you, and no one is quite satisfied with the one they get. Those seasons when the well is dry. When the bucket is empty. When the last crumb of stale bread has been devoured and the flock turns its bills on you.



“Everybody wants something, you just want me.”



For years I made Jesus’s words from the Sermon on the Mount into something I needed to do. I turned “Do not worry” into “Stop worrying!” And then worried about my inability to do so. Jesus became another disappointed friend, another unsatisfied customer, another hungry mouth to feed.



But that’s wrong. Jesus is the hen who shelters us beneath her wings. Who clothes us with love. Who feeds us from an inexhaustible store. Jesus is the one to whom we can pray…



Prayer

“Everybody wants something, you just want me.”

09/04/2026

Prayer... is like a missile that can be fired toward any spot on earth, travel undetected at the speed of thought, and hit its target every time. - R. Dunn

09/04/2026

Mornings with Jesus 2026
Friday, September 4, 2026

Limitations? Benefits!

09/03/2026

And just one more Thursday thought.

09/03/2026

Thursday thought.