Waterloo United Methodist Church

08/28/2026

Please note that too many of the so-called 'posts' are not authorized by the church, but are 'butted in' to a place it shouldn't be. We apologize and are working on how to protect our church and congregation. (Keep us in your prayers, too, please!)

01/17/2025

I have learned that if you want to get the streamed service, you need to send a Friend Request to Jay Waterloo and you can receive the services. There are four Jay Waterloo sites. Be sure to check and send to the correct Jay.

01/12/2025

Hallelujah. I am back. Trying to find this morning’s streamed service.

10/19/2024

10/19/2024

Cracking Open the Rock of Language
ALAN RUBENSTEIN

The Hebrew Bible is a mystery, with every word a clue that raises more questions than it answers. Take the root word כבד (kvd). At its most concrete, this word means “weight.” One of the places it appears is in the chapters about the plagues in the Book of Exodus, which state several times that Pharaoh’s heart is “hardened.” In fact, three different verbs are used to describe what happens to Pharaoh’s heart. What is the significance of each of them? Elsewhere in Exodus, כבד means “honor,” notably in the commandment to honor thy father and mother. How can one word describe what happens to Pharaoh’s heart, preventing him from freeing the Israelite slaves despite the display of God’s power, and also describe the attitude one should have to one’s parents?

My fellow detective in this matter was a man named Robert Sacks.

Source: plough.com

10/19/2024

CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH BLUMHARDT

Then the peace of God, which is beyond our utmost understanding, will keep guard over your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7, NEB

O Lord God, grant us your Spirit, that we may comprehend your peace. As we pray, help us to recognize what must come from you alone, for you are mighty and holy and your will is peace on earth. Your will is peace beyond all understanding, your peace in heaven and on earth and under the earth, your peace that opposes all sin and death and takes away every evil that can be named. We await you, O Lord our God, and you will hear us. No matter how long the battle lasts, we hold out in patience, for we are your children. We shall never lose the faith that your name shall be honored and that all things shall come into harmony with your will of peace on earth, your peace. Amen.

Source: plough.com

10/18/2024

Jeremiads of Broomsedge
ADAM WHIPPLE

The color and savory scent of a broomsedge field has always held a particular draw for me. It used to be nostalgia; now it’s something else. The grass is a sign of disturbed and fallowed ground in the Southeast, a kind of botanical requiem after progress’s colonial ravishings: the flora of grief. It’s a grief in which I was raised unawares. The apartments where my family lived in North Carolina were built in the 1960s on a broad, decapitated hilltop. The edgeworks there, where much of the offgraded soil had been dumped, were wild with broomsedge, along with briers and blackberries.

The grass is a somewhat dependable marker of change.

Source: plough.com