Wednesday, November 11, 2020 | Reflections
A local homeless man froze to death on a cold winter night, huddled in a parking garage. Our community rose up and declared that this would not happen again. A group of churches and synagogues collaborated to provide dinners and a safe place to sleep for all who...
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 | Reflections
One of my favorite spiritual memoirs is The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. A priest and amateur chef, Capon wrote of his faith through an extended exploration of the alchemy that takes place in a kitchen, where foods are transformed into something magical...
Monday, November 9, 2020 | Reflections
I struggle with Luke’s parable of the wedding banquet every time I read it. There is no satisfying resolution for me. When the guest is cast out for not wearing a suitable wedding robe, the reason so many declined an invitation to this banquet seems clear. Would you...
Sunday, November 8, 2020 | Reflections
When was the last time you talked about your faith outside of church? We often feel awkward about this kind of sharing. What if the person who hears me is a follower of a different religion? What if they are offended or think that I’m proselytizing? Even worse, what...
Saturday, November 7, 2020 | Reflections
We love rules. There is great safety in rules. The lawyers and the Pharisees in this gospel passage were not evil or sadistic people; they were faithful followers of the rules—just like you and me. Rules make our world orderly and safe: Think of traffic a….(View...
Friday, November 6, 2020 | Reflections
Luke’s image of Jesus as a mother hen is the one I most cherish. As a mother, I feel viscerally the desire to draw the beloved bodies of my children into the safety of my arms—to hide under the shadow of my wings those warm precious bodies to whom my own body has...
Thursday, November 5, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: December 1, 1955Let us think today of one great truth: People have learned to live together. Sometimes the lesson has been poorly learned; sometimes, there have been wars on a large scale and strife on a small scale. But m….(View this reading...
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 | Reflections
Ours is a God who planted the islands, birthed the sea, and filled the deep with huge sea monsters—all for the sport of it. If God has taken such pleasure in fashioning all living things, imagine the pleasure God must have taken—and continues to take—in you and...
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 | Reflections
For those of you reading this in the United States, today is Election Day. By tonight we will know who the president will be for the next four years. No matter where you place yourself on the political spectrum, this will be a momentous day.What better time to be...
Monday, November 2, 2020 | Reflections
Christians have relied on symbols as long as we have existed. A fish for believers, a key for Peter, a book and a sword for Paul, a lamb draped over Agnes’s arm. We know martyrs by the palm branches they clutch. Palms are an ancient symbol of victory and carry the...
Sunday, November 1, 2020 | Reflections
The day I went to the local tailor to be measured for my first cassock was like an introduction into a secret world. The workshop was full of obscure articles of clerical haberdashery, most much fancier than the simple black wool cassock I was seeking. I marveled at...
Saturday, October 31, 2020 | Reflections
I still remember the night we learned our grandson had cancer. The phone call woke us sometime after midnight. Our son was in tears, still at the hospital, barely able to speak the words, much less absorb their impact.Fear and trembling overcame all of us in the weeks...
Friday, October 30, 2020 | Reflections
When I graduated from college, I thought I wanted to become a college professor. I took two years off and taught English in South Korea. I learned a lot about the teaching profession—including that I do not like giving grades.I didn’t mind grading papers, noting what...
Thursday, October 29, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: November 2, 1955To know that the power behind the universe, the Lord of Creation, cares for us so much that he will suffer for us, and that he has put all his power in pledge to win and redeem us—that is the source of our abiding joy…..(View...
Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | Reflections
It’s hard for most of us to understand the enormous cultural gap between Jews and Gentiles in Jesus’ day. Tax collectors were condemned for collaborating with the Romans—but not just for working with political oppressors. The condemnation was also for associating with...
