Six-thirty in the morning is dark again, an envelope of stillness as dog and I walk beneath the canopy of trees along the street. No other human or canine life was visible this morning, suppressed … [Read more...]
Tending to National Character
An unusual email arrived following upon a recent “friending” through the increasingly oldster Facebook network. An eighty-something retired minister I knew decades ago, contacted me along with several … [Read more...]
Touching…and Being Touched
The thing about a chronic illness is that it’s always with you. It is relentless, an uninvited guest we do not want and probably fear. Many once life-threatening illnesses have become chronic … [Read more...]
Squeezed Between Mom & Mother-in-Law
Find the Gospel text from Mark at this link: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=64 This sermon is about the healing nature of tension. Yes, you heard that correctly: the … [Read more...]
Reconciliation
TEXTS FOR PREACHING Liturgical Reading ("To My Mother" by Wendell Berry): http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/05/09 Gospel (Matthew … [Read more...]
The Cat That Fell From On High
When I was in seminary there was a guy who had a fat, furry cat in his third floor dorm room, and it would rest on the windowsill of the open window swishing its tail back and forth all day. It was a … [Read more...]
Denim Spirit: Death and Gratitude
http://subversivepreacher.org/denim-spirit-death-and-gratitude/ In dim light and thick air, when heavy emotions wet the atmosphere as life leaves the human body, there is an exquisite holiness … [Read more...]
Denim Spirit: Death and Gratitude
http://www.fltimes.com/opinion/denim-spirit-of-death-and-gratitude/article_32d9307e-648f-11e6-8329-df20461db823.html In dim light and thick air, when heavy emotions wet the atmosphere as life … [Read more...]
Practice Change
This post first appeared as one in a series of regular columns in The Finger Lakes … [Read more...]
Healing
A Thank-You Note, by Michael Ryan For John Skoyles My daughter made drawings with the pens you sent, line drawings that suggest the things they represent, different from any drawings she — at … [Read more...]