it’s a quiet pentecost morning and I’m out of town on a side street of life where I ducked out of the drizzle only to find myself in hart and soul coffee everyone here speaks my language though silence is not my strong suit it strikes me that it takes some quiet for the...
Read more →Yesterday morning I went to breakfast with a room full of people who make me proud to live in Durham. The group was the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, which is a profound collection of folks who are working diligently to end violence in our town, or as they say, “Our mission is...
Read more →Some days the news makes me angry. Some days it makes me sad. On rare occasions, it brings me to despair. Today is one of those days. After dinner tonight, I read this article in the Huffington Post that said both the assault weapons ban and the limits on high capacity magazines were not...
Read more →The important thing is that you have a lot of skin cells. Of those billions of skin cells, between 30,000 and 40,000 of them fall off every hour. Over a 24-hour period, you lose almost a million skin cells. Where do they all go? The dust that collects on your tables, TV, windowsills and...
Read more →After a second day of rain here in Durham, something struck me I had never thought of before: the Gospel writers don’t say much about the weather. I even spent some time doing a little research. Other than the “windstorm” that swept across the Sea of Galilee (Luke 8) and a storm on Paul’s...
Read more →I wasn’t planning on being a cultural critic when I sat down to write, but the week has been long and I am tired. I didn’t come to the desk with a ripe idea; my mind felt as blank as the page in front of me. So I went looking for other words or,...
Read more →“Where Are We Going” Luke 4:1-13 A Sermon for Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Durham NC February 17, 2013 In these weeks since Epiphany, we have journeyed through Jesus’ baptism, his first miracle, and his sermon in his hometown of Nazareth. This morning we come to the story of the Temptations. (Jeremy, our accompanist,...
Read more →The story below is one I wrote several years ago. I read it this morning at church. I offer it to you tonight. A Faraway Christmas by Milton Brasher-Cunningham As we gather together on this Silent Night, To sing ‘round the tree in the soft candlelight, From a Faraway Christmas, from...
Read more →on the cusp of a new year back edge of the old one may I see life as frontier ‘stead of something that’s done may I age with more grace and far fewer demands stare out into space and work with my hands make love the last word and thank you the first let...
Read more →I have posted this poem before. It remains one of the most powerful statements of gratitude I know, so I’m sharing it once again. Thanks Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings we are running out of the glass rooms...
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