• last days

    last days no matter who has been alive or what has happened in history people have been convinced they were the last act of humanity because things were so bad who could imagine a future? no matter when they were alive they represented a fraction of all who lived before them our 8 billion doesn’t…

  • have mercy

    Guy Clark has a song that says, “Some days you write the song. Some days the song writes you.” Some days that’s true with sermons as well. _________________________ A crowd gathers for worship in a traditional setting. A preacher preaches a sermon, initially embraced by everyone. But then, at the end, the preacher reminds the…

  • stocked up

    stocked up when I looked up the roots of the word stock it said “supply for future use; collective wealth” and reminded me that it was four hundred years before it became a kitchen word still I think about the pot simmering all day filled with a collective wealth of bones and root vegetables as…

  • ice

    ice it has been days since the temperature has topped the freezing mark the snow that fell a few days ago has crusted into a crunchy stability if you have to go out but ice is not your friend whether the white ridges or the translucent layer disguised as ashphalt it will take you down…

  • triptych

    I know the Revised Common Lectionary doesn’t point to the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness until the first Sunday in Lent, but it seems to have more layers when it is taken in context between Jesus’ baptism and his sermon in Nazareth where they deemed him unrecognizable. I’ll find something else for…

  • word choice

    word choice another word for change is loss another word for loss is absence another word for absence is space another word for space is distance another word for distance is apart another word for apart is away another word for away is beyond another word for beyond is without another word for without is…

  • tidings

    tidings Christmastide has ebbed and the waves of wonder that crashed against the sea walls of our hearts are slipping away trees go down lights go dim and it dawns on me tides don’t stop they come in one after another waves break just like hearts one after another we come and go oh tidings…

  • star struck

    The magi show up every January and those of us who step into pulpits are expected to talk about them. Here’s where their journey took me this year. ____________________________ The magi are among my favorite characters that show up in the story of Jesus’ birth because we don’t really know who they were. Some translators…

  • route map

    route map the four-gate airport in New Haven (travel-sized, my friend Mandy says) announced new routes to five cities and it made me wonder how many new connections I have made lately or what it means to be an airport even if it is only metaphorically a place of connection with lines arcing across the…