“The Imagination of Grace”A Sermon for Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Durhamby Milton Brasher-CunninghamExodus 3:1-15; Romans 12:9-21 Perhaps one of the reasons I like stories about Moses is he was as rootless as I am.He was born of a Hebrew mother while she was being held in exile with her people in Egypt, adopted by…

Last weekend, the big event in our neighborhood of Old North Durham was a birthday party. Fullsteam Brewery turned one. For those of you not fortunate enough to live close enough to know why the date matters so to those of here in Durham, let me explain why its presence matters and, in lieu of…

The evening began with a conversation – long distance, back when that mattered, between Ginger and me. She was in Birmingham visiting her family; I was in Fort Worth. We had been dating about eight months and both knew we were on a crash course for each other. Somewhere in our words we decided to…

“The presence of your absence bothers me,” begins an old Pierce Pettis song. I’ve sung the lyric both out loud and in my head for several days now as I go deeper into Ginger’s two week pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine that left me here to tend to Schnauzers and in-laws in Durham. The quotidian…

I know. I haven’t posted in a while. OK, almost a month. I decided I would sing my way back in — that is, I would sing along. The tone for this collection was set by Eric Folkerth, who pointed me to Eric Schwartz. Listen and enjoy the soulfulness. The next man that came to…

for the beauty of the parkto not-so-wild geesecongregating in the grassthe walkers and joggers intent on not making eye contactflanked by smiling dogsthe cool summer airof this mile-high morningmakes my grateful hymn of praise for sidewalksthat know my namefor eyes that smile back andthe love which from our birthremembers we are allwalking home Peace,Milton

Once upon a time, a guitar was a guitar. No qualifiers were needed. Then along came rock and roll and amplification and we needed more than one word to describe the stringed instrument because there was more than one kind. Thus, what had always been a guitar became an acoustic guitar to set it apart…

the corn is growing(all eight plants)as are the squash sweet potatoes cinnamon basil bee balm figs and echinaceatomatoes gooseberriespeppers and eggplant(aubergine is a better name)along with muscadinespeaches and asian pearsI’m circling the gardenalong with schnauzersbutterflies and beesaware that walkingaround in my gardenis like walking aroundthe inside of my heart Peace,Milton

Sunday evening I sat down to dinner with friends from Durham after I had made my last run to the airport of the day to drop off folks heading home from the Wild Goose Festival, which was held at Shakori Hills near Durham. Saturday was my friend Terry’s birthday and I wanted to eat dinner…