My sermon this week was based on John 15:11-17, a passage where Jesus tells his disciples they are his friends. That set me wondering . . . ____________________________ Many years ago I was in a worship service in Texas where a visiting minister from Zambia was preaching. He began his sermon by talking about some…
Since today marks Ginger and my thirty-fourth wedding anniversary, I thought I would start my sermon with a story from the early years of our marriage. It’s actually a story about Ginger and our friend Cherry, who lived with us at the time in our little row house in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. It…
I guess it makes sense that most of the lectionary passages during Eastertide deal with Jesus’ appearances, but this week’s text (Luke 24:36-43) is another version of his surprising the disciples as they gathered in a locked room, still trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe we are all still trying to figure…
It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted. Part of the reason is we have been in the throes of selling our house in Durham and buying a different house there and also dealing with Lizzy!’s recovery from her surgery to remove her eyes. Along with that I have been dealing with some sort…
friday night lights at the funeral home on a friday evening one of the speakers quoted Mary Oliver “four small stones hugging each other” an image of love in a roomful of loss the one who just lost his husband took the words in with the rest of us and then stood up to say…
affirmation season the best part of deacons’ meeting on the night after the Oscars was when one said, “how long has it been since we told the staff they were doing a good job?’ after a short silence another replied, “it’s always a good time to say that” someone else volunteered to send cards none of…
I know I was not the only preacher who mentioned that we are close to the four year anniversary of the beginning of the Big Lockdown. That, along with the scripture passage, got me thinking about befores and afters. ______________________ Before and after. The two words are often used together to describe a change or…
making stock the air was as cold as it was grey today and the forecast of rain sent me stacking the stock pot on the stove pulling poultry bones from the freezer as well as a couple of bags of celery butts and carrot ends garlic fresh parsley and a sliced lemon its been simmering…
I am writing on Friday night, but most of you will read this on Saturday or later, which means this wa the night to write about daylight savings. saving time some time in the night we will be robbed of an hour of sleep in order that we might save daylight the thieves will leave…
rain on me today was a rainy day to which the rain never fully committed the mist loitered without purpose the showers were scattered unfocused rather than pelting me as i walked the moisture wafted like a parachutist blown off course putting the whether in weather in it all I found companions in the raindrops…