It was the Late Eighties. Those were the days when CDs were new and my collection was highlighted by bands like The Alarm, U2, Big Country — to name just a few — and The Call. The guitars ripped, the drums pounded, and the keyboards did that thing keyboards did in the Eighties. Those bands…

I stopped by the bookstore this afternoon, after spending the day at a workshop to learn how to use the software supplied by our yearbook company, with the hope that Mary Gordon’s book, Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels, had come out in paperback. (These are not hardcover buying days at our house.)…

The lectionary text today was one of Jesus’ more difficult parables to understand. Here’s what the text and Ginger’s sermon took me. We met today to worship, pray, and sing,and heard the call to shrewdly help the pauper;my mind played “Money Changes Everything” –the lectionary led to Cyndi Lauper. I looked up shrewd. It says:…

At several different junctures in my life, Parker J. Palmer has befriended me and mentored me through his writings (in particular, The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak). I have never met him, nor have I ever heard him speak, yet I have found a healing resonance in his written words that have…

Ginger had a chance to go to Big Tent Christianity in Raleigh this past week. I didn’t get to go, but got to hear some great stuff second hand. Tonight’s sonnet comes from some of those gleanings and the question I am left to ponder: what are the responsibilities of a privileged disciple? Seventeen million…

the dig in the dirtgo to bed tiredspread out the gravelplant the trees and vegetables days the creak in the kneescrust in the knucklescome back in five yearsto see how it all worked out days the plot the resurrectionslam the door opensay thanks for the helpgive thanks for the pups days the listen to the…

I had a church-less weekend since Sunday was my turnto stay at home with Reuben, who is ailing;I planted in the garden and gave the beds a turnWhile he sat and snored and set the “z”s a-sailing. I was not there to stand in line to taste the Bread and Cup,the food that’s fed the…

During the middle of my junior year in high school, my family moved to Houston, Texas and I became a student at Westbury High School. I knew no one in the building and began as a new student in January. It was the worst transition of any of the several transitions I made from school…

In response to today’s Gospel reading, Luke 14:1-14. The parables of Jesus unfold in word and deed:it’s the living, breathing stuff of Incarnation;the healing of a blind man, the sower sowing seedtell the story of the Spirit’s provocation. He healed someone on the Sabbath and then told a simple taleOf a banquet with the seating…