I wish someone would write an account of how those who put together the Revised Common Lectionary came to their decisions as to what should be read from week to week, which passages went together, and even what should be left out of the regular three-year cycle. I’m sure the reason no one has done…
I love that every three years the stories of Samuel and Dr. King intersect because they are both stories about listening. Here’s my sermon from this past Sunday. ___________________________ Today is the second Sunday of Epiphany if we mark time by the liturgical calendar. As we know, epiphany is a word that means “awakening,” and…
We had our first winter storm of the year over the weekend, which meant we did not gather for in-person worship at my church this week. Instead, I recorded a “service” and uploaded it to our YouTube page—almost all of that an unseen consequence of the pandemic. The scripture for the week was the account…
The story of Anna and Simeon caught me by surprise as I prepared for my sermon last week, taking me on an interesting journey that I hope is meaningful to you as well. ______________________ When it comes to our Nativity scenes, we know the characters pretty well. At the center, of course, are Mary, Joseph,…
After I printed my last Advent sermon, I went back to save the file and managed to delete the text in the document before I saved it, which left me with nothing. Tonight, after scanning the printed manuscript to a PDF and then copying it back into a Word document, I was able to recreate…
One of the cool things about Guilford is a biannual event called GreenStage Guilford, which is four or five days of various live performances around town. This year, one of the spinoffs was a periodic Open Mic at The Marketplace, a local sandwich and coffee shop. I signed up, of course, because, well, Open Mic,…
incremental this shortest day was spent contemplating two long-lived lives alongside of sons and spouses caught in the anteroom of unraveling that opens into grief I had no answers I hardly had comfort I had only presence and a few words a few forgettable words in the midst of discussing details I said something about…
Two quotes found me today. The first is from Meister Eckhart, quoted by Christian Wiman in Zero at the Bone: Only the hand that erases can write the true thing. The second is from Jason Isbell, quoted in an excellent article by Taylor Brown in the Bitter Southerner: Giving other people the ability to harm…
poetic license I feel like a metaphor staring at a white screen not knowing what to write a week before Christmas or saying I spent the day driving through driving rain and wind that wreaked havoc and never turned to snow but it’s not the whole story I met a friend for lunch at a…
I preached about joy this week, which helped me as we get closer to the solstice and the daylight drips down to its shortest appearance. Joy is easier to recognize or feel than it is to preach about, but I gave it a good shot. _________________________ I amused myself as I worked on the sermon…