August 3 marks eight years since my father died. These are the words that found me as I stack up the stones once again. namesake the name was used when you gave it to me accompanied by a number I was the third though we were only two and you already knew the grief of…
I am preaching this morning at North Madison Congregational Church UCC, a congregation in the town next to us whom I have gotten to know over the years. The passage this morning is John 6:24-35, where Jesus describes himself as the Bread of Life. _____________________________ I did something in July I had not done in…
I have made this pie several times over the years, but when I made it most recently while we were in Durham, a friend asked for the recipe. I am slow in finally posting it, but here it is. The crust is versatile. You can use if for most any slab pie. And there are…
I know I haven’t been here in a while. I’ll explain that another time. For now, I am preaching today at United Churches in Durham, Connecticut and I thought I might as well post my sermon since I have it written as a way to be back in touch. The passage is John 6:1-14: John’s…
supermarket finds it’s the periodic experience of lostness in the supermarket when I turn down the baking aisle to find it is filled with crackers my points of reference have been relegated to the rubbish heap if I want to find food I will have to learn a list of new addresses they do it…
Ginger begins her sabbatical this week. She asked me to bake cookies for her staff meeting on Tuesday as a little going away present. This recipe had crossed my field of vision over the past couple of weeks, so her request gave me a chance to play with it a bit. Ginger loves a soft…
If I had the chance to go back and rewrite Keeping the Feast: Metaphors for the Meal, I would do a better job of explaining why a chapter on baseball belongs in the book. For tonight–Maundy Thursday and Opening Day (even though it got rained out)–I pulled some of what I wrote in the chapter…
This post started because a friend posted a video with a song title I recognized, but it wasn’t the song I knew. It did however send me back to a song embedded deep in the soundtrack of my life that I needed to hear today on behalf of friends who are hurting deeply–and also for…
one step removed the advantage of living through holy week after the fact is we know what is coming we read the events as connected sequence if this then that we have turned the unexpected into ritual meaningful repetition but still repetition we know what’s coming but the rituals seem empty because of the scares…
Anger I had a dream the other night about a huge reservoir. I was standing on the banks, taking it in. I didn’t go in the water and I don’t remember much else that happened, other than I was aware that the body of water that stretched out in front of me was my anger….