I veered away from the Lectionary passage this week because I was captured by the story in Luke 7:1-10, which is about, well, stories. ______________________ One of the things I like about living in Guilford is being able to shop at Forte’s Market, mainly because they have a real butcher counter where they grind the…
I know I wasn’t the only one who struggled with what to say in my sermon today. I chose the passage a few weeks back—Luke 6:39-49—and it gave me a good jumping off place this morning. As I prepared the sermon, I kept thinking about words from King Lear I first learned reading Frederick Buechner:…
imago d.e.i. can we talk numbers? 91 different kinds of antelope 11,000 different birds 50,000 spiders 34,000 snakes 30,000 fish and too many worms to try and count not to mention us we humans are one of 522 different primates but perhaps the only ones who see themselves as the image of God which begs…
I’m working my way through Luke so I am a little off from the lectionary, but this turned out to be the right story for this past week and, perhaps, for the days to come. _________________________ In my days as a high school English teacher, one of the books I loved to read with my…
last days no matter who has been alive or what has happened in history people have been convinced they were the last act of humanity because things were so bad who could imagine a future? no matter when they were alive they represented a fraction of all who lived before them our 8 billion doesn’t…
Guy Clark has a song that says, “Some days you write the song. Some days the song writes you.” Some days that’s true with sermons as well. _________________________ A crowd gathers for worship in a traditional setting. A preacher preaches a sermon, initially embraced by everyone. But then, at the end, the preacher reminds the…
stocked up when I looked up the roots of the word stock it said “supply for future use; collective wealth” and reminded me that it was four hundred years before it became a kitchen word still I think about the pot simmering all day filled with a collective wealth of bones and root vegetables as…
ice it has been days since the temperature has topped the freezing mark the snow that fell a few days ago has crusted into a crunchy stability if you have to go out but ice is not your friend whether the white ridges or the translucent layer disguised as ashphalt it will take you down…
I know the Revised Common Lectionary doesn’t point to the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness until the first Sunday in Lent, but it seems to have more layers when it is taken in context between Jesus’ baptism and his sermon in Nazareth where they deemed him unrecognizable. I’ll find something else for…
I found some new things (well, new to me) as I read the story of Jesus’ baptism this year. Here’s what I said in my sermon. ___________________________ When it comes to Bible stories, particularly the ones we have heard during Advent and Christmas, and now going into the season after Epiphany, we often carry a…