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Snow and advent… What I am really waiting for, this time of year, is snow. Today, the snow is here. Dangerous and beautiful. Quiet and white, blowing, refreshing, even astringent. And how that fits with Advent? I’m not sure. It might be the quiet stillness, the way it forces us to slow down and take [...]
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.” For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. (Psalm 122) [...]
In an effort to jump start the blog, I’m planning to write a post on the daily lectionary every day of advent. In an effort to make sure this is about a spiritual practice that is about nurturing and not perfection; people-pleasing; work-righteousness; beating-myself-up-if-I-don’t-get-it-right, I’m starting on day 2 of Advent. So, it will be [...]
This is exactly how I feel!!! Well, not exactly I guess since sermons are meant to be oral in the end, but so similar… Reading one’s own poems (sermons) aloud is like letting the cat out of the bag. You may have always suspetced bits of a poem (Sermon) to beoverweighted, overviolent, or daft, and [...]
Verbal snapshots from my youth group’s mission trip. Verbal because (a) I didn’t take any pictures since we have an awesome photographer among our volunteers; and snapshots because (b) the whole thing was too big and amazing to write a coherent narrative. (And, for those who don’t know, we went to Wesley Woods camp in [...]
I know I want to preach on Acts 8:26-40 this week (the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch). I’m still not sure where that takes me as far as the sermon is concerned.I might be looking at a rabbit hole I shouldn’t go down: Ethiopia is very real to me right now because my [...]
Bono says we’re not so much in an economic downturn as in a world-wide Lent. And, in so many words, if that’s where we are, then Easter will come.This is the most realistically hopeful (i.e. Christian) interpretation of the economic crisis I’ve heard.Depression, economic downturn, impending disaster, total economic collapse (not to mention the disintegration of the [...]
We reserved a community garden plot today, and I spent about an hour mapping it out and ordering seeds. Mostly because I think Zora needs some dirt in her life. Not because I really have any spare time. Then, my brother pointed out that it might be a good way for us to meet people [...]
 My confirmands and their mentors are working on faith statements right now. I’m making the mentors write a faith statement alongside their confirmands to give the poor kiddos a sense of camerarderie, but also to model the idea of the continually moving target that is the Christian life. So, I’m having lots of fascinating discussions [...]
I took an afternoon to polish off a few books I was just about finished with and to start a few more…even read one from cover to cover. I’ve been on a bit of a ministry book buying binge lately. So, here are a few concise reviews, some of the things to read next, and [...]