Luke 13:1-9 It will be six years this spring — and I’m still waiting for my lilac bush to bloom. Here is how it went: Sixteen years ago in the spring after my dad died, my friend, Midge, asked me to dig up a corner of the lilac bush which had bloomed in my folks’ …
Luke 13:31-35 It’s an odd story, this one, and but a moment in time. Many of us have far more poignant stories than this one… this is just the one that comes to mind this morning. I was in college and was traveling with my mother, returning from a visit to a friend. We had …
Philippians 3:17-4:1 It was one of those moments that always stays with you. I was 17 years old. It was early in the morning — I was on a field trip with a handful of other seniors from a high school history class. We were traveling west on Route 20 through northern Illinois just west …
Luke 4:1-13 I officiated at a funeral last Saturday. I was not acquainted with the one who had died, except later through the family’s stories, but they were in need of a pastor, and as I have said in this space before, when asked I always do my best to step in. I confess I was tired …
Psalm 51 It’s an old story, this one, since the young man in question turned eighteen not long ago. And yet, I remember it like it was yesterday the Saturday morning when I broke my nephew’s heart. I am telling you the truth when I say that I had a three-year-old standing at my feet …
Luke 9:28-36 I was officiating at a funeral a while back. I was working then with a funeral home I don’t work with all that often, and somehow this was the first occasion we had shared together in the funeral of a veteran. Following the service, we traveled in caravan to the cemetery. The prayers and words …