John 10:11-18 As I was listening for the voice of the Shepherd this week, I found myself remembering other voices which have so shaped me. I am grateful to say that those which stay with me have been life-giving ones. In fact, some of those voices have been resounding especially clear in these last days.This …
On Jesus and Reunions and Forgiveness of Sins
Luke 24:36-49 A tornado hit my hometown last Thursday night. I had never heard of a ‘wedge’ tornado before, but now I’ll never forget it. A wedge tornado is wider than it is tall. I heard tell of one woman who was looking right at it and didn’t see it for she could not discern …
A Holy Footrace: Peter and John and You and Me and the Empty Tomb
John 20:1-19 It was well after midnight. We had left the hospital where they had removed my dad from the life support which had been keeping him breathing. Back at the hotel, I was sitting up with a couple of friends who had traveled in to keep vigil with us and who had decided to stay. As …
Making Sense of the Senseless: The Suffering of Jesus
John 18:1-19:42 Some of you will know that I began going to a chiropractor last fall. We think it was the result of a fall last June, but for some reason I didn’t feel it until later. By the end of October I was unable to turn to the right without significant pain. I had …
Shredded: Some Thoughts for Maundy Thursday
I waited in line for nearly an hour last Saturday afternoon. It was ‘Community Shred Day’ at our local credit union, you see, and I had shredding to do. My mother retired from teaching third grade twenty-one years ago this spring. All these years she has kept the grade-books from her last ten years in …
The Mind of Christ
Philippians 2:5-11 I sat down with a group of leaders in a congregation a few months ago. This particular place, like many, has had its share of struggles. Indeed, those people who had come together that night shared that the congregation as a whole just wasn’t very ‘nice.’ They were, by then sitting on fifty …
Dying and Living and a Late Winter’s Cold
John 12:20-33 I came down with a cold two days after Ash Wednesday this year. I confess to feeling a little smug that it had not taken me down earlier. Well, maybe not exactly smug — but certainly grateful and surprised. Everyone around me had fallen to the nasty germ and somehow I had escaped. …
Light and Darkness
John 3:14-21 I find myself remembering Lyle this week-end. Lyle was a member of my first congregation. He was number seven or eight in a line of children — all then in their late 60’s or 70’s, all still living, and for the most part, all still living within reach of one another. He was …
Fresh Eyes: Jesus Cleansing the Temple
John 2:13-22 Like many of you, my attention has been captured in these last days by the matter of ‘the dress.’ You know the one I’m talking about: that one which is making its rounds on the internet these days and has captured the imagination of early morning news hosts. That dress which is clearly …
Picking Up My Cross: How Shall I Die?
Mark 8:31-38There has been this ‘opportunity’ floating around Face Book lately. If you follow the provided link and insert your name and the year of your birth, you will be given a photograph of a gravestone like this: I’ve done it a couple of times and while the year is always the same, the cause …