Mark 1:1-8 “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:2) “Righteousness shall go before the Lord and shall prepare for God a pathway.” (Psalm 85:13) “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:8) Here is what strikes me …
Tag: Psalms
The Face of God
Now this is so. I have never been one who knew too much of how to speak of the Holy Trinity. I expect my mind does not work naturally in such categories, with such systematic ways of thinking. More than this, and perhaps for this reason, I imagine, I have never found a good way …
Being Still: Letting Go…
Psalm 46 I had pulled it out before going on a call the other day: these resounding words of the Psalmist which have strengthened countless struggling ones and which ring out in our minds and hearts this Reformation Day in Martin Luther’s triumphant rephrasing of this ancient message. I pulled it out to take with …
A Little Lower Than God… God’s Own Breath In Us
Psalm 8 “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being…” Genesis 2:7 And so it is Holy Trinity Sunday — the one Sunday of the church year which is wholly devoted to exploring and celebrating …
Psalm 23: When the Virus Comes Home…
Psalm 23 The virus came home to us this week. I’ve watched it on the news for weeks, for months now, as I know you have as well. I have watched as the anonymous numbers rose in our county and beyond. I have prayed with nurses whose vocation lives and breathes in the intensive care …
Near to the Brokenhearted
Psalm 34:15-22 I have been pastoring a long time now. And while the world has changed a great deal in the last three decades with the result that many of the ways in which my work is accomplished has also changed, something I learned early on through the modeling of others has not changed. And …
Thieves and Bandits … and the Shepherd
Psalm 23 John 10:1-10 I shook my head to see the ad — I expect you did, too. Apparently a major department store is now selling jeans encased in fake ‘mud’ — at a price of $425. I shook my head to imagine that anyone, anywhere, would pay such a price to appear to be …
Simple White Crosses and Crosses of Ash
Psalm 51 I cut through campus the other day. I had decided to spend some quiet time in the library — reading and praying and pondering ahead to the holy season before us now. Although the fact that I had chosen a ‘window seat’ on the first floor meant I was distracted by the steady …
A Cross of Ashes and Another Cross
Psalm 51 “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me…” Psalm 51:3 This story comes to mind most every year on Ash Wednesday. I was six, maybe seven years old. We were on a family camping trip. The fold out camper had been backed into its spot and unhitched from our station …
Ashes and Dust and Broken Hearts
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 …