Snarky Angels (Easter
We are forgetful. We forget. That is the beginning of the Easter message. We are told, along with the women disciples, to remember. Well, actually the beginning of the message is a question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” If you are familiar with Angels, they don’t ask questions, they make […]
Prodigal Gospel
In the 1970’s my Grandmother worked at a bridal shop on Main Street in Greenville. I was a very young child, I remember the smell of fabric, starch and gardenia perfume. The whole place made me feel itchy. Grandmother would bring me and my brother Geoffrey there from time to time to show us off. […]
Urgency
Where do you find God? What is God like? Scripture gets used appropriately and inappropriately for all kinds of things, but for me scripture is really about those two questions. I don’t see scripture anymore as the place where I handpick the correct combination of do’s and don’ts to get God to like me. Where […]
Count the Stars
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Have you ever forgotten about the stars in the sky? I forget. I know they are there. I just don’t notice. I stop looking up. Granted the night sky isn’t what it used to be, with the haze of city air and the glare of city lights, or […]
The Devil’s Bargain
The devil’s bargain.A trade off.We get what we want but we give up who we are.All the stories of the devil’s bargain and cheating the devil involve clear moments of decision.They are stories of warning.Don’t play the game.The devil’s bargain in real life, however, is more elusive and subtle, a slow slide into oblivion, a […]
Deep Water
Deep waters are calling to us. To cast our nets out for a catch of miracles and humanity. Will we do it? Will we go for it? Or will we stay on the shore insisting that there is nothing out there? The nets are empty, there will never be enough. It is an overwhelming thing […]
Turning, Turning
We all carry within us tremendous power, an unquenchable fire. Faith and Hate. They are often confused. Faith always seems to carry the temptation to spiral downward into using God’s name to hate and exclude. That downward spiral sometimes carries a fierce indignation, sometimes a cold rationalism, other times a warm friendliness that mixes the […]
Road Work
Oh man. I have to be somewhere. I am in a hurry. I forget why… Of course this is when it always happens, it’s like a law of nature And there it is, yet again, that garish burnt orange road sign, construction up ahead, and the traffic at a standstill… And there he is again, […]
High Lonesome
Sometimes when someone is dying they have a distant look in their eyes, like they are seeing very, very far, a vast distance that is rapidly approaching, quickly encroaching. That stare of infinite distance. Advent is like that. The weariness of waiting and longing for what never arrives but is almost here, forever just beyond […]
Who, Me? (Christmas Eve)
Well surprise, surprise, surprise! Whenever I read the Christmas story from the Gospel According to Luke I think of Gomer Pyle from the old Andy Griffith show saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise! How is God experienced? What is the God of Christmas like? Surprise, surprise, surprise! The God of Christmas is a surprise to a cynical, […]
Face to Face
I grew up watching rerun episodes of classic TV westerns like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Maverick, the Rifle Man and Stage Coach. Saturday afternoons seemed to often have cowboy movies, spaghetti westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and a Fist Full of Dollars. But, my favorite cowboy wasn’t on in the afternoons or evenings, […]