From the Fig Tree
Jack Hardaway ] We have this fig tree. I had to move and replant it a couple of times until it found a happy place. We just forgot about it for a few years. Now it’s trying to take over the back of the house. It went from having an occasional fig to having more […]
God’s Two Cents
Noise. A noisy loud bombastic world. A wall of sound, a storming, stewing cacophony. And then out of all that something very quiet happens, hardly anyone notices. The widow walks up and puts in her two cents worth, not much, but everything, few notice in all the noise. Let there be Light! Creation begins anew. […]
Faith Finds Us
Tiggers like everything. That is how one of the great pilgrim stories begins. Tigger visits Winnie the Pooh, looking for breakfast, and Pooh shares his Honey because “Tiggers like Honey the best”. But, when Tigger tries the honey it is too sticky, and says that it is only suited for Heffalumps and woozles. “Tigger’s do […]
Getting Ahead
Getting ahead ain’t what it used to be. The disciples spent a good bit of time scratching their heads. They thought Jesus would help them get ahead in the world but apparently it’s not like that. What they get instead is falling off the grid, attending to those who don’t amount to much, doing things […]
Bringing in the Sheaves
There goes that old farmer in his garden. He has that raggedy old straw hat, walking up and down the rows, picking the okra and corn, tomatoes and peppers, beans and all that squash. Pulling up his shirt like a basket to hold the harvest until it starts to rip open. Then he fills up […]
Broken Chains
We are surrounded. Surrounded by the unseen, the unheard, the unnoticed. The invisible wraps around us. It is the air that we breathe. The water we swim in. The light and the darkness that fills our horizon. What don’t we see? What do we miss? What are those things that bring the unseen and unnoticed […]
Divine Things
I have mentioned before how I grew up with a pack of semi feral free range boys. Looking back I see we had this pattern of building things and then blowing them up. I still live with that. When I can get to the beach I like to build tall spiring sand castles with multiple […]
Grace Under the Table
Under the table. Have you ever found yourself under the table? What does it look like? Petrified bubble gum? Usually we are at the table. But under the table, that is something else. It means several things, it means being sneaky, or being passed out, or being left out, or on the edge, unnoticed, out […]
The Heart of the Matter
(Inspired, in part, by Aretha Franklin and John McCain, two of the great Reminders) My poor grandmother. I was the oldest of the next generation. The two of us. We didn’t know what to do with each other. Who knows how many times she blessed my heart. “Bless your heart.” Then there was that other […]
Sent
The new job. The first day at the new job. You have no idea what to do. They said, “On the job training.” They weren’t kidding. They should have just said, “Figure it out as you go.” Pretend to be competent until it becomes true. Until then keep up appearances. Set up to fail. Sink […]
The Voyage to One Another
Proper 7b 2018; 24 June Mark 4:35-41 THE VOYAGE TO ONE ANOTHER The distance between us is impossible to cross. That is how life shipwrecks us. That is where relationships sink. That is the forecast of history. That is the foul weather that inundates our country. The land of distance and the home the divided. […]
Plunder
God is a thief. God is stealing the world back. That is the Gospel. Jesus is binding the strongman and plundering his house. Jesus is binding Satan and setting the captives free. Jesus is stronger than the strongman, stronger than what binds the victims. There is no line in the sand. No chip on the […]
Gas on the Fire
I grew up with a band of semi-feral boys with minimal adult supervision. We had a great time. It was like Where the Wild Things Are meets the Lost Boys. It was like heaven. We had this reckless freedom. Somehow we survived with minimal scarring, broken bones and fire damage. We would play with fire. […]
Easter Sunday 2018 – Video & Text
https://www.facebook.com/111206155580409/videos/1888063597894647/ RISEN What was closed has been opened. What was full has been emptied. What was dark has been filled with light. What had ended has begun. What was a grave has become labor and delivery. What was too little too late has become more than enough all the time. Where there were words there […]
The Return of Wonder
I was a strange teenager. Well, all teenagers are unique strange creatures, some more than others. My strangeness came out in studying science and theology, not together, but I studied both separately. Some of my science journals had strong connections to secular humanism and atheism. Some of my favorite people were indifferent or openly hostile […]
Higher and Higher
I have a worm in my ear. It conjures up a gross image. Ear worms. Most of us get them. You know when a song or turn of phrase gets stuck in your head and you sing it over and over? An ear worm. I pretty much always have one, they just sort switch one […]
Poaching
The stories we learn when we are young have a way of sticking with us. We go back to them. We remember them. We pass them along. They become part of us. To a large extent, we are each a collection of stories all jumbled together. We see the world and move in the world […]
Starting Over
Beginnings are always exciting. Well, maybe not always, sometimes they are pretty nerve-wracking, like the birth of a child or a new job. My heart skips a beat just thinking about it! But, often, beginnings are exciting. Like the birth of a child or a new job. Sometimes new beginnings are a chance to start […]
The Beginning
Nothing announces the beginning of the day like the crow of a rooster in the soft gray light between darkness and sunrise. Sometimes you run across roosters in the most unusual places. I love running early in the morning in that place of gray light before sunrise when the sky begins to hint at the […]
Summer is Near
Waiting. We hate to wait. But so much of life is about waiting. Waiting is a lost art. Advent begins today. The Christian year begins today. Happy new years! Advent, we begin the season of expectant waiting. More like a child waiting on Christmas Eve than like waiting to renew our driver’s licenses at the […]