Lent has turned into a time of reading. I know many pastors are avid readers…I’m not. I’m slow, tedious and hard to please. I have started many-a-book that I never finished, including books I was enjoying. My favorite book of all time, A Prayer for Owen Meany, I began 3 times before completing. I guess I have a shorter attention span and/or I crave immediacy, … Continue reading Reading for Lent
Rain. Gray. Rivers rising. Mud everywhere. Vitamin-D low. Worries high. A typical Thursday. Samuel–Son of Hannah, Man of God Samuel is God’s reward to Hannah for her prayers. Then she gives him up to the Temple. Before taking him to the Temple, Hannah has time one-on-one with Samuel, her first son, evidence that God heard her prayer. She retains him in the home until he … Continue reading The Second Day of Lent
First Ashes I spent most of the day bah-humbugging the onset of Lent. It’s rainy and gray and muddy and I want to ride my new bike. In preparing for Ash Wednesday, I recalled doing Lent in college and how it was a delight to fast, spend time alone with God and to work out my faith. It made for a useful sermon analogy. I … Continue reading The First Day of Lent
Lent is here. Blah, blah, blah. Lent always screws with my need for other things. As spring is getting sprung, all I want to do is burn my winter coat and lay in the grass. I want to take 4 days off work and watch basketball in my underwear. I want to go to Daytona Beach, which I never did in college. I just don’t … Continue reading Levity for Lent
Wednesday will get here irregardless of my level of preparedness. Lent is my favorite liturgical season, perhaps because it coincides with my favorite season season: Spring. Lent plays into my natural penchant for taking my own righteousness too seriously. The springing of Spring is a natural counter-balance–helping me to lighten up. Moreover, Lent always sets me up for an additional level of sinning. I used … Continue reading Lent 2011
Studying Richard Foster’s Prayer with my church, I was unexpectedly haunted by the chapter on Praying with Tears. I was a frequent crier as a child. There is a legend in my upbringing of me throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store. My dad took me to the car, while Mom and brother continued shopping. M. was an angel. It was pouring rain (I’m … Continue reading On Praying and Tears
Do you offer yourself without reserve to be appointed and to serve as the authoritative authority may determine? Have I attained perfection already? Have I completely conquered all matter of fear? Do I have complete and perfect trust in the Cabinet? Do I completely give over to other fallible humanoids the responsibility to determine how and where I will live out God’s calling in my … Continue reading BOOM: Offering myself without reserve
The Revised Common Lectionary cuts out “Judge not, lest ye be judged”. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount features in Year A’s season after Epiphany. Like many other blocks of teaching, the RCL chops the block into smaller bits, leaving some texts on the cutting room floor. I can understand redacting Judges 19 or swaths of Levitical code. But ‘Judge not’ is quintessential Jesus. Luke’s parallel … Continue reading On Not Judging Not
“Consider the lilies of the field! They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” This is a political, social, economic and moral statement. (See passage here) ‘Consider’—more like ‘Behold!’—means pay attention to what is already around you. Open your eyes! Eureka! I’ve found it! We live with our eyes half open. … Continue reading Page One: The Lilies of the Field
Note: I have a file of things that I have written that never made it to their original destination. Usually, these are impassioned defenses of something I believe, in which I find my own statements too strong. Every now and then, I will go through this file and read these things. In January, as I am reorganizing my files, I came across something I wrote that I wanted to … Continue reading I Love the UMC
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