Category: Uncategorized

Journey into the Unknown

The beginnings of ambitious journeys are often beset by missteps and bad luck.  Or sometimes splendid serendipity.  Nothing certain here – that’s definitely the case with any Lenten journey taken in deep prayerful seriousness. It was certainly the case for one man’s most ambitious… Continue Reading “Journey into the Unknown”

How is it With Your Soul?

Philip Roth wrote a novel set in the 1990s, The Human Stain, being the last of a trilogy on American life.  It looks at the messiness of human existence, and how, in finality, there are no complete remakes, no ultimate do-overs.  The American myth… Continue Reading “How is it With Your Soul?”

Light Shining in ICE Darkness

We’ve all seen the sickening TV coverage.  ICE agents bursting into people’s houses.  No warrant.  Hauling out suspected immigrants in their underwear, forced to lie facedown in the snow.  No warrant necessary.  Car windows smashed as a disabled woman is jerked out of her… Continue Reading “Light Shining in ICE Darkness”

What Does the Lord Require

In our basic training post at Fort Sam in San Antonio, all of us in Company D-3 were conscientious objectors to be trained as Army Medics.  Before going on to our medic training, we went through an 8-week course.  Usually in the evening if… Continue Reading “What Does the Lord Require”

We’ve Been to the Mountain Top

It was a cold and rainy night in Memphis, Tennessee.  As the sanitation workers were given no provision to get out of that weather, two Black workers had taken refuge in the bin at the back of their truck.  Inadvertently, they were crushed to… Continue Reading “We’ve Been to the Mountain Top”

Our Baptismal Vows

I vividly remember a critical moment in our confirmation class when I served a medium-sized United Methodist Church out in Ridgecrest.  As in the Episcopal Church, confirmation is that ritual wherein one claims for oneself the baptismal vows they made, or were made on… Continue Reading “Our Baptismal Vows”

Let Your Love-Light Shine

The story goes in Matthew that there was an anomaly in the sky, something ajar.  More than a shooting star caught their attention.  In a world beset by a great malaise, a wonder to behold.  In that “bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan.”  And… Continue Reading “Let Your Love-Light Shine”

Do Not be Afraid

We live in a fearful age.  “Precarious” describes the situation of many folk these days.   Many of us think the country is headed in the wrong direction, with a sociopathological narcisist at the helm.  Heroid incarnate. Destitution is everywhere.  On the streets you can… Continue Reading “Do Not be Afraid”

All Changed into Blessing

What’s in a name?  As parents about to be at the rather advanced age of 40 and 41 we felt especially blessed that a first child was on the way.  We had been married 17 years when we found out we were expecting.  I’m… Continue Reading “All Changed into Blessing”

Holy Resilience

It is ever into a world torn asunder that faith is birthed.  Isaiah speaks to a desolate people, brutally slaughtered, hauled off to exile.  Sing us a song of Zion their captors taunted. “How can we sing the Lord’s song in this God-forsaken place,”… Continue Reading “Holy Resilience”