I’m going to be perfectly honest. It is very very very very unlikely that I will ever give a detailed account of Holy Week on this blog. Right now I am lying here with a dinky baby sucking desperately on my elbow, an angry non morning child who appears to have slept in his brother’s knight costume against his brother’s will, a small child shouting louder and louder, ‘I don’t want a Pider Man Book! I want a Princeth book.... Read more
Happy Easter! I’m too foggy with post Easter tired to think through the past week. I intend to give a varied and delightful account of all the proceedings as soon as I fully awake from my stupor. I also intend to work out every day this week, read the three books of the Bible I’m behind on in my reading the Bible in a year schedule, cook enough food for a week, unroll a vast tent and see if it... Read more
Let’s begin in Matthew. If you want to open your Bible,its Matthew 28.Its before dawn.I would imagine that Mary Magdalene,the other Mary,who is probably Mary the mother of James,Salome and Joanna and one other woman–that is all the women listed in all the gospels--probably haven’t gotten very much sleepbetween Friday night and Sunday morning. If you remember,Jesus died on Friday around three o’clock,and Joseph of Aramatheaand Nicodemushad rushed to take his body down,wash and wrap him as best they couldand... Read more
I see looking out over the vast throng that many of you were here on Sunday.I talked about, if you can cast your mind way way back,how Jesus took up his human nature in such a waythat he perfectly showed God’s natureas a Being who pours himself out,who does not cling or hold on to himselfbut rather pours himself out into creation and into his Son,Jesus, to redeem the world. Now, that’s a very pie in the sky theological idea,one... Read more
and that means that I barely have a breath to spare. I love Holy Week. It is arguably my favorite week of the year. As I was racing around on Saturday evening setting up for the Sunday school children to celebrate the Last Supper together, and helping Matt with altar details I realized again how thoroughly I enjoy church and everything related to church. I find it thus remarkable again that we are living in the shadow of the church... Read more
This is basically what I preached this morning. I veered more off my text than ever before, rearranging whole paragraphs as I talked. I don’t know if it went well but we all got through it. Our text this morning will be Philippians 2:5-11. One thing that always strikes me when I read any of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last hours is how spare they are. Unlike so much of my own writing, or the way we communicate in... Read more
Matt was sorting through boxes of old paper and photos yesterday and ran across a little something I can’t pass up. Its from 1953, Cowles Magazines or LOOK and its called What is an Episcopalian? It appears to be written by Norman Pittenger, of whom I have never heard, who was Professor of Christian Apologetics at General Theological Seminary. I don’t have a lot to time this morning, so I thought I’d offer first just this little horrifying bit about... Read more
I have my tiny special shoe shelf in place. I intend to take a picture once I locate my camera. Just about everybody needs their picture taken in the next few days because they’ve all gone puffy and round and I can tell they’re about to grow. I’ve instructed Elphine and Alouiscious about the shelf–ordinary always worn shoes on the shelf, boots in the back room, everything else in your rooms. For the last 24 hours its worked beautifully. I’m... Read more
Matt now tells me that he ‘can’t believe I wrote a whole post about shoes’, ‘how utterly foolish’ he says. To which I retort, if for one moment I stopped struggling with the shoe situation he would notice there was a grave problem and would no longer utter the words ‘utterly foolish’. So delighted am I with the suggestions of a shoe shelf that I am going to spend a portion of today appropriating a misused shelf for that purpose.... Read more
Instead of weeping and moaning about the health care vote last night (but believe me, I am weeping and moaning) I thought I would ask for some advice. We’ve managed to get our laundry under control (I can’t find the link–we moved all the kids dressers into the laundry room thereby simplifying everything) and our chore system means that the house is basically always reasonably picked up. However, I have no good, rational and decent way to deal with shoes.... Read more
Preventing Grace
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In