I wrote recently at Associated Baptist Press about my friend G. Travis Norvell and his quest to take prayer to the streets.  Because of space I didn’t have time to tell some details I wanted to share, so here’s some more on the Rev. G. Travis Norvell’s prayer station at Jazz Fest in New Orleans last week. Here’s a little background.  Rev. G. Travis Norvell staked out a little station outside the front gates of New Orleans’ Jazz Fest last week. ... Read more

Everything Changes: From Barren to Bountiful John 15:1-11 Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! In the light of the resurrection we’re considering today and in these days following Easter, how life has changed.  What about the message of Jesus becomes clear and compelling, finally, now that we know the tomb is empty?  As we discussed last week, our lectionary takes us back, back to before the resurrection, back to the ministry and teaching of Jesus.  As you know, there... Read more

Everything Changes: From Indifference to Interdependence John 10:11-18 Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! For the past few weeks, since Easter to be exact, we’ve been reading Gospel accounts of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances.  Today is different.  As you may have noticed, there’s no story of Jesus appearing suddenly in a locked room, joining in on the disciples’ potluck.  Today we go back a little in the gospel of John to hear some words of Jesus describing himself as... Read more

Everything Changes: From Fear to Faith John 20:19-31 Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Well, everything changed for us last week, didn’t it?  For one thing, we got the alleluias back in worship, something over which Harold Robinson is clearly extraordinarily relieved.  We heard the most beautiful music and we worshipped with the scent of the lilies wafting through the sanctuary.  Brunch was amazing and, at least based on what I could see from my vantage point near the... Read more

  He must have been tired.  So tired. You know it has to be exhausting, all that suffering and dying and rising again.   I’m tired this morning after resurrection… and I wasn’t even the one who died.  Every year it’s the same…Easter wears me out.   But even in the craze of dyed eggs and chocolate bunnies, Easter lilies and overworked choir members, there’s something about resurrection.   Resurrection gives you courage to step into what’s new, even though... Read more

A Promise Kept Mark 16:1-8 Christ is risen!  Christ is risen, indeed! Today it’s Easter, everyone dressed in finery, the sanctuary decorated unlike any other time of the year.  The music is bigger, the program is bigger, everything is ramped up to celebrate.  It’s the biggest day of the year, and I don’t know about you…but I need it.  I need a reminder that life comes in the face of death, that God wins in the end, that even the... Read more

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Promises, Promises: Whoever Believes Numbers 21:4-9 Lena Paahlsson’s wedding ring was designed especially for her.  It was a white-gold band, set with seven small diamonds, and, as most wedding rings are, full of sentimental value in addition to being very pretty.  Paahlsson lost her ring, though, in 1995, one day when she and her daughters were doing some Christmas baking in the kitchen.  It seems she took the ring off her hand and put it somewhere on the work surface,... Read more

It has been a long time since I’ve gotten an email like this one.   A few thoughts: 1.  I wasn’t going to teach Baptist Polity this fall.  Too much to do.  I think I might reconsider.  Geez.  Some days I feel surrounded by misperceptions about what it means to be Baptist.  By Baptists. 2.  There are way more important things about Calvary and about me, actually, than my gender.  At least I hope. 3.  Curiously, I harp all the time... Read more

Promises, Promises: I Will Be Your God Genesis 20:1-17 In 2003, Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court.  The judicial ethics panel voted unanimously to remove Chief Justice Moore from his seat because he had refused repeated orders to move a 2.6 ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the state Supreme Court building. Moorefelt that the monument of the Ten Commandments was an appropriate way to acknowledge God in society, and that... Read more