I spent most of the day yesterday in Rosh Hashanah services. I hadn’t really planned to attend; it just kind of happened.  Sixth and I Synagogue, one of our Penn Quarter neighbors, has a growing congregation of young professionals in the neighborhood.  While their sanctuary is quite lovely, it’s not large enough to accommodate the crowd of 750 they had planned for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.  Skip to: Sixth and I temporarily became 7th and H…they moved all... Read more

Life Together: Believing the Promise Exodus 17:1-7 Over the last few weeks we’ve been reading about the adventures of the Israelites as they left slavery inEgyptand learned what it was going to mean to be Yahweh’s people together.  The passage we read today is one of the events that takes place while the little band of Hebrews is wandering around in the desert.  They wandered, the text says, for forty years.  Forty years! A quick glimpse at a map of... Read more

“This was what growing up was about: hide the corpse, don’t bare your heart, do make assumptions about the motives of others.  They’re certainly doing all these things to you.”  p.331, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese I think it might be a little bit like the equator.  We know it’s there—we learned about it in geography class.  But it’s not really there.  By that I mean it isn’t a physical line you can clearly see crossing the water somewhere... Read more

Life Together: Singing Our Song Exodus 15:19-27 I don’t know that one needs to be a trained musician to be a pastor, per se.  After all, one has to have natural talent and put in years of hard work to become a good musician—thus the reason most of us preacher types come to depend very heavily on the talents of people like the incredible church musicians we have here atCalvary.  (Anybody read about Natalie and the music program in the... Read more

Dear Sallie, I miss you. I know I’m not the only one who misses you; you left a big hole in the lives of a lot of us, and in our church.  While I’ve missed you since you died, I confess I’ve been thinking about you extra these past weeks as the anniversary of your death is approaching. I don’t have to tell you that the rhythm of life and death is a normal part of the work of the... Read more

Life Together: Claiming Our Story Exodus 14:19-31 I was at work that morning. I’d bet almost everybody here has had the same “I remember where I was” thoughts this week, because the 9/11 attacks are one of those experiences about which nobody can help but remember.  And because we remember the day, we each have a story to tell—our own version of 9/11. I was at work, as I mentioned, in the church office, at Saint Charles Avenue Baptist Church... Read more

My God, Father and Savior, since you have commanded us to work in order to meet our needs, sanctify our labor that it may bring nourishment to our souls as well as to our bodies. Make us constantly aware that our efforts are worthless unless guided by your light and by your hand. Make us faithful to the particular tasks for which you have bestowed upon us the necessary gifts, taking from us any envy or jealousy at the vocations... Read more

Recently we talked about the Bible in church.  What I mean is that we’re revisiting some basics this summer and we recently explored the question: “What is the Bible?”.  In response to our discussion in worship a Calvary member sent an email asking for some tips on jumping back in to regular Bible study.  I remembered I have actually written a blog entry about this before, but since I got the email while I was at Preacher Camp, I asked my... Read more

Calvary Unplugged: What Is Baptism? I love this time of the year, when everybody starts to trickle back in from summer adventures.  Welcome back, everyone.  We’re so glad you’re back. Today we continue our series, Calvary Unplugged, where we’ve moved out of the sanctuary and are doing something a little bit different than our usual worship routine.  It’s good, every once in awhile, to get a different perspective, to think about life together from a different vantage point.  These past... Read more

For seven years now, I have had the opportunity to meet with these wonderful colleagues to plan sermons and remember that I am not alone in the adventure of ministry.  I cannot put into any words that I know how grateful I am for all of them and how lucky I feel that they are in my life. Read more