It’s Christmas Eve and it is cold and rainy outside. Last Christmas Eve, we had a blizzard here in Krum. Does God not want us to have Christmas Eve services? I know that seems a silly question, but it is not one for those who think that God is in the business of making our lives easy and ensuring that houses of worship are full on special occasions. Of course, we who live with sprinklers and sewers and water towers... Read more
Santa is “freaky.” That’s the conclusion the youth I work with on Wednesday nights reached. Last night, I had the youth compare two songs: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “O Holy Night.” When they actually looked carefully at the words of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” they immediately and as a group called out “freaky.” It really bothered them that Santa was watching them while they slept. That he appeared to know everything about them. That he... Read more
During this Advent season, the time Christians have used for ages to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Savior, I decided to do something I have not done before in worship. I’ve been taking some of the well-loved but not necessarily religious Christmas and seasonal songs and using them as doorways to the hallways of grace. I know that I personally have struggled for years with Christmas songs that seemed to me to have nothing to do with... Read more
Reality check: Christmas is a minor church celebration with minimal biblical support that has been blown way out of proportion by the very ones who insist that people are taking Christ out of Christmas. I’m on a rant again–which I suppose is nothing new to those who know me. But it’s true: I’m going to gag if I hear one more time, “We’ve got to put Christ back in Christmas.” How ridiculous. The whole idea suggests that someone has the... Read more
Guess what? Scholars have finally figured out that forgiving others is really good for you! An article in a publication that deals in the latest issues in higher education has confirmed this. Since these researchers agree, it must be right. Wow–what a piece of intriguing news–that this whole biblical idea that we really should set down those grudges and resentments might actually pay off! Forgive my sarcasm, but sometimes I wonder why something like this has to be quantified to... Read more
Today, as I think everyone is the entire world must know, is called “Black Friday,” as in the busiest shopping day of the year. That’s awful name for it–I saw somewhere that it should be named “Greed Friday” but that really doesn’t make sense. People are not being greedy today–they are actually being generous as most shop to purchase gifts for others. Well, some of them are. I just read that about 50% of what is bought today will be... Read more
Note: this is an excerpt from An Ordinary Death: Where Grief and Relief Hold Hands, available from Amazon.com. I spent an hour in bed this morning, looking out the window from the bedroom, watching the trees and plants dance from the increasing north wind. I also spent that hour thinking of my mother, on this her favorite of holidays, and on my first Thanksgiving without her. I am thankful. Thankful for the years, thankful for her being gone now, thankful... Read more
1. Six hours in the garden doesn’t even begin to make up for three months of neglect. Won’t even touch what all has to be done. Going to church twice a year probably is just about as effective. We need a major tune-up here and regular attention. 2. Flowers really want to reproduce. Since I just let things go, all the annuals went to seed and I decided to save seed instead of buying it next spring for the simple... Read more
If the kingdom of heaven were a democracy, and if, we those created in the Imago Dei, could have a vote about who is going to be in charge, would we indeed vote the God we read about in the Bible, that we observe in the cosmos, and that we experience, or think we experience, in daily life, in prayer and in pain, back into leadership again? After all, how many of us are getting what we really think we... Read more
In a New York Times article today about the naming of new cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, the author wrote: “Dressed in heavy golden vestments, Benedict called on the new cardinals to devote themselves entirely to humble service to the church, whose force, he said, is “not the logic of supremacy, of power according to human criteria, but the logic of bowing down to wash feet, the logic of service, the logic of the cross which is at the base... Read more
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