Zippia, an online career website shares some interesting facts about American nursing homes, the people who occupy them, and the future of the “nursing home industry”: There are over 810,000 people living in assisted living facilities in the United States. 4% of U.S. seniors live in nursing homes. 2% of U.S. seniors live in assisted living facilities. 52% of the U.S. assisted living population is over the age of 85. The number of nursing home residents has risen to... Read more
Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they... Read more
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash In a recent article on preaching and ChatGPT, Kate Spelman, explores the question, “Could ChatGPT write your sermon?” Spelman acknowledges that there are those who argue that preachers should never use ChatGPT in sermon preparation. Citing Micah Jackson at Bexley-Seabury, she notes that ChatGPT may be able to write a competent sermon but it cannot write a pastoral sermon. And citing Bill Brosend, former director of EPF, she admits that ChatGPT cannot answer... Read more
roman-kraft-X1exjxxBho4-unsplash.jpg In the late 20th century when the language of spirituality gained currency, people often discovered that their clergy were ill-prepared to help them navigate their spiritual lives. Seminary education had celebrated prophetic preaching and ministry in the 1960s. Attention turned to therapeutic categories and counseling in the seventies. And leadership became all the rage in the eighties. Those who could speak to the spiritual life often “discovered” prayer and meditation by looking to the East. The sole exceptions were... Read more
Making sense of the sacrifice of Isaac is like wrestling alligators. And its interpretation is made that much harder by the free-floating nature of the story, the subsequent religious influence it has had, and the centuries of interpretation that has grown up around it. Known as “The Akedah” or “The Binding” in the Jewish tradition, the story is celebrated in the Jewish tradition as “the supreme example of self-sacrifice in obedience to God’s will and the symbol of…martyrdom throughout... Read more
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash This sermon was preached at the baptism of my granddaughter, Ellie Lynn Lacey on Sunday, June 18, 2023. As many of you know – because I have told you over and over again – today, we will be baptizing my granddaughter, Ellie Lynn. The only excuse I have to offer is the that I I am no different in this regard from any other grandfather. As Ogden Nash once observed, “When a grandparent enters... Read more
Ex Nihilo, the Western Facade of Washington National Cathedral, by Frederick Hart They retracted it but the fact that Johns Hopkins University defined women as “non-men” is appalling. NBC News reports: Johns Hopkins University removed an online glossary of LGBTQ terms and identities this week after its definition of the word “lesbian” used the term “non-men” to refer to women and some nonbinary people and fueled an online uproar. Screenshots of the glossary before it was taken down showed... Read more
connor-hall-r-HLeGnbY-8-unsplash-scaled.jpg In watching the church assist the poor, I have noticed that there is always a substantial number of people who surface, over and over again. Their circumstances never change. They seemingly make little or no progress in rebuilding their lives or in moving forward. This troubles me. It feels right and good to help people who are struggling to meet their basic needs. But when people become dependent upon that help and fail to make progress in transcending... Read more
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash Trinity Sunday. Every year the liturgical calendar gives preachers the opportunity to lose their congregations, bore them to death, and lead them into heresy, leaving them with the conviction that the whole thing is irrelevant to daily life. And that’s a bad thing. Because the God of Christianity is triune. How did the church arrive at that conclusion? Big picture: In one way the early church was thoroughly Jewish. The first Christians believed... Read more
Photo by Vusal Ibadzade on Unsplash Loneliness is the new enemy. Or so the latest surveys suggest. And life in community is the solution. In many ways this is no surprise. Modern American cities and suburbs are more about infrastructure than they are community. And rural America is rapidly evaporating. So, while there are exceptions, of course, we have been spiraling toward loneliness for a long time. And Covid accelerated the trend. The lack of information that we possessed made... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In