We have probably 20 volunteer red bud trees growing in the landscaping of our back yard. If we simply let them be, they are in the wrong spots and far too crowded for sustained growth. The best choice is to pick two or three and move them to where they will have a chance to…
Kenotic Words
worship, sermons, lectionary
Confession of faith
I confess… Tonight our confirmation students were asked to state their faith. To imagine that they had been arrested for their faith and had to write their confession for their “crime”. And, it’s important for all of us as adults and teachers and mentors in the faith to do the same. As I think about…
Renegade Gospel: The Red-Letter Rebel
There was a challenge issued TWICE by Mike Slaughter in chapter one of this Renegade Gospel book we are examining during this Lenten season: to read through one of the gospels and pay specific attention to the red letters… to the words of Jesus… spoken there. I pulled out my bible and started with Luke.…
Remembering Our Place #growrule
This Lent, I have been using a tool called “Growing a Rule of Life.” Each day there is a video and a prompt question to engage with. And of course, I’m behind already. Friday’s video reminded me that we need structure, we need planning, we need the framework in place before we start these…
Returning from Thin Places
There are places in this world that are “thin.” It is a label given to places, in the Celtic understanding, where the barrier between the human and the divine, heaven and earth, is nearly imperceptible. A place where we experience the divine more readily. In biblical history, we see a number of these “thin places”…
Practicing Our Religion in Public
By some accounts, yesterday morning I did exactly the opposite of what Jesus tells us in Matthew. Some of us gathered at a local coffee shop, a public place, to pray and impose ashes and remember we are merely human. We were out there, practicing our religion in public. I always find this passage from…
What can thrive here? #growrule
Last year I took four weeks of spiritual renewal leave and wanted to focus on cultivation… in relationships, in my spiritual life, and literally, in my back yard. I had far more intentions than time, but I was able to manage to clear out one entire section of the retaining wall (seen behind the…
Look. See. Live. #growrule
As part of my Lenten disciplines, I’m using a tool from The Society of Saint John the Evangelist called “Growing a Rule of Life.” As Marjorie Thompson writes: Certain kinds of plants need support in order to grow properly. Tomatoes need stakes, and beans must attach themselves to suspended strings… human beings are much like…