Author Archives: Rich Neal
When the day begins
Last Sunday, on the anniversary of the Tops Market killings, Pastor Kwame Pitts, of Community of Good Neighbors Buffalo, spoke of the need to live out our faith through action, and she challenged us to consider our collective purpose as church, what our role is in all that led up to and now follows the […]
The abundant life
Several weeks ago I asked you three questions: what is your greatest need, what is your greatest hope, and what is your most urgent question? Last weekend the Church Council sifted through those responses and found they contained several common themes, themes that will help inspire and guide our ministries at Holy Trinity. Soon you’ll […]
An open letter to Thomas the Twin
Dear Thomas: It seems the church is never going to let you off the hook we created for you when you first encountered the risen Christ. Two thousand years is a long time to live with a misunderstanding like that, a misunderstanding so big it renamed you, so now nobody knows you as Didymus (the […]
Plotting Resurrection
On the first day of the week some women came to the cemetery to find the body of Jesus. They did what any of us would have done. They came looking for him where they had left him, where they had last seen him, where they knew he must surely still be. And there they […]
The other side of Good Friday
In popular tradition, the cross of Christ is a sign of rejection, shame, suffering, and death, which is the point St. Paul made when he wrote that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). You can’t get more humble, you can’t get lower, […]
The sacrament of service
The first time I count receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, I was in seminary, serving as the student pastor of a small congregation in New Jersey. Since I was confirmed as a youth I had frequently received the bread and cup. One of my earliest memories of the church is the taste of […]
Go the distance
“By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). The end of Lent is not Easter; it’s this Holy Week, and it begins with Palm Sunday. Easter is in God’s hands; Palm Sunday is in ours. On Easter Day, we celebrate what God has done; on Palm Sunday we have to choose what we […]
The unbinding
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:44) The season of Lent does not end with Easter. Resurrection is not enough. The risen Christ alone cannot provide the abundant life God offers, “real and eternal life, more and better life than [we] ever dreamed of” (John 10:10 The Message). Something more […]
The Sauntering Pilgrim 