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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, Continue reading
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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 Continue reading
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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 Continue reading
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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 Continue reading
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Reframing Lent
It’s time to reframe the season of Lent. The way we usually define it is not wrong, if you hold the traditional Latin view of God as an “original sin” kind of god who holds loving grace in one hand while holding punishment and rejection in the other – the hope of heaven and the Continue reading
abundant life, accepted by God, Ash Wednesday, curiosity, darkness and light, day of the Lord, defining choices, heaven and hell, Isaac the Syrian, Joel, Lent, living fully, Margot Bachol Bisnow, original blessing, original sin, questions, redemption, remembering who you are, repentance, resurrection, spiritual maturity, the light within, Thomas Merton -
The spring of life
I was mulling over what I would say to you today when I met Steven Spielberg for lunch and we started talking about his latest movie, The Fablemans. The film unlocks the meaning of most of Spielberg’s earlier movies – E.T. and Close Encounters, Jaws and Jurassic Park, the Indiana Jones films, Schindler’s List, Saving Continue reading
disenfranchise, East Side, Elijah, eternal life, Florida, fully alive, fully awake, fully human, going through Samaria, Governor DeSantis, Jacob's well, Joseph Campbell, meaning for life, racism, rapture of being alive, reconciliation, Samaria, Samaritan woman, segregation, spring of water, St. Irenaeus, Steven Spielberg, The Fablemans, the glory of God, The Power of Myth, Tops Market killings, transforming love, West Side, woman at the well -
Another cup of coffee
“For what it’s worth,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “it’s never too late . . . to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I Continue reading
authentic self, choices, growing up, inexperienced pastors, Jesus in the wilderness, Lent, maturing in faith, never too late, old sermons, original self, outgrowing the old self, reorienting ourselves to God, repentance, starting over, temptation of Jesus, The Peterkin Papers, Willem Lange, William Faulkner -
Three Rs for today
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart. (Joel 2:12a) Seldom has a question caught my attention as suddenly and completely as the one I overheard on a busy street in Manhattan forty years ago. I had spent the day in Midtown and was headed to catch a bus for Continue reading
a better life, Ash Wednesday, choices, choosing, course corrections, destination, journey, Lent, life's journey, orientation to life, renewal, renewing, reorientation, repent, returning, returning home, sin, spiritual growth, spiritual hunger, Wendell Berry, Where am I going, wilderness experience, will of God -
Faith like a sparkling drop
No one knows what happened in the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matt. 17:1-9). Deep truths are elusive and almost always wrapped in mystery – from the Greek mustēs, “secret,” something we’re not supposed to talk about in public. Maybe we’re not supposed to talk about the Transfiguration, and maybe that’s why, after the disciples witnessed it, Continue reading
The Sauntering Pilgrim 