The Sauntering Pilgrim

June 18, 2023

Start with compassion

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:36).” A revolution in business is quietly taking place today, and it has the potential – if it roots and spreads – to transform the economic and social world in which we live. Continue reading

Ruminations

B Corp, benefit corporatons, business revolution, Business Roundtable, compassion, corporation law, covenant with God, disciples, impact assessment, profit, responsibility to the community, stakeholders, strategic plan, strategic values
June 11, 2023

Three simple rules

“If the foundations are destroyed,” the psalmist wondered, “what can the righteous do” (Ps. 11:3)? It’s not an idle question; it’s a pressingly relevant question for today. After surveying a range of opinions about the state of the nation, New York Times staff writer Katherine Miller last December wrote, “There’s an argument that this is Continue reading

Ruminations

anarchy, democracy is crumbling, do good, do no harm, doing things with great love, foundations, fullness of life, great love, Hosea, justice, Katherine Miller, kindness, knowledge of God, living in anarchy, Micha, rebuilding national life, relationship, religion, Saint Teresa, social disintegration, stay in love with God, steadfast love, walk with God, worries
June 4, 2023

Sing!

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31a). Today is Trinity Sunday. It celebrates an idea Jesus never taught; that wasn’t mentioned in scripture until fifty years or more after his resurrection; that took another 300 years of debate and coalition building to become doctrine; that wasn’t observed Continue reading

Ruminations

a slight sound at evening, Aldous Huxley, As You Like It, books in running brooks, creation, doctrine, Duke Senior, God in three persons, God's first scripture, good in everything, Holy Trinity, Leaves of Grass, music of the spheres, persona, sermons in stone, Shakespeare, sing a song, The Carpenters, Thomas Merton, Thoreau, tongues in trees, Trinity Sunday, Walt Whitman
May 28, 2023

On a confirmation Sunday

“More than at any other time in history,” Woody Allen said in a commencement address years ago, from a viewpoint that was typically his own, “mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Sometimes a choice Continue reading

Ruminations

baptism, becoming a song, choices, choosing faith, commencement address, commitment, confirmation, disciples of Jesus, faith, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, or real journey, our real work, recommitment, song, Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, Woody Allen
May 21, 2023

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 Continue reading

Ruminations

African descent, Christian love, eternal life, greatest commandment, how to eat an elephant, Jeremiah, knowledge of God, love of God, love of neighbor, Mark Twain, ministry of reconciliation, namaste, peace, people of color, racism, reconciliation, salaam, shalom, to know God, Tops Market killings, white privilege
May 7, 2023

Name calling

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Most of us know that children’s expression, used when hurtful words are hurled in childish ways. Most of us have probably used it at one time or another, and most of us know it’s not true. Words do hurt us. We have Continue reading

Ruminations

Aldous Huxley, Barbara Brown Taylor, Burrito Project, Caribbean Children's Fouindation, chosen, Christian, holy justice, Israel, Jacob, meaning of names, name calling, naming, power of a name, purpose, relationship with God, sticks and stones, vision, words can heal, words can hurt
April 30, 2023

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 Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, attention, authenticity, devotion, Ecclesiastes, finding God, good shepherd, greatest hope, greatest need, greatness, human connection, intimacy, kingdom of God, land flowing with milk and honey, Mary Oliver, meaning, most urgent question, searching for God, security, the Teacher, wisdom
April 23, 2023

A gritty faith

The best-known book of the late Oliver Sacks, a physician and professor of neurology, may be one with the fascinating title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, in which he describes patients struggling to live with conditions ranging from Tourette’s syndrome to autism, parkinsonism, musical hallucination, epilepsy, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, retardation, Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant faith, Angela Lee Duckworth, authentic faith, E.B. White, Emmaus Road, grit, Mary Magdaline, Now we see things imperfectly, Oliver Sacks, Peter, predicting success, predictors of success, reign of God, risen Christ, stories of resurrection, the beloved disciple, the desert tradition, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, William Bathurst
April 16, 2023

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 Continue reading

Ruminations

ambiguity, behind locked doors, certainty, Didymus Thomas, doubting Thomas, Easter, exploring faith, fear, first-hand faith, from doubt to faith, living faith, original faith, Pogo, resurrection, second-hand faith, the beginning of faith, the peace of Christ, Thomas the Twin, true faith, uncertainty, wars and rumors of wars, we have met the enemy
April 9, 2023

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 Continue reading

Ruminations

bulb garden, burial, celebrate the past, death, E.B. White, essence of life, honor the past, Katharine White, life lost, regret the past, resurrection, shattered dreams, the future, the past, what has ended

About Me

Rich Neal is, in no particular order, a wordsmith and graphic designer; lover of typography, books, and publishing; photographer; contemplative; saunterer; and a retired and still-active pastor. He claims neither special wisdom nor particularly deep insight into life, only occasional glimpses of what lies behind the veil along the way. He shares them here in the hope of connecting the pieces of life’s puzzle that come to him in the journey and would consider it a gift if sharing them also connected him with others who travel an unmarked path toward the same unknown end.