community

June 22, 2025

On why we are here at Holy Trinity

What would you say if you were asked why you are here at Holy Trinity this morning? For the last six months, several groups of congregation leaders and members have been asking why any of us are here. We’ve been developing a Why Statement to say as realistically and clearly as possible why we are Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, christianity, community, faith, family, God, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, home, Jesus, living abundantly, love, nurturing relationships, peace, quality of life, relationships, sanctuary, togetherness, welcoming, Why Statement
November 10, 2024

After the election, what next?

Regardless of how you voted Tuesday, and no matter how energetically we may disagree with each other about the issues at stake in the election, I believe there are at least two things about which we can agree. First, we still need to live with our neighbors in a healthy relationship, no matter how they Continue reading

Ruminations

Antaeus, community, conflict between God and Satan, cosmic forces, creative engagement, divisiveness, dualism, feeling powerless, good and evil, healthy relationships, Hercules, leaving the country, listening to those who disagree, living in harmony, love your enemies, national integrity, new creation, paradise restored, political strife, post-election opportunity, post-election stress disorder, post-election wisdom, presidential election, reconciliation, right and wrong, Trump’s election, unmet expectations
October 1, 2023

The bottom line

After I had delivered a particularly open-ended sermon, someone approached me and asked, with a look of friendly but serious frustration, “So what’s the bottom line?” Apparently she had been expecting an insight that would help her understand something about life, a teaching that would answer her questions, or an application that would inform her Continue reading

Ruminations

application, changing world, Christian love, commission from God, community, community of faith, creativity and faith, differences in faith, engaging with Christ, heaven, imagination and faith, insight, laboratory of life, living the questions, love one another, Philippians, proclaiming Christ, questions, Rainer Maria Rilke, relationship with Christ, Saint Paul, salvation, teaching, the purpose of life, unfolding creation, urgent questions, vessel of God, work out your own salvation
September 18, 2023

Love in difficult conversations

To love someone, to be in authentic relationship with someone, is to value that person. It is to recognize that person as having an essential, indispensable role to play in God’s ongoing creation, even if I don’t have a clue what that role might be. It’s to recognize that without that person, I can never Continue reading

Ruminations

agreement, Christian love, community, differences, difficult conversations, disagreement, divisions, factions, gospel, inquiry, inquisition, Irshad Manji, Jeremiah, justice, kingdom of heaven, law of God, law of life, Listening, namaste, new covenant, opinions, peace, reconciliation, reign of God, table of grace
August 13, 2023

Addressing an epidemic of loneliness

Last week, I asked you to reflect deeply about what you’re truly hungry for in life, not your trendy or transient cravings but the deep hunger that binds you to God, the human hunger we all share and that makes us one with the whole human family. What are you really and deeply hungry for Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, banquet of heaven, community, digital environment, epidemic of loneliness, family, gathered, gospel of reconciliation, hunger, hungry for God, isolation, kingdom of God, Listening, loneliness, online meetings, public policy, social disconnection, social infrastructure, social media, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, surgeon general’s advisory
August 6, 2023

Are you hungry?

Earlier this year, many of you shared with me your greatest hope. One of you said it was to give the best of yourself to those in need. For another, it was that your daughters “live a happy life by following their hearts.” Someone’s hope was “release from injustices and abuse,” and for another it Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, banquet of heaven, calling the disciples, Christian minority, community, feeding the multitude, garden of Eden, good news, hope, Joseph Campbell, miracles of Jesus, New Jerusalem, Nicodemus, rapture of being alive, spiritual hunger, the gospel, The Great Dechurching, wedding at Cana, wedding feast
September 11, 2022

Finding the missing piece

There used to be a feature in the Sunday Buffalo News called The Magic Eye. At first glance, it appeared to be the kind of image you’d see on your computer screen when the mother board was failing, a mass of colorful, squiggly, incoherent lines. But if you changed your perspective and focused your eyes Continue reading

Ruminations

abundand life, authentic Christianity, community, division, dualism, God's perspective, inclusiveness, kingdom of God, parable of the lost sheep, parables, reconciliation, reign of God, the aim of ministry, the gospel, the hundred sheep
September 4, 2022

The blessing of true community

The best blackberry cobbler I ever ate was served in the mid 1960s during a family reunion. Four generations of the Neal clan harvested pail after pail of the big, juicy fruit from the hillside behind the house in the Oriole Valley where my grandfather was born and raised. The next day some of those Continue reading

Ruminations

authentic community, banquet of heaven, Bowling Alone, common life, community, family reunion, God's vision of community, Hbakkuk's vision, laboratory of faith, loss of community, Robert Putnam, spiritual laboratory, true community
July 24, 2022

Teach us to pray

One of Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). If there’s ever a time when we need to learn how to pray, this is it. Following every mass shooting, as predictable as sunrise, the comments come, mostly from politicians and public officials, about communities being in their “thoughts and prayers.” Continue reading

Ruminations

a precarious life, Anne Lamott, community, effective prayer, God at the ceneter, healing, Help, ineffective prayer, Jabez, justice, living in community, Make America Great Again, make the nation great again, Our Father in heaven, peace, prayer, prayer for shooting victims, prayer of Jabez, prayer of Jesus, precarious, principles of prayer, relationship with God, Thanks, the Lord's prayer, thoughts and prayers, to pray, transformation, transforming prayer, what is prayer?, Wow
December 23, 2021

The Innkeeper: Ruminations for Christmas Eve

Sometimes the tiniest act of kindness can save a life. It might even transform the world. I’m thinking of some of the players in the first Christmas story. They’re given no credit in the cast of characters, but you know they were there. Take the innkeeper, for example. He’s not even mentioned in the scene Continue reading

Ruminations

birth of Christ, cattle shed, Christmas, Christmas lights, Christmas offering, community, human connection, innkeeper, manger, Mary and Joseph, Nativity, pushing back the darkness, Roman census, Stephen Mitchell

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.