Monthly Archives: November 2008

Extreme Makeover Gingerbread Edition

Serious gingerbread building going on in the church kitchen this weekend.

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Silly Pastor

If you think you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.  (1 Corinthians 3.18 NRSV) The Bible often exhorts us, “Be wise, not foolish.”  St. Paul subverts traditional wisdom and says, “Be … Continue reading

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Custard and Fried Apples

Songbird and her daughter made custard together in their kitchen.  Dinner was going to be pizza, and they needed something for dessert. The making, and the reflecting on the making, reminded her of a time 22 years ago when her … Continue reading

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Sylvia and the Universe

My wife and I deliver Meals on Wheels once a month.  Route D, our preference, takes us through the north part of town delivering a dozen meals.  Judging from the number of other drivers, there must be at least a … Continue reading

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Multicolored Light

Bob Cornwall disputes those who claim that someone cannot be a Christian apart from adherence to the Nicene Creed.  He believes love of God and neighbor alone marks the Christian faith.  Love, not a creed, distinguishes the Christian.  Cornwall belongs to … Continue reading

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Socrates at Prayer

When I lie in bed in the mornings before rising, I take a moment to breathe in divine love and visualize divine light enfolding me.  I thank God for the day to come.  I also move my right arm slightly, … Continue reading

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Schizophrenic Advent

Advent begins soon, and the liturgical year will start anew.  The word derives from the Latin adventus, meaning arrival or approach.  In the church year Advent offers a time to anticipate the coming of the Lord, and lectionary readings from … Continue reading

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Tom Bandy In Nirvanaland

Eight people from my church attended a seminar yesterday by Tom Bandy, a church consultant and organizational theorist.  He urged us to abandon committees and programs and create ministry teams engaged in more spontaneous forms of mission.  “Move from the solid … Continue reading

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Sunday Morning Rituals

I was at the donut shop last Sunday morning, getting a quota of sugar and caffeine to perk up for church.  A man ahead in line ordered a large cup of coffee.  He told the cashier he was headed to … Continue reading

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A Short Review of The Shack

A parishioner asked me to read The Shack and offer an opinion on it. This book is strange, beautiful and hard to categorize.  It’s like the Catholic mystics meet CSI.  The plot is simple:  a vision of God heals a … Continue reading

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Mystic Forces

Donn Ring walked along the Pacific coast, photographing rock formations amid the surf, and had a mystical experience: In the assaulting storm and surge of tide I felt nature’s blunt bone and blood reality, the ebb and flow of tangled … Continue reading

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GM and Darwin

General Motors looks to go bankrupt soon, apart from a government loan, and other Detroit automakers are limping not far behind.  Outside Michigan there is hostility to an intervention.  An Alabama senator scorned the loan — foreign auto plants in … Continue reading

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The Side Door

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Wealth and Its Discontents

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager ends with this admonition from Jesus: And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.  (Luke … Continue reading

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Geese and Sharks

I watched a flock of geese in a loose V-formation fly over the church at dusk, heading for warmer climates, like the ‘snowbirds’ in my congregation who leave Michigan for the winter months.  And I read of a gathering of … Continue reading

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Farting In the Sanctuary

I took the confirmation students on a tour of the church building yesterday.  We walked through the Memorial Garden and noted the bronze plaques on the wall listing those whose ashes are buried there.  Their eyes grew wide when they … Continue reading

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Iron Out the Wrinkles

I ironed out wrinkles on a blue sweater this morning.  It had sat in a drawer since last winter.  Our orange kitten Jane eyed the ironing board but didn’t jump on it.  Perhaps she’s finally developing a sense of danger. … Continue reading

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Flying

A sadness has settled in on me.  I know too many who are suffering ‘in mind, body and estate.’  Their pain, struggles and discouragement seep into me. There was one sign of hope today.  A stained-glass wall hanging at the … Continue reading

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On a Quest

In today’s Gospel reading large crowds are following Jesus, but he attempts to discourage them from becoming disciples.  They must give up family claims, he says, and even a claim to life itself.  To impress the point he uses images … Continue reading

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Clara’s Bicycle

Clara bought a bicycle for $30 in 1937, paying 50 cents a week on a payment plan.  She rode it to her job at a locksmith’s shop on Michigan Street from 1942 to 1946 because her family didn’t own a … Continue reading

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