Sunday worship at 10:00am

Faith. What is it? I’ve been walking with Jesus for 35 years now (sometimes not so well) and I am still struggling to find better language to speak of this thing called the Christian life. Faith is certainly belief. It is trust. But it must be more. And it isn’t just “belief in” – read “intellectual assent to” – a set of theological statements written in a creed somewhere. That’s not personal, and one of the distinguishing characteristics of Christian life is the ability to h

One of my favorite Sunday comic strips from my early adult years was Berkeley Breathed's Outland . Featuring Steve, Bill the Cat, Opus the penguin and others. One particular strip stands out in my mind. Steve, Bill, and Opus are sitting in their underwear on their outdoor couch (don't ask me – that's just what they did) drinking beer and eating Hostess Ding-Dongs. Steve is reading the newspaper and smoking a cigarette. The headline on the newspaper front says something about

I remember days at the hospital where I would go down to the birthing center and rejoice with a family and praise God for the birth of a new child, and then go up to ICU and be with a grieving family who was with a loved one who was within minutes of dying. You know the days. You get the call from the lawyer in the morning that you've been left an outrageously large sum of money by your eccentric aunt. And then you get the call from the doctor in the afternoon that you have s

Merry Christmas! I would love for each of you to be rested in God's merriment. Like the hilarious giver the apostle Paul spoke about. To see each of you possessed by the kind of unceasing, overflowing, practically-laughing-out-loud kind of joy that makes the world think you have just possibly lost your mind – but yet they're jealous. Like what happened in George Bailey's heart at the end of It's a Wonderful Life : the kind of joy that takes you from despair to delight even th

There is a Greek myth about a sculptor named Pygmalion. He was a gifted craftsman but he despised the local women because he found them to be petty and immoral. But one day, this bachelor stumbled upon the perfect piece of ivory, from which he carved what to him was the image of an ideal woman, a woman of exquisite beauty and grace. So enamored with his own handiwork was Pygmalion, that he dressed the statue in silken garments and adorned her with jewels and named her Galatea

Some honest comments from those who struggle to believe might include such things as, “The miracles in the Bible are so fantastical as to be unbelievable.” “The resurrection didn’t happen, nor did the miracles. They are little more than fanciful stories. They don’t make sense when taken to be actual historical events.” I suppose much can be said here (and has been and may yet be), but the narrative of the Bible taken as a whole certainly displays an internal coherence, self-a

The alien race, the San-Ti, scan all the available info they can access about our human civilizations and realize that they can use religion to motivate the less-intellectual humans into doing their bidding. They interact with such people as if they were god, and their followers call the San-Ti spokesperson “my Lord.” But those that follow “my Lord” serve only to kill scientists and hopefully prevent the human race from advancing beyond the technologies of the San-Ti and thus

So it happens. You have a blog idea, you get started on it, but you don't finish. You never seem to have time to loop back around to it. Such has been the past year. Rather than let this continue, I have tried to revisit what strands of thought can be regathered and throw out as many of the intended posts as at least seem semi-coherent. So the following is a blog dump. Before the end of the year, Lord willing, there will be 6-10 "new" posts.

“NOEL” BY J. R. R. TOLKIEN Grim was the world and grey last night: The moon and stars were fled, The hall was dark without song or light,...

16th  President of the United States: 1861 ‐ 1865 Proclamation 118—Thanksgiving Day, 1864 October 20, 1864 By the President of the United...

The last thing anyone wants is a political post right now. This is not that, though it may get at some of that. But I do think we...

“ If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father...

Mea culpa . I have sinned, by my own fault, and only by my own fault. I have given (mostly, almost entirely at times) free reign to my...

Various ways of speaking of our disordered existence have been used within the Christian tradition. Many of you have heard of the...

I was always told that I would love Africa, and it did not disappoint. What an amazing country! The people are absolutely beautiful. I...

God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your...

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Ashes and dust. It's the stuff of Ash...

In our tradition, we have several hymns appropriate for singing during the Eucharistic feast, as we receive Christ in the Body and Blood....

Did you know that you are on mission? Your life, and my life, and every person’s life is bearing witness to what we believe to be...

I suppose this could be titled many things of a similar nature: the title chosen, Between Appetite and Unravelling, Between Ego and Diabolos.... All would pretty much go in the same direction. We live in times of radical individualism, of politics that undergird the freedom of the individual to express himself or herself (maybe itself , given all the options put forward) in whatever way supposedly best represents who they are on the inside, at their emotional/psychological