Whew! Easter Sunday is over. Every church musician, support staff, and pastor is breathing a sigh of relief this week. Don’t get me wrong—it was awesome, jubilant, over-the-top, fabulous, joyous. Even the superlatives need superlatives to describe our Day of Resurrection festivities. I was thrilled...
Resurrection. New life. Second chances. Redemption. A fresh start. These are all good ways to talk about the meaning of Easter. Last Sunday, what churches call Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, marked the beginning of Holy Week. During this week Christians trace Jesus’ journey from his...
It is ten days until Easter. Ten days to complete our Lenten journey, to contemplate Jesus’ act of sacrificial love that will end on a cross next Friday. Whether it has felt like a long forty days to you, or whether the time seems to...
Do you ever feel like you are a little (or a lot) “late to the party”? This happens to me with some frequency, in part because I don’t watch a lot of television and I’m not very social media savvy. The most recent occasion of...
The first day of school. The first daffodil poking its head through the winter-hardened earth. The first summer peach. I love the “firsts” that signal the start of something new—the changing seasons, the turning of the calendar, one rhythm giving way to another. Today is one...
An airplane crashes in Ethiopia on March 10 killing all 157 people on board. A shooter opens fire at a Muslim mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15 killing fifty. Cyclone Idai ravages Mozambique on March 19, with 300 already reported dead, but some...
was recently introduced to a new “app”. It’s called “WeCroak” (wecroak.com). It’s not about bullfrogs. It’s about mortality and death. It’s based on a Bhutanese folk saying that to be a happy person, you need to contemplate death five times a day. And so, five...
“New life” is a recurring theme in both the Jewish and Christian traditions. In the Old Testament, the seminal event of new life is the Exodus—Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt where they were in bondage as slaves. In the New Testament, the...
New Lenten Series March 10 Call of a Fisherman Luke 5:1-11 March 17 Walking with Jesus in the Storm Matthew 14:22-34 March 24 Keeper of the Keys Matthew 16:13-20 March 31 Bedrock or Stumbling Block? Matthew 16:21-28 April 7 The Power of Sonship Matthew 17:1-13 April 14 Palm Sunday “I Will Not Deny You” Matthew 26:17-25, 31-35 April 21...
As I mentioned last week, I have been ill with the viral menace that has afflicted so many people in my area. During my time “out of commission” a friend’s birthday came and went without so much as a card from me. Valentine’s Day passed...