Lenten Lights EE One of the gifts of my commitment to chase light with my camera this Lenten season is that I’ve watched Spring’s coming out party with a very focused eye. One effect of that watching is my sense…
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Beach Memos I took more time away from this blog than I intended. But apparently I needed the rest. Part of my time away was spent at the beach. Over the next few weeks I plan to share a few…
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rain after days on end of mercury topping the charts it is sweet relief waking to soft drumming rain on leaves outside my window low clouds churn and roil and my daughter says to the thunderthat’s the sound of my…
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Epiphany IX
Psalm 139 on a Wednesday night When I speak to children I speak in a voice that gathers them in Even while they tumble across the carpet Like puppies with clothes They whine and yip and yelp occasionally But when…
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Breathing a Prayer Let everything that has breath praise the Creator. When we lived in Georgia parishioners there introduced us to the amaryllis. Every year a pot with a gigantic bulb would appear on my desk during Advent. By the…
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Christmastide II – It Takes Two Hands
It Takes Two Hands In our extended families we stretch out Christmas for several days. And we try to keep our family meals and gift exchanges to one-per-day. Christmas 2011 is in the books now. It was enjoyable for the…
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Contemplaying Yes. I just made up a new word. Wrote it by accident last week. I’ve decided it’s a keeper. I was trying to write contemplating, as you might imagine, and my fingers tapped out contemplaying instead.* Lovely! Think of…
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Taking the Path of Prayer In all my time at seminary I don’t recall anyone saying to me, “To learn how to be a minister, you should pray.” Nor do I recall anyone saying, “You will need to attend to…
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This week the Gospel reading holds one of the hardest sayings of Jesus. At least for me. Matthew 5:43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This one is hard not so much because I have a lot of clearly defined enemies. Although I suppose I do have a few. And no doubt, I’ve made some.
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Prayer and Anxiety On Sunday morning I will teach six- seven- and eight-year-olds something about prayer. Or they may teach me. Later this week I’ll begin a two week intensive journey of learning together with a group of adults about…
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Gratitude: On this eve of Thanksgiving, what else can one write, but words that offer thanks? So many places to start. But I think I’ll simply name a few small things. Things easy to overlook, but important not to miss. . . like ladybugs
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This Sunday some of us will hear from Luke’s gospel of Jesus. It is a parable about praying. It starts like this. . . . Luke 18:9-10: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray
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A Decade of practice: This year feels like a series of milestones in a way. Why do we think that 10 years makes a difference? Why not nine years? or 12 and 1/2? Nonetheless. It was during the last few months of 1999 when my full-time work in and for a congregation came to an end. And a new vocation, or really a revised longer-term vocation, began to take shape. I started graduate school in the fall of 2000 and began learning the practices of becoming a scholar. This is scholarship that I understand to be for the sake of the church.
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Under the Stars: Since the weather turned warm in the last couple of weeks, I’ve found myself especially glad to be out under the stars in the evening. The trees in my yard are still cooperating with my desire for a view to the heights. Soon they will block a large piece of the sky above our little patch of earth.
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