Category Archives: current events

In memoriam

I remember her story. I remember her telling me as though she knew me, as though she trusted me; God knows all that she did not say. I remember her story, even though her name has faded into her features, … Continue reading

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Psalm

oil poured on troubled water set alight: O God, make haste to help us.

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Millstones

I preached a few weeks ago on the stumbling blocks that we set before our children: guns. Their prevalence and power have become stumbling blocks to our children, and blinders to keep us focused on fear. We hurtle headlong into … Continue reading

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Signs of the times

It’s been a long week. It has left me ping-ponging between anger at the challenges young people face that we had never heard of growing up, and astonishment at how some of them respond with strength, dignity, friendship and love. … Continue reading

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Love you to death

Flashback: That week, everyone spoke in sympathetic soft, tilted voices. In a grim comedy, I parrotted their corporate condolences, squawking them directly into my father’s hearing aid. The funeral director was trying coyly to explain the need for a high-necked … Continue reading

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Repent

My Bible Challenge blog is usually more spiritualized than topical, but this morning, reading Jeremiah’s continuing litany of oracles against the nations, I could not help but wonder where we fit in: Jeremiah 48:33 Gladness and joy have been taken … Continue reading

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Morning Prayer

On the days when the sun does not rise, when the chill will not dissipate from the night air, words fall anechoic from our lips to the carpeted abyss. Let our tears be our salt- seasoned offerings, burning water our … Continue reading

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Things I can’t imagine doing this week

Going out for a beer with a corporation. Telling a woman that her choice of contraception is against my religion. Bellowing “no one wants you” to a bus load of children. Carrying an assault rifle into a department store. Carrying … Continue reading

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The anniversary of a Transfiguration, a mushroom cloud and a drone strike

 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they … Continue reading

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