“And early in the morning, he came walking toward them on the sea.  (Mt. 14:25; within Mt. 14:22-33) The joke is about a brand new preacher whom the folks in the country parish don’t much like.  He’s young and sure of himself, from the city and fresh out of seminary.  That little country church has […]

There’s a joke about a little boy, upon receiving word from his folks that the stay-cations the family will go on will involve some of the “things we did when we were kids.”  The little boy is Ecstatic!  “Yes!  Finally!  I get to ride a Dinosaur!”  Never mind the difficulties and dangers of such a […]

Beloved Community, The first few months of the pandemic we were all powering through. We were in this together. We were holding our breath and waiting for it all to be over. But after more than 4 months we have expended all our patience, and the emotional strain is wearing on us. It is so […]

Putting together another puzzle… Seeing a metaphor for living in this complex and trying time. First, one must gather all the flat edged pieces together and make a frame… well, that’s how I do it. Frames are good.  Faith is a good frame.  Love is a good frame.  So we start with faith, and love. […]

Last night I stood outside with two flashlights, to point them to the sky and stand for racial justice… eight minutes and 46 seconds… 9 minutes by my phone. I felt a little lonely at first, on my sidewalk that ends just before the road… dark, except the moon was full… dark and silent.. no […]

What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when […]

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  v. 1: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” And Shakespeare:  “To be or not to be?  That is the question…”  Hamlet To be or not to be –    to walk or not to walk –   to read or not to read – to write or […]

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being […]

Tonight, I heard cats fighting… so I looked for mine inside, and didn’t see them,  Then I went to the front windows to see if they were the outside cats… And I saw the most glorious golden light cast on the fields across the street.  Brilliant. All consuming.  All healing. All covering everything in heaven… […]

I knew a man named Paul who had been an arbitrator for union negotiations with big corporations in the sixties. Though the corporations hired him, in his heart, he looked at the workers as the ones he was serving. He often encouraged the companies to give the workers the 2 to 5 cents more an […]