Week of September 29, 2019
Recently we installed a security system in our home. The idea was to be able to tell if anyone ever comes in and out of our house through one of the three doors to the outside. When the door opens or closes, we get a signal to our phone (and by extension, smart watch). In…
Week of September 22, 2019
This Sunday we will be observing Alzheimer’s Awareness day in church (the day is officially Saturday, September 21), with a special anthem “When Memory Fades.” Stanton O. Berg, whose wife June died of Alzheimer’s in 2008, had to say about the anthem. “Dr. Mary Louise Bringle (b. 1953) wrote “When Memory Fades” for a friend whose mother…
Week of September 15, 2019
This past Wednesday at chapel at Bishop Seabury Academy I took a moment to mention the 18th Anniversary of 9/11 and almost said, “we all have our 9/11 story” but then realized that most, if not all of the students present were not alive at that time. My eldest child Alex, now away at college, was…
Week of September 8, 2019
Just as a follow-up to last week’s sermon in which I encouraged us as a church to respond to what could be a worsening of the situation in Lawrence for our homeless community, I have reached out to Family Promise (who provides transitional housing for families), Bert Nash’s homeless services department, and the Lawrence Community…
Week of September 1, 2019
Last Sunday I had the opportunity to worship at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Detroit, Michigan. The cathedral looks like what most of us think of when you hear the word: a large, gothic church with ornate windows and columns and a huge ambo (the fancy word for a pulpit) with one of those covers…
Week of August 25, 2019
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Jesus’ statement from last Sundays’ Gospel reading reminds me of the line from the movie They Live when the unnamed drifter played by Roddy Piper enters the bank and says, “I’m here to chew bubble…
Week of August 18, 2019
A few weekends ago my wife Mandy, my daughter Maura, and I were staying in a cabin just outside of the town of Clarksville, Arkansas. We had rented a small cabin located in the woods next to some other similar vacation cabins and the odd home off the beaten path. On the first night, while Mandy and…
Week of August 11, 2019
I am on vacation this week (I wrote this article in advance, in case you are curious) and during this time I’m not off on some off-roading adventure or visiting family, but instead am tackling the huge task of destroying the deck in my backyard and replacing it with a patio. That rickety old deck…
Week of August 4, 2019
Last Sunday’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (11:1-13) is one of my personal favorites, not just because in the passage Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, but also talks about how God listens. More specifically, Jesus assures the disciples that God always listens, and always responds. Now, admittedly, that response is not always…
Week of July 28, 2019
In this Sunday’s passage from Genesis, we are treated to the negotiation between God and Abraham over the fate of the people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is important, from the point of context, to note that this is not in retaliation for the well-known offenses of the men of those cities attempting…