Week of October 27, 2019
If last Sundays’ Gospel reading (Luke 18:1-8) had a theme song, it might be the classic, “Anything You Can Do” from “Annie Get Your Gun.” I have always found this passage, others similar to it, to be comforting in the utter simplicity of its argument. Essentially, Jesus makes the claim that if we are to believe that…
Week of October 20, 2019
This weekend is our annual Diocesan Convention, where clergy and delegates from around the Diocese of Kansas gather together to worship and explore our shared ministry together. The focus of this year’s convention is “The Way of Love,” a program developed by Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The Way of Love is a…
Week of October 13, 2019
Very soon I will be attending a high school reunion. Not my own, but that of my wife Mandy in her hometown of New Braunfels, Texas. I’m excited about going, not just because it is a mini-vacation and I get to see firsthand some of my wife’s history, but also because I am going to be going…
Week of October 6, 2019
I’ll freely admit my memory isn’t as great as it used to be, but I was taken aback when I logged into Facebook and saw that several years ago I was posting an enraged rant about a particular airline company. You see, I have no idea what happened. I’m sure if I went back and researched it…
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…