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We End in Light

Sometimes, the tragedy, violence, suffering, and despair which fill the world overwhelm me, and I can’t help but ask, “Where is God?”There’s no greater theological and emotional problem than “the problem of evil”: If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why do evil,...

Taking the Right Hill

My post for today’s Center for Healthy Churches Newsletter:http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e7d471250200d4bcdf5c4b404&id=0f4a798a41&e=6568f513d5

Spirit of Rejoicing and Reconciliation

Priest and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin said that “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”Jesus was a person of unmistakable and contagious joy which flowed from his unswerving conviction that God is love and loves everyone—no exceptions, no...

Christmas in May

At the corner of College Street and Haywood Road yesterday, near Mayfels’ Restaurant, a rail-thin young man, wearing a Santa hat over his shoulder-length hair and sweating profusely in the bright May midday sun, screeched out “Silent Night” on his not-well-tuned...

Prayer for our Endings

In the Book of Common Prayer, Collect 57, “For Guidance,” asks “that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name.” I am intrigued especially by the challenge to “end our works in God.”  That phrase raises the possibility of...

Contemporary Jesus

Early in my college years, I struggled to reclaim faith.  At least that’s what the struggle seemed to be about as I was living through it.  Looking back, it seems more likely that I was actually struggling for a way to let myself be reclaimed by a loving...

A Singing, Rejoicing, and Loving God

In his book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen wrote: “Every moment of each day I have the chance to choose between cynicism and joy. . . . Increasingly I discover that every choice for joy in turn reveals more joy and offers more reason to make life a true...

The Challenging Wisdom of Children

Years ago, near President’s Day, some of the kids in our church’s Childhood Development Center made newsprint posters which bore the heading, “If I were president, I would. . . .” With the help of their teachers, the children imagined what they would do if...

Our Island Home

The Book of Common Prayer incudes a grateful and humble acknowledgment of “this fragile earth, our island home.”  It’s a moving phrase; and, on this Earth Day, I pray that we will love this fragile earth with courageous and tender love, realizing that it’s not a...

The Compassion We Need

Have you tuned-in lately to the running play-by-play commentary on your life that is constantly blaring away in your heart and mind?  24/7/365, whether we’re conscious of it or not, harsh natter and chatter away with messages which belittle and berate us....