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Holy Saturday

Dead, forsaken Jesus. Eerie silence from heaven to the grave. Smug Empire. Self-satisfied religious Establishment. Horrified, hiding, denying, and betraying men break their vows to follow. Trembling, tenacious women stay true through the end.   In God’s great...

In, not of, Lent

My ways of observing Lent changed significantly in 2014. Early in that year, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Treatment (infusions/injections, steroids, and a daily chemo capsule) began on Ash Wednesday. Following that afternoon’s initial treatment, I went to...

Power, Greatness, and Servant-Leaders

It’s not enough to say that “leaders should be servants,” because all of us serve someone or something, even if it’s only ourselves. As the well-known Bob Dylan lyric puts it: Indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebodyWell, it may be the devil or it may be the...

Another Way

On the calendar of Christian worship, January 6 is Epiphany; it is a day to acknowledge that Jesus is the in-the-flesh manifestation of God’s dreams for the world and to celebrate that he is an embodied revelation of the Divine’s unifying and healing love....

The Opposite of a Dumpster Fire

What’s the opposite of a dumpster fire? Of doom-scrolling? Of trolling? What would the best-year-ever be like? Long ago, I drove away from a town in which I’d experienced a lot of pain. As I crossed the city limits and, a few minutes later, the county line, I looked...

A Mid-Advent Lament

Rodin Museum, Paris There’s so much to lament these days. There are also reasons to be thankful, of course, and the practice of gratitude is both a sign of, and a way toward, wholeness. In ways we don’t often recognize, lament is such a practice, too. The Psalms,...

Help From Everywhere

Like almost everyone I know, I’m anxious and for many of the same reasons: the election, the pandemic, and the economy, among others. A lot of us are tired: of being remote from extended family, good friends, and colleagues; of Zoom gatherings; and of the inability to...

There’s still time . . . and hope

With a crowd of other children, I toddled through a school lunchroom, holding my mother’s hand, as we moved closer to the front of a line at one of several tables covered with sugar cubes in very small paper cups. When it was my turn, a nurse handed me a sugar cube...

What We Expect, What Happens, and What We Can Do

To say the least and the obvious, 2020 hasn’t been the kind of year I imagined it would be.  On New Year’s Eve 2019, as I looked toward the possibilities and challenges of the year ahead, I didn’t see what we’re now experiencing. Sure, like a lot of other people, I...