Broken Things and All Shall Be Well

by | Oct 4, 2015 | 0 comments

In my dream, I was scheduled to play golf with a friend.  Never mind that I haven’t played golf in over a decade, gave my clubs away a few years ago, and wore-out my golf shoes by using them for yard work (they aerated the lawn while I walked!). I scrambled...

The Challenge and Gift of Time

by | Sep 30, 2015 | 0 comments

Many of us have a troubled relationship with time.Carl Honore wrote an interesting book, In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed, the idea for which came to him as he rushed through an airport and saw a book entitled The...

Hope Unlimited by our Limits

by | Sep 25, 2015 | 0 comments

Hope is sinewy, tenacious, and determined. It gives us strength when ours is gone, carries us into the future when we’ve been knocked-off our feet by the disappointments of the present, and makes it possible for us to trust that God is with us even when we feel...

Make Haste to Be Kind

by | Sep 17, 2015 | 0 comments

Near the end of my morning walk, I passed two men who were ambling in the opposite direction and having a lively conversation with each other.  The street was busy and noisy, but I heard one phrase: “Yeah, he was so unusually kind to me that it made me feel kind...

Feeling Minds and Thinking Hearts

by | Sep 11, 2015 | 0 comments

Here’s the address/sermon I gave at the Gardner Webb University School ofDivinity this past Monday.  It was based, in part, on the story of Jesus’ encounter with the a Samaritan woman at “Jacob’s well” (John 4).I surely understand...

Be Opened

by | Sep 8, 2015 | 0 comments

What follows is the text for my sermon at First Presbyterian Church of Asheville this past Sunday.  It’s based on the second part of the lectionary Gospel for the day, Mark 7:31-37.I’d like for you to meet my boyhood friend, Jimmy. He lived down the road,...