Exile & Exodus, Commitment Statement
Two things: 1) At the end of last week I was invited by the mayor’s office to contribute toward a collection of faith leader messages addressed to city residents. The intention was to offer words of encouragement during the anxieties of this pandemic. In the message I suggested this time…
Ready, not ready
Yesterday I went into the church building to work. This has been my pattern on Tuesdays. All other days I’ve been working from home. This one day a week has helped bring some structure to an otherwise suddenly structure-lite existence. It was, as you might imagine, quiet. The North Broadway…
Dreams
Recently I’ve been having vivid, emotionally intense dreams. This is rare for me. A few nights ago I dreamed I was back in college. It must have been my senior year because I had final classes to attend and papers due. But I didn’t know where anything was, and there…
Building a fence, and a door
This past weekend Abbie and I put up a garden fence. It’s pretty big: 50 x 50 feet, 7 ½ feet tall. The goal is to keep the deer and other critters out. Inside the fence we’re hoping to grow what we can: some perennials – rhubarb, asparagus, berries and…
This Lenten fast
Although the world has change drastically in the last three weeks, it’s still Lent. The season began on Ash Wednesday when we gathered in the sanctuary – in-person! – and shared in the imposition of ashes on one another’s foreheads. We recited the ancient words: “Remember that you are dust,…
“Deepening relationships” and “Social distancing”
These past few days have been characterized by a couple different phrases potentially, but not necessarily, at odds with each other. On Saturday the CMC Leadership Team met for our annual visioning retreat (once you do it a second year it becomes annual, right?). After some reflection on the…
Many crosses
As far as I can tell, the only cross regularly displayed in our sanctuary is on the front of the pulpit, two thin lines that can, depending on the light, blend in with the grain of the wood in which they’re cut. That’s about to change. Our Lenten worship theme…
Consolations
One thing feeding my soul in 2020 has been David Whyte’s little book Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. If you are a lover of language, or just someone who uses it occasionally, it is soooooo good. He takes 52 ordinary words, presenting a several page…
The brief life of the nuclear family
The cover story in the March edition of The Atlantic is titled, “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake.” This five minute video with author David Brooks gives a summary. Brooks’ basic argument is that the nuclear family – a household consisting of two married parents living with their children –…
10 trends in American Christianity
The lead essay of the most recent The Christian Century magazine names “10 religious trends of the 2010’s,” written by Baylor University professor of history Philip Jenkins. There’s actually quite a bit of good news amidst the trouble. Here they are in the order he presents them, roughly chronologically in…
