It’s about the only thing in our yard that the deer haven’t eaten: the Lenten Rose plant that is blooming! It’s just glorious! Wait minute. It’s still Lent. Can we call anything glorious before Easter?! Actually — yes! — at least, according to that quirky gospel of John. Check out John 13:31. (You need to [...]

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Deep into Lent, with so many demands, we are trying to live according to this quote, by Gerald May: Try a little consecrated Zen. Do one thing at a time, with complete, immediate mindfulness. Don’t do it to get it done so you can get on to the next thing. Do it for love. Do [...]

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Yesterday, on the way into a meeting, a colleague and I were talking politics, and he said, “It seems to me that the only people talking are from either the right or left extremes, and they’re all lying.” I asked what he meant by “lying,” and he said, “They’ll say anything to advance their agenda.” [...]

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“’Part of what’s going on is a shift from a privatized piety to a relationship with God that includes all human beings,’ said the Rev. Mark Horak, the pastor of Holy Trinity. ‘That’s a major shift, but it’s fundamental to Scripture.’ “The trend, what one might call the rebranding of Lent, has no specific leader, [...]

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Ah! A 75-degree day. The sky is primary-color-blue. Not a cloud in the sky. A Miata. A meeting in Richmond, giving me an excuse to put the top down and drive on Rt. 5, my favorite roadstah road.* It dudn’t get much better than this! * Elsa Englert is the oldest member of our congregation. [...]

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‘Tis a cruel, cruel thing to have done: to have made us move the clocks ahead an hour — so that (again) it is dark at 7:00 AM, so that (again) it is unsafe for me to riding my bicycle …

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One day my daughter, Emily, wrote on my Facebook page, “It’s been seven days since you last posted something on your blog. I’m just saying.” But what if I don’t have anything to say? I’ve been told it’s a rule of blogging: I have to post something at least every few days, or people get [...]

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Reed Nester sent me this cartoon!

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Faith formation is the aim of everything we do as a congregation — every worship service, every study group, every children’s class, even every meeting! Yes, even meetings are sources of spiritual nourishment — when we’re attentive to God’s presence with us; aware that the work we are to be about is God’s work; discerning [...]

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A.) Out on my early morning bike ride, I saw this saying on a car license plate: Y Tax Is this driver protesting all taxes, or just the personal property tax? If I ever see that car in a parking lot, I think I’ll put this note under the windshield wiper: Y tax? 2 repair [...]

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