Friday, January 27, 2012
Madison, Wisconsin
Around the table, a thread appears.
Four of us note where age has taken our parents. The pastor is just back from a trip to make sure her folks are okay. A seminarian is recently back from Montana, where he went to check up on his mother. The last month for me, [...]
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
I was not on the football team in high school. I did try track, but was so slow the coach never invited me to even attend a meet. Yes, I could ski and play a bit of tennis, but that was it. So I tried speech, and found the debate team [...]
Monday, January 23, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
There was once a time that a ritual was not a ritual at all.
Water went over a head before it was called baptism. Loaves of bread were broken, long before it was the body of Christ. There were countless cups of wine before sharing them was sharing the cup of blessing.
It [...]
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
In November, 2012, the citizens of Minnesota will either affirm or reject a constitutional amendment that prohibits marriage between two people of the same sex by declaring that mariage shall only apply to a man and a woman.
I oppose such a restriction. As the campaign heats up, campaigns reveal themselves in [...]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
It’s just a road.
A field.
A line of shadows.
Drive down the road to where the shadows begin, go another few hundred yards, turn right and there’s the farm. The farmhouse my parents first saw in 1969 was virtually abandoned. The barn was in pretty good shape, but there hadn’t been cows there [...]
Monday, January 16, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Travel is an essential part of the human experience. Jesus is always on the move, and each travel seems to inspire a new teaching.
I went to a 4,000 member Lutheran church on Sunday where some of my paintings and poems are on display. I have never worshiped in such a large [...]
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Edna St. Vincent Millet wrote these unforgettable words in her poem Renaissance:
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
They come to mind as this week’s Lectionary begins to give itself. It is, as stories go, a simple story that seems to bring the cosmic [...]
Friday, January, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
It reached 89 degrees today in Mogadishu, Somalia. The skies were clear.
It fell to 15 degrees this afternoon in Minneapolis. The skies were cloudy, with hints to snow. The wind gave a chill. Those of walking in front of Wells Fargo kept warm by walking, chanting, sometimes in Somali, sometimes in [...]
Tuesday, January 9, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
It was a year or so after seminary. I knew so much. Surely someone would walk in off the street, and ask me, as a newly minted pastor, something about God.
But the real learnings, and perhaps teachings, had yet to begin.
We were in Montana, in the mountains at a church camp. [...]
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Minneapolis, Minnesota
I awoke.
Too late I awoke.
Yesterday’s workout just about did me in, indicating that many more workouts are called for.
I awoke, yearning for the intangibles–hope, meaning, renewal, healing, intercession for my father whose nursing home will no longer care for him. Lots of yearnings, needing something tactile. The church I have attended [...]