Matthew 4:1-11 I have some friends who told me once that in their basement they have a room full of provisions – stocked floor to ceiling with cases of bottled water, cartons of canned and dried food. It all started because of Y2K. Back in the year 1999 when we all wondered if the computers that run everything would make it through the millennium safely. And if they didn’t it would be Armageddon, for sure. The computers were okay, it turned out, nothing terrible happened. But since that time, there have been other reasons to stockpile. There is always, it seems, a reason to stockpile things. But you have to maintain it, replenishing as necessary, with new items as the older ones pass their expiration date. The old ones then get tossed in the trash. I thought of that recently when I was talking with another friend about her parents. […]
Continue readingMonth: February 2023
In the Cloud
Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17:1-9 An interesting thing has been happening at a small Christian school in Kentucky, Asbury University. On Wednesday February 8, students gathered in the chapel for morning prayer service. This is a normal part of college life at Asbury, like many religiously based schools. People say it was routine. Ordinary. Unremarkable. Then, when the service ended a small group of students stayed behind to continue praying together. All morning, they prayed. All afternoon. When evening came, they were still there and more students were joining them. They continued in prayer all through the night and the next day, and the days after that. And they are still praying. Some people posted videos on TikTok, which caught the attention of the world. Pretty soon, young people were dropping their plans and heading to Asbury. Flying in from Hawaii, driving down from Illinois, college students are being drawn to […]
Continue readingThe Heart of the Matter
There is a story by Graham Greene called The Heart of the Matter. It takes place during the Second World War in an unnamed British colony in Africa. Greene does a very effective job of showing what a difficult cultural experience it was for everyone involved. Those who felt the oppression of British rule, of course, but also the peculiar discomforts of the British working in this foreign land. There was much talk about the weather – far too hot and humid and sunny for the English, except during the rainy season, six months when they all fear they may drown. There was the malaria, which seemed to be an inevitability for anyone who was there long enough, and apparently no treatment for it except quinine. So, lots of gin and tonics. And there was the overwhelming level of distrust – which went in every direction, and this is where we see the real problem. The distrust, the constant tendency to be suspicious of others’ […]
Continue readingSalt and Light
Matthew 5:13-20 When I was a graduate student in Texas, I attended a Lutheran campus ministry. We had services every Sunday morning, just like most churches. We followed the lectionary, we heard a sermon, and we celebrated the sacraments. Our pastor, whom we called PJ, had a certain way he liked to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. He would invite us all up to the front, to stand in a circle around the altar. And the first thing he would do was take a little dish of salt. He would go around the circle to each one of us, take a pinch of salt and put it on our tongues, saying, “remember your baptism.” Remember your baptism. I was always a little bit mystified by this ritual. I wasn’t entirely certain I understood what salt had to do with my baptism. But I liked it. A little bit of salt tastes […]
Continue readingThe Blessing Way
Micah 6:1-8 Matthew 5:1-12 There is a movie called Hashtag Blessed. It’s about a young woman who is miserable in her life for a variety of reasons, but one key cause is that she is trying to live her life through the lens of Instagram. And that is a lens that is almost guaranteed to make you feel like your life doesn’t measure up. She scrolls through and sees a picture from a friend who just got a new car! #blessedlife! Other friends looking fine in their fancy clothes, hanging out in elegant places, surrounded by dazzling, glittery things – #blessedlife! Real life just doesn’t measure up to that for most of us. Sometimes we are a little confused about what it means when we talk about blessing, being blessed. In the popular vernacular, to be blessed is about the same as being lucky. Or maybe being good – good […]
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