1 Timothy 1:12-17 What do you say when someone asks you if you have any regrets? Some people will say no. I regret nothing, as Edith Piaf famously sang. But is it really true? When someone asks you if you have any regrets, it feels like they are asking, “Will you tell us about your failures?” But I don’t really want to talk about my failures, do you? Really, though, don’t you have some regrets? If pressed for an answer, you may be tempted to turn it around and make it about someone else, such as, I regret that my kids haven’t turned out the way I wanted them to. Or I regret that the people I have tried to help have not been willing to accept that help. Making it all about someone else’s failures. Not helpful. There is an organization called Failure Lab, which describes itself as being […]
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Stories
Matthew 9:27-33 I have been wondering recently what we will say about our pandemic experience after it is all over. When we look back on this time, with the perspective of months or years, what will we say? What stories will we tell? I listen sometimes to Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar, who writes and speaks a lot about spiritual things. I heard him say that there was surprisingly little written about the great flu pandemic of 1918. The reason, he gathered, was because people were ashamed of themselves. Some people abandoned their families. Many people acted in selfishness and fear. And after it was all over, they were too ashamed to speak of it. They only wanted to forget about it. If we are honest with ourselves, each one of us can probably identify with that in some way. There have been times in our lives that we were […]
Continue readingBehold the Lamb
Isaiah 49:1-7 John 1:29-42 There is a new film on Netflix called The Two Popes. It’s a dramatization about the relationship between the Popes Benedict and Francis. Pope Benedict, who was elected after Pope John Paul died, and Pope Francis, who was elected after Benedict resigned. Or retired. Or quit. I’m not sure what to call it. It was something that has no precedent in modern history. Popes don’t usually resign – they die. The film portrays how during the conclave when Benedict was elected, the cardinals were not initially all of one mind. Many wanted Francis instead. But Benedict eventually received the required number of votes and so that was it. Francis (although he wasn’t called Francis at that time. He was Jorge) went home to Argentina and continued serving as a cardinal. Some years later, Francis, or Jorge, sent a letter to the Pope asking for permission to […]
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