Genesis 32:22-31 Matthew 14:13-21 Since this pandemic began, I have developed a certain kind of sensitivity. That is, when I see people get close to one another, touching one another, it sets off an internal alarm, like, “danger, Will Robinson, danger!” This happens when I’m watching TV and see scenes of people crowded into rooms together or embracing each other. “Six feet apart!” I want to shout at the screen. I had that reaction to the gospel story, with the mention of the crowds that Jesus couldn’t get away from when he went in search of solitude. We have all had quite a bit of time to think about solitude this year. It has its place, but not too many of us are cut out to be hermits, practicing solitude as a way of life. Of course, those who have children at home might be thinking a little […]
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We Are All Right Here
John 14:15-21 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” +++ The writer Louise Erdrich is […]
Continue readingHeart to Heart Talks, Part 4: Grieving Alone Together
John 11:1-45 When so many things seem to be happening so fast we begin to lose our ability to gauge the passage of time. Something that happened a week ago may as well have been two months ago, because it feels like forever ago. How long have we been “social distancing?” It feels like forever. At the seminary I attended, every student was required to participate in a cross-cultural trip. The destination varied from year to year but the length of the trip was always the same: three weeks. When we asked why three weeks, the answer was this. During the first couple of weeks it just feels like a vacation. You feel like a tourist abroad; you are a foreigner in a strange land, observing the natives in their habitat. But when you get into that third week, you begin to push past that barrier and something shifts. You […]
Continue readingHeart to Heart Talks, Part 3: Real Connection
John 9:1-41 I read a story in the news recently about a woman named Marion who has lived all her life with a severe hearing impairment. Then, in her 40’s she began losing her vision too. At first, she was devastated, but then she decided that since she was still alive, she would start dancing. And then she started teaching other visually impaired people to dance. She leads classes of blind people, like herself, where they learn to do line dances. Most of them are over the age of 60. Like their teacher, Marion, they began losing their vision later in life, so they have memories of seeing. Like Marion, they have learned to find other ways of seeing. Dancing together is one. For anyone who was born blind, like the young man in this gospel story, other ways of seeing are the norm. I wonder if that is why this young […]
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