The Jesuit theologian and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin did a lot writing during the twentieth century. Some of his writings are complex to read, but what he is trying to convey is worth the complexity. One of the thoughts that comes to mind comes from our reading from Revelations. Teilhard has this sense that all of creation has been created and is moving toward its fulfillment…
About ten years ago, I was up early one Saturday morning trying to get an early start on preparations for a wedding shower I was hosting that afternoon. When the phone rang around 7:00 AM, I didn’t think too much of it, since my mind was already projecting ahead of what food I had to prepare. The call was from one of our daughters-in-law, Christie…
It is great to see your faces! And I am delighted to be back with you. I’ve already worked a few days in the office but I still feel like I’m on “sabbatical time” in my mind. And I am hoping that I can hold on to that sense for awhile. Some of you may have heard me talk about or may have read something I wrote about spending time during my sabbatical using my hands more than my head and hoping to s-l-o-w down the pace of my life…
Have you ever met somebody who is just really wise? Just filled with wisdom? It’s a rare thing to find, but when you see somebody who is wise, you just draw in the wisdom. Wisdom is something that is difficult to attain; it’s not something you can study for. Universities don’t offer degrees in wisdom…
Hebrews 2.6-8
But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.” So writes the author of today’s epistle…
Imagine we are living two thousand years from now, in the year 4009, and we’re looking back two thousand years, and we’re looking at the way we viewed illness and disease, and the way we treated it…
In my adventures every summer to the Appalachian Mountains for our annual Appalachian Service Project trip, I picked up a piece of wisdom that’s one of the mottos of the young adults who teach the youth on these trips, and those of us who have limited construction experience. A motto to help us get through our particular situations when we are trying to fix something. The motto is this: “think like a raindrop.”…
There’s high energy around here today. All the programs are kicking back in, all the church school programs begin today, the youth programs are beginning, the choirs are at full voice, our Clergy Forum began this morning, the Men’s Group meets this afternoon, there’s a certain energy that comes over us in this part of September as we gear up for the year together…
Mark 7:31-37
I had a really great opportunity yesterday to spend some time thinking about one of my favorite moments in the gospel, one of my favorite things that Jesus says, when Jesus lays his hands on this deaf man’s head and puts his fingers in the man’s ears and he says, “Ephphatha,” “Be opened.”
“Increase in us true religion.” Hear that phrase in our opening prayer, our collect? It’s an interesting phrase. What does it mean? I’d like to offer a couple of thoughts on that. One area of study that I find really interesting, and I wish I had studed more, is anthropology…