Acts 1:6-14 Kim and I think our little dog Chuy is really sweet, but we know he’s not that smart. We don’t kid ourselves. He definitely has a certain amount of street smarts, because he’s been out on the streets a lot – a born wanderer. We’ve had to Chuy-proof our backyard fence to keep him from escaping. But in terms of intellectual capacity? Higher level cognitive function? We never had high expectations. Although at one point we thought maybe we had underestimated him. Our house in Ohio sat on a corner lot and Chuy would sit out in the backyard with us, watching the world pass by. When he saw somebody walking a dog coming up the sidewalk toward the house, he’d go bananas. He’d run as fast as his little legs would take him over to the side fence to give his greetings. Then, when the walkers would […]
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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 readingMore TagIn Times of Trouble
John 14:1-14 We have known for some time, you and I, that hardship can bring deep meaning to our lives. This is not to say that we enjoy hardship – not by any means. But we realize that some good can come out of it. We like to recall our experience after 9/11, when so many Americans reconnected with their faith, and church sanctuaries were filled on Sunday mornings. In times of trouble we seek meaning. Yet, we should also remember, that resurgence in church attendance after 9/11 was actually very brief. It was a blip on the timeline. Nothing worth bragging about or celebrating, really. In fact, it showed us just how fickle our tastes are, how shallow our passions can be. Because not too long after 9/11 we were beginning to form a new passion. We fixed our attention on a clear enemy and went to war. Finding […]
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Acts 2:42-47 John 10:1-10 There wasn’t a lot of children’s programming on TV when I was young, but there were a few shows and we tended to love them indiscriminately. I mean, back in those days, anything that was made just for kids – that was special. But for a while when I was very small, the show I loved most was Romper Room. I planted myself on the floor in front of the TV every day to watch Miss Beverly and the lucky children who got to play with her in her TV classroom. I was so jealous of them. I adored Miss Beverly – she was pretty and kind. Her classroom was fun. I loved everything about Romper Room. But the moment Miss Beverly picked up her magic mirror at the end of the show was, without fail, a moment of preschool angst for me. Because here’s what […]
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