By Alan Bean This sermon was recently preached at a memorial service for those who have lost loved ones in the past calendar year. Before preaching, I sang an old country gospel song by Merle Travis, I am a Pilgrim…
Looking, straining, yearning, waiting
By Adam McDuffie We find ourselves in the midst of Advent, waiting once again. Every year, we go through every day and every month, but come December, we find ourselves in the same place: waiting once again. O come, O…
Choosing between cultural-Christmas and advent
By Jonathan Davis Cultural Christmas time is full of sentimental things, like decorating the tree with the same meaningful ornaments year after year, making Christmas cookies with the family (with grandma’s secret recipe), and even singing tunes reminiscent of childhood….
Portal of praise: Praise as presage to Advent’s treason
The Manger’s trailhead opens at the portal of praise and genuflecting thanks. Not because heaven arises to piety’s incense. But because Advent’s brush with mortal flesh is a perilous journey, fraught with insurrection’s threat, pregnancy’s scandal, birthed from stabled bed,…
Being content
By Jonathan Waits Have you ever been in a place where you were totally content? That’s a hard place to be. It goes against our natural inclinations. Our natural lean is to constantly reach and strive for whatever is the…
Jesus medicine
For years I have had a small jar of Mentholatum beside my bed each night. Previously, I used Vicks VapoRub to ease nasal congestion and to help relieve more serious problems such as a sore throat or a nagging cough.
Time to prepare for “No Shave November”
Does having a beard make a person more or less effective as a minister? I feel kind of silly even posing the question, because it’s not the kind of question that typically crosses one’s mind—except that I’m in ministry, and…
A parting gift: Rejection from the church
It was my fifth visit to St. George Cathedral at the Alaverdi Monastery. Positioned on the picturesque Alazani River valley of Kakheti, surrounded by vineyards against the backdrop of the snow-capped Caucasus Mountains, the cathedral beckoned me to return. Along…
matter, that is.
When you’ve spent your entire life asking the world for permission to exist, it can be rather unnerving when it repeatedly answers back with a resounding “no.” Growing up, I enjoyed a rather typical existence for a middle class white…