Wow. If ever there were a day in the lectionary well suited for a graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity today is it. Before I even put my Bible down reading today’s passages, snippets of lectures, and discussions started swirling in my head. The entire army of very online pontifications from Twitter and Facebook that seem to only spring up on MLK day and when tragedy arrives in our country came immediately to my mind. The great crowd of the peers I have and continue to spend much time around seemed to pressure me with invisible force to take it there. And I’m preaching in the “despised” Williamson County and the City of Franklin at that. Lord have mercy!
Read more...Not too long ago I met a man at the shelter who seemed out of place. When I arrived at the shelter before lunch, I saw a man sitting by himself directly in the middle of all the chaos of folk waiting for lunch. Outwardly, I could tell he had been on the streets for several days; his dark tan and dirty clothes gave that away. However, I could also tell by his dress and mannerisms that he had not been homeless long. The way he sat and carried himself gave him away as someone with roots in the middle class. Sitting there alone with his backpack of stuff, out of place, not knowing what to do, waiting for lunch I could sense (and observe) that he was not in a great place.
Read more...Today is the great feast of the Pentecost. Adorned in red, we speak of the fire of the Holy Spirit and celebrate the birth of Christ’s Holy Church. But, even amidst all the fire talk, I often wonder if we really understand what type of fire we’re playing with. At times, it would seem, we’re talking less about fire and more about a cute, fluffy bunny that makes us feel happy.
Read more...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
These two commandments here are pretty interesting. I think it shows the two tendencies that most people generally fall into. Some people seem to want to focus on the Divine and coming to know God. Prayer, meditation, contemplation, deep thought — these are all favored activities. Others, like to dig into doing. Penance, acts of mercy, protest — these tasks make them happy and feel closer to godliness. Heady piety versus works — it is the age-old struggle.
Read more...I don’t know about y’all, but there’s a lot of noise in my world right now. Politics — almost always a bunch of clanging symbols — is in high gear. The pandemic, still running wild across the world, is — as almost all things seem to be — a divisive often partisan topic. Race is a topic. Police are a topic. Riots, looting, and vandalism are topics. Gender & sexuality didn’t stay in 2019, either, and decided to join 2020’s party. It seems every bizarro COVID-19 2020 interaction is full of strife.
Read more...Freunde, wir leben in schwierige Zeiten. Das letztes mal, dass wir zusammen waren, war es 1. März. Der Frühling war endlich da. Als ich bei Memorial Lutheran alles aufgerüstet hat, kamen vielen vorbei an den Fahrrädern. Die Nachbarschaft war voller Lärm von Rasenmäher, Kinder, und Vögel. Ein Marienkäfer hat mir besucht im Narthex. Winter war vorbei und die Welt war voller Hoffnung.
Zwei Tage später kam der Tornado. Die Macht Gottes Schöpfung war klar zu sehen. Unsere Nachbarschaft war zerstört. Große Gebäude liegen jetzt in Schutt. Smith und Lentz, die Brauerei wo wir so oft getroffen haben, hat kein Biergarten mehr, kein Dach, keine Hinterwand.
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