With Peter On The Road
The Road to Jerusalem. It’s the heart of the Lenten narratives, and yet what were the disciples of Jesus thinking? We know that some of them were troubled, of course. They wondered what could...
View ArticleAfter the Parade….What?
Palm Sunday is an ambiguous moment in the church year. On the one hand it recalls a moment of real triumph in the ministry of Jesus, as an enthusiastic crowd of pilgrims, journeying to Jerusalem to...
View ArticleRites and Rituals For Lent, Easter, and Pentecost
Note: Earlier in Lent I presented the first half of Richard Price’s “Rites and Rituals For Lent, Easter, and Pentecost,” originally published in The Seasons, a small-circulation devotional publication...
View ArticleHe Died For Our Sake
For our sake he [Jesus] was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.The Nicene CreedAnd he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by...
View ArticleNew Day, New Creation
There is a kind of pregnant peace in the hours just before dawn. The old day is done, and whatever its trials or joys may have been, the night offers a pause. The new day has not yet begun, and...
View ArticlePreview in the Snow Drifts
“Look at those foolish robins.” I muttered, looking out the window at a patch of bare ground surrounded by snowdrifts, “Talk about jumping the gun! Can’t they see they’re too early?”On that gray and...
View ArticleJesus Rose - So What?
On the third day he rose again in accordance with he scriptures.The Nicene Creed3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance...
View ArticleLooking for Resurrection
"We look for the resurrection of the dead”The Nicene CreedThis statement, and the affirmation that Christ will come again, form the core of what theologians call the doctrines of Last Things.In a week...
View ArticleSprings for the Wagon
Why does God permit it? The question is stark, simple, honest, and usually anguished. We see things that trouble us deeply: the death of a loved one, the pain of a sick or injured child, the...
View ArticleEaster’s Call to Discipleship
This year, while reading the Easter narratives from the four gospels, I’ve found myself paying special attention to the way they end. Each writer focuses on some different facet of Jesus’ departure,...
View ArticleThe Ascension - A Strange But Important Event
Forty days after Easter, Jesus appeared to the disciples for a final meeting. Luke mentions it at the end of his gospel, and reports on it in more detail at the start of the Acts of the Apostles:So...
View ArticleA New Start – Babel Reversed
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. …Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, …The LORD...
View ArticleIs Your God Too Small?
This spring’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, the earlier shootings in Newtown, CT, and our society’s collective reactions to them, sent me back recently to a book by the English author J. B. Phillips...
View ArticleRecreation? Yes! But Don’t Forget Re-Creation!
Summer is here, and in our part of the world the whole pace of life changes. “Triple-H” weather slows us down, forces us to reconsider the urgency of things, and reminds us that we are creatures,...
View ArticleBeach Stones and God’s People
There is something soothing about the sound of a beach, especially at night.On a sand beach, the waves have a particular timbre, and the hiss of receding water develops a distinct rhythm. The same...
View ArticleSummertime Youth Mission Trips – Why?
In late July a group of eight senior high students and four adult advisors drove 700 miles from Fredericksburg, Virginia to Sumner, Maine to spend a week staffing a vacation Bible school, participating...
View ArticleCapability Church
After an unusually wet August and early September our part of Maine is experiencing some very pleasant autumn weather. There’s been a hint of frost on a couple of nights, but no damage to late-season...
View ArticleFor All the Saints
A week ago our congregation in Sumner, Maine said, “Fare Well” and, “Godspeed” to one of the saints of the church. Tom Bragg was just a month shy of his 93rd birthday. Serving as sexton of our local...
View ArticleC.S. Lewis: Another 50-Year Anniversary
On Friday, November 22, our nation paused to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was fitting and appropriate to do so. For those of us who remember that day,...
View ArticleFruits of Repentance
The second and third Sundays of Advent focus a spotlight on someone who at first seems to intrude on our societal preparations for Christmas: John the Baptizer.Every few years someone in whatever...
View ArticleA Response to John
From the beginning, Richard and I hoped that To Speak Now of God would be more than merely a platform for two voices, now one. We envisioned the possibility of inviting kindred spirits to share the...
View ArticleThe Visited Planet
In 1957 J.B. Phillips, writer and Bible translator, wrote a short story entitled “The Visited Planet.” Phillips imagined a tour of the universe by two angels, one as old as creation, and the other...
View ArticleWhat Child is This?
Now after they [the Wise Men] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for...
View ArticleWhen Praying is ‘All We Can Do’
“All you can do now is pray.” The doctor's posture, facial expression and tone of voice conveyed the message with perfect clarity: our loved one was going to die.“I'm sorry I can't help, but I'll pray...
View ArticleIn the Hours Before Dawn
Two Marys arrive at the tomb in the hour before dawn. They carry spices and other supplies, perhaps unsure that the men who entombed Jesus in the short moments before the start of the Sabbath had time...
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