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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...

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After 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...

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Rites 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...

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He 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...

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New 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...

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Preview 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...

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Jesus 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...

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Looking 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...

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Springs 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...

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Easter’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,...

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The 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...

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A 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...

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Is 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...

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Recreation? 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,...

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Beach 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...

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Summertime 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...

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Capability 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...

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For 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...

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C.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,...

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Fruits 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...

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A 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...

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The 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...

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What 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...

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When 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...

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In 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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