Home of the Darkwater Author
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning, October 23, 2022. The gospel text was Luke 18:9-14. There was once a Sunday School teacher who taught this story to her students. After telling the story, she helped the kids to understand where the Pharisee had gone wrong, by thinking he was … Continue reading Real Confession (Sermon)
This is one of a series of posts about a trip I took to walk labyrinths in July 2022. See this post to see why I refer to these labyrinths as my "Emmaus labyrinths." Note: the numbering refers not to how many labyrinths I walked on this trip, but to the total number I've blogged … Continue reading Emmaus Labyrinth #49: Penn State Berks Campus, Wyomissing PA
A long time ago, I read about the difference between maximizers and satisficers. As I understand it (which may be incomplete or just plain wrong, I’ll admit), a maximizer is someone who always needs to find the perfect answer for something, and a satisficer is someone who determines a level that is “good enough,” and … Continue reading That’ll do, Self. That’ll do.
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning, the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. The gospel reading was Matthew 5:21-37, the third consecutive reading from the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon presupposes two things: first, that you just heard the gospel reading. (Well, they all presuppose that, but this one more … Continue reading Jonah on the Mount (Sermon)
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached today, Reformation Sunday. The texts I preached on were Jeremiah 31:31-34 and John 8:31-36. It was also the occasion of Confirmation for two of our young people. I'm calling them John and Paul here. (I'm in a Beatles mood, I guess.) John and Paul. It … Continue reading God’s All About Forgiveness (Sermon)
This is the fifth part of a series about a trip I took to western New York, something of a pilgrimage, to find and walk labyrinths. If you missed them, click here for Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. I walked four labyrinths on Saturday morning, and dealt with some questions about … Continue reading Unknown Paths: Another Afternoon of Labyrinths
This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached today, the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The gospel reading was Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, the so-called "Parable of the Prodigal Son." When I recited the gospel right before the sermon, I made an attempt to tell the story slightly differently, emphasizing the younger son's words in … Continue reading The Surprise of the Father (Sermon)
When I was in seminary, I was not always the nicest person. I was young and grumpy, and sometimes I said and did things that were taken as cruel. I'm not proud of this -- I hope that I've grown out of a lot of it. But there was one instance that has been on … Continue reading My Story of Sexual Harrassment
This is one in a series of posts I’m calling “Snapshots of my Depression.” These are memories of times in my life when my mental illness manifested itself in one way or another. This is the story of how I experienced the call to become a pastor. I've told this story in various ways over … Continue reading Snapshots of My Depression #15: The Belly of the Whale
This is one in a series of posts I’m calling “Snapshots of my Depression.” These are memories of times in my life when my mental illness manifested itself in one way or another. In my twenties, I spent five years as the full-time Director of Education/Pastoral Assistant of a Lutheran church. Fresh out of seminary, … Continue reading Snapshots of my Depression #14: Locked In
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