Recently I was running copies of a Sunday worship bulletin on the high-speed risograph in our church office. It is a big beast of a machine made by Ricoh, and it is fast and wonderfully efficient. I have learned that the technology behind this machine is roughly the same as the old mimeographs I remember from years ago. This one... READ MORE >
Falling leaves get me thinking sometimes about loss, grief, and memory. Not all the time, but at times, and powerfully. Recently I watched as the wind tore golden aspen leaves from their branches and scattered them like a mosaic on the bedrock of Pincushion. The contrast of fragile temporary leaves and the permanence of granite brought a favorite Bible passage... READ MORE >
I was driving home after a day of clearing the balsams ever farther away from buildings. You know the practice. We call it “fire-wise” now. And with the recent fires sparked by lightning in many places, we know it is prudent. I rounded a bend in the road calmly enjoying the colors in the leaves and needed to slam on... READ MORE >
On my parent’s dining room wall hung a framed devotion written by John Donne. Donne was a British poet and priest born in 1572. I remember reading it time and time again. Over time I was drawn to the old style of English, and later still to the beauty of the images it conveyed. After my mother died and it... READ MORE >
O Lord, you have created all! How did you come to be so small? To sweetly sleep in manger-bed Where lowing cattle lately fed? From Heaven Above, by Martin Luther 1483-1546 Her family brought her to be baptized; little did they know that she would be typecast to be the Christ-child in our annual Christmas pageant. I mention typecast because... READ MORE >
When I go on a canoe trip, I like to pack a heavy food pack. Quite often the youth who go on a church canoe trip with me will remark about the weight of the pack, and maybe complain about my overzealous practice. I don’t apologize. It is just that I have been on too many trips with voracious teenagers,... READ MORE >
Before the marvel of this night Adoring, fold your wings and bow, Then tear the sky apart with light And with your news the world endow. ~ Jaroslav Vajda Last Sunday and Monday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Christmas concert at Bethlehem under the direction of Bill Beckstrand. The music was entirely beautiful and the carol... READ MORE >
Come, O life giving Creator, and rattle the door latch of my slumbering heart. Awaken me as you breathe upon a winter-wrapped earth, gently calling to life virgin Spring. Awaken, in these fortified days of Lenten prayer and discipline, my youthful dream of holiness. Call me forth from the prison camp of my numerous past defeats and my narrow patterns... READ MORE >
A number of summers ago I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a week-long retreat at the headquarters of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. The retreat was held on the shores of the beautiful Lake Junaluska, nestled in the midst of the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Over time a small Methodist community had grown in that... READ MORE >
Things are not always what they seem! The biblical reading that has cast its light on my path this week is the story of the miracle on the mountain when a few chosen disciples of Jesus saw him shining in glory and speaking with the great leaders of their history, Moses and Elijah, Luke 9:28-36. We call the story the... READ MORE >
